The wheels in this simple summer pasta are made with rotelle pasta, a variety of colorful sweet and hot pepper rings, and slices of zucchini. You may use a variety of summer veggies, and if you want to slip some leftover chicken into something, this would be ideal.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup chopped green onions
- 1 anchovy fillet
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 zucchini – alternating strips of peel removed lengthwise and zucchini sliced
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- ¾ cup chicken stock
- 1 pinch white sugar (Optional)
- 1 cup seeded and sliced jalapeno peppers
- 1 cup seeded and sliced red Fresno chile peppers
- ½ cup seeded and sliced yellow mini bell pepper
- ½ cup seeded and sliced orange mini bell pepper
- 2 ½ cups rotelle pasta
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Place heavy skillet over medium heat and pour olive oil into hot skillet; add green onions and anchovy fillet. Cook and stir until anchovy breaks down and green onions are tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic to skillet and cook until translucent, about 1 minute.
- Stir zucchini into green onion mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini slices just start to become tender, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper; cook until zucchini centers start to change color to slightly green, 1 to 2 more minutes.
- Pour tomato sauce and chicken stock into skillet. Reduce heat to low; add sugar. Mix jalapeno, Fresno, yellow mini pepper, and orange mini pepper rings into mixture. Bring sauce to a simmer and reduce heat to low.
- Pour rotelle pasta into boiling water and cook, stirring often, until pasta is still slightly firm, about 7 minutes. Drain and let pasta stand for 2 minutes.
- Bring sauce to a boil; stir in rotelle pasta. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, until pasta, zucchini, and peppers are tender, 2 to 3 more minutes. Taste and adjust levels of salt and black pepper. Mix in about 1 1/2 teaspoon parsley. Serve in bowls and top with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and remaining 1/2 teaspoon parsley.
- To prepare peppers: Cut into thin slices; most of the pepper seeds will fall out. Push centers with seeds out of rings. Drain rings in cold water and most of the remaining seeds will wash away and sink to the bottom.
- To prepare zucchini: Use the channel knife on the side of a zester (a small metal piece sticking out of the flat portion of the zester) to cut strips of peel from the zucchini, leaving stripes of peeled and unpeeled zucchini. Slice into wheels.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 269 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 42 g |
| Cholesterol | 2 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 876 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
omg my favvvv
I fell in love with this recipe. I’ve made it twice now, and plan on making it a third time tomorrow. Changes I’ve made are as follows: -after trying it the first time, I now leave out the anchovies. Just didn’t like the fishy taste that is noticeable when scraping out the left over juices from the pan, lol. -I add in Italian sausage to balance out the meal (love my protein). To fit the circle theme, I boil them on their own first, cut them into circles, and throw em in to the sauce. -I couldn’t find Fresno chile pepper, so I used a really hot jalapeño…next time using less because it was almost too hot to handle. -I just used tomatoes for the tomato component. Whatever I have on hand is what I use (fresh, diced canned, whole canned, or crushed canned) because I don’t like pre made sauces. Five star recipe, people!!
We found this to be an enjoyable low calorie meal, but I thought the sweet and spicy flavors would be more bold. Tasted most strongly of canned tomato sauce, but the zucchini, peppers, and pasta were a nice array of textures. Not something I would make again without a lot of changes, but I really liked the concept.
I am vegetarian so I substituted the fish with a mock spicy sausage- green onion for yellow onion- also had to sub the yellow and orange peppers for a green bell pepper!! Everything else was the same! Just used what I had at home!! Just the right amount of spice and sweetness!! Thank you for the recipe- my neighbor gave me a bag of fresnos and I had no idea what to do with them– now I have a better understanding!:)