Thursday, July 29, 2010

Penne With Herbed Zucchini And Goat Cheese

Don't you love it when a recipe far exceeds your expectations? It doesn't happen often, to me at least, but when it does it's so satisfying. I've cooked zucchini countless times. I've tried to like it, I really have. But the end result has always been the same. Bland. Watery. Blah. Not so with this dish, from a 1997 issue of Gourmet, dug up on Epicurious.

My reason for cooking this was simple -- I had the handful of items it required on hand. And I should say right now that with recipes that have so few ingredients -- six, in this case -- the quality of said ingredients is paramount. I had the best of the best -- local zucchini bought a few days ago at a farmers' market, top notch dried pasta, herbs snipped from my balcony pots, and Monforte goat cheese -- and the dish was all the better for it.