I have a new kitchen toy – a spiral cutter. It can be used
to slice vegetables into thin threads. Very pretty. There are other cuts (such
as short stick shapes) that can be made using it, but it seems that using a
knife would be more efficient. I have used it two ways: for salad garnishes and
for zucchini ‘pasta’.
For the salad, I spiral cut summer squash, carrot, and radish
and laid them over a bed of fresh spinach accompanied by tomato quarters. I
topped this with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
The Vitamix cookbook includes a tomato-based sauce (below)
that is perfect on spiral cut zucchini. I have also included my notes based on
my experience making the sauce.
ZUCCHINI PASTA WITH POMODORO SAUCE – from the Vitamix Cookbook
ZUCCHINI PASTA
6 Zucchini - spiral cut
POMODORO SAUCE
3 Roma Tomatoes, seeded & chopped
1/4 cup Sun-Dried Tomato Powder (They must be very dry to
powder them.)
1-1/2 TBS finely minced onion
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS fresh minced basil leaves
1-1/2 Tsp minced fresh oregano
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 Tsp salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of Cayenne
1)
Transform the zucchini into noodles using a
spiral slicer.
2)
Place 1-1/2 Roma tomatoes and rest of
ingredients into the Vitamix container and secure lid.
3)
Select Variable 10.
4)
Quickly turn machine on and off, scraping down
sides of container between pulses, until paste is formed.
5)
Remove lid and add remaining tomatoes.
6)
Select variable 5.
7)
Quickly turn machine on and off 1-3 times until
a chunky texture is achieved.
8)
Allow the sauce to sit for 10 minutes to thicken
before you serve it.
9)
Serve the Zucchini Pasta on individual plates
with a generous scoop of Pomodoro Sauce on top.
10)
Store in a sealed glass jar in the refrigerator;
leftover Pomodoro Sauce will keep up to 3 days.
How I improvised:
-
It was too early in the season for there to be
Roma tomatoes available. So, I trimmed the seeds and pulp out of the equivalent
sized round tomatoes
-
I did not feel like making dried tomato powder,
so I reconstituted a double measure amount of dried tomatoes. I doubled it
thinking that when powdered, there would be more tomato flavor.
-
The MI garlic was not available yet, so I used
garlic scape.
I tried the recipe three ways.
1st I followed the directions and put the sauce
on the spiral cut zucchini. Personally, I did not like eating cold food. Also
the raw onion and garlic scape flavor stood out too much for me.
2nd I cooked the sauce in the Vitamix for about 2
extra minutes to warm it and to cut back on the raw onion and garlic flavor. This
was better.
3rd I used left over sauce and put it over whole
wheat angel hair pasta. The sauce is too mild to stand up even to that light
pasta, so it is best on the spiral cut zucchini.
First you want to determine what kind of food you want to make before choosing a potato cutter. Potatoes are a versatile food that can be used for very many recipes. You need to know how you want the potatoes to be cut so you can choose the proper tool for the job.Thank you for sharing....
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