Monday proved to be a good day in the garden, I was able to harvest my first zucchini! A lovely little thing, it grew so rapidly, I only noticed it was there on Sunday, and I was outright shocked at how big it already was. The rest of its current brethren are only about the size of small limes, so how this one escaped my attention, I don't know.
I am not growing a traditional zucchini variety, this one is called Eight Ball. Same wonderful dark skin in a cute, little round package. It, like the other variety of items growing in my garden is unique in some way, I have white cucumbers, tiny currant tomatoes, small dwarf eggplant, and these rotund zucchini.
In celebration of my harvest, I threw a very quick dinner together that night. I had spent the day doing online classes for work then moved on to cleaning house, so I was exhausted by the end of the day. Thankfully, I had some turkey meatballs from Trader Joe's in the freezer and a new jarred pasta sauce to try out.
My Mom discovered this sauce recently, made with heirloom tomatoes and the only sweetener is organic evaporated cane juice. We gave it a whirl, simmering the meatballs in it until everything was hot and tossing it with whole wheat penne. I added some fresh basil and parsley from my herb garden to finish it off.
As for the zucchini, I tossed it with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees.
The results were wonderful. I would have to say the Eight Ball is a little sweeter then your standard zucchini, it could have been my choice to roast it, or it could be inherently sweeter. It was delicious though.
The sauce was also very good. Nice tomato taste and not too sweet. One I think I will look for again for these nights I need a quick dinner.
I am thinking for the next zucchini(s) of thick slices grilled up with some salt and red pepper flakes. The round shape seems like it would lend itself nicely to a sandwich as well, maybe panini.
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