a favorite among the family for using those lovely summer zucchini! Very easy to make dish that tastes fantastic with garlic bread! Excellent for vegetarians as well.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large zucchini, peeled and cubed
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 (8 ounce) package uncooked pasta shells
- ¼ cup grated Romano cheese
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and cook until tender. Mix in zucchini and coat in the olive oil. Pour in tomato sauce and water. Season with oregano, basil, and red pepper. Dissolve sugar in the sauce. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
- In a large bowl, mix sauce and cooked past shells. Top with cheese to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 515 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 79 g |
| Cholesterol | 8 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 13 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 650 mg |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My family absolutely loves this recipe. The only thing I do differently is I cut the water in half. Otherwise, exactly as stated in the recipe. With fresh zucchini from our garden, this is a fantastic recipe. We like our sauce a little sweet, so we don’t mind the added sugar.
It was alright. Nothing outstanding, probably won’t make again.
This recipe came out pretty good! I only used 1 Tbsp of olive oil, omitted the sugar and the water. There is no reason to add water here, it’s much better a nice and thick sauce. I also added some fresh tomatoes, basil and cooked for only 30 minutes because I wanted the vegetables nice and tender. Served over whole wheat pasta shells. Next time I want to try a little more “cheesy”, some mozzarella and extra Romano. Thanks for the recipe I will definitely make this again!
I had already shredded my zucchini before finding this recipe. I added some chicken which I sautéed at the beginning with the onion. I followed the advice of others and halved the amount of sugar. The whole family enjoyed and I would definitely make again.
WOW WAAAAAYYY to much sugar! I love sugar and have a really big sweet tooth but gosh. Hubby said he could feel the diabetes starting. This was super easy to make and would have been really good except for the sugar. I served it with mini meatballs.
This was pretty good! I doubled the recipe, but cut down the amount of water to maybe 3/4 cup because we like a thicker sauce. I also cut the sugar to 1/4 cup total. I also left the amount of oil the same instead of doubling that. I added the zucchini last and only simmered it for about 30 minutes. We like our zucchini to keep a bit of crunch to it.
We really enjoyed this! I doubled the recipe and used a bottle of spaghetti sauce in place of the tomato sauce. I omitted the sugar and cut the water down because I wanted it to be thicker. Also, I had some sliced mushrooms to use up, so I threw them in there as well. This was very tasty and hearty, yet light. I will definately be making this again! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
very tasty
This is fresh tasting, sweet, & spicy – had a hard time stopping myself from getting additional helpings… Instead of the tomato sauce, I used a can of diced tomatoes (undrained) and then only water as needed. Half the amount of sugar was plenty! When I have fresh garden tomatoes, I’ll use those.
Not bad. Like others, I had lots of zucchini around, and I was tired of making zucchini muffins. I doubled the recipe but only used 2 TBS of oil. I also used a 26-ounce can of spaghetti sauce and a can of diced tomatoes. I omitted the sugar altogether. It was good, but much better when I used an emersion blender to puree some of the zucchini up. I might make it again, I might not. Neither my husband nor my daughter were thrilled, but I did find it a nice change. Thanks for sharing, FABA!
I decided to make this in an attempt to use up some extra Zucchini we had and wow, I am impressed! Very simple to make and very, very delicious. I didn’t add the sugar and only let it simmer for roughly 30 minutes and it came out great. Will definitely be making this again!
This was sooo delicious, however by reading some of the other reviews I decided to cut the amount of sugar in half and I instantly fell in love with this recipe.
This was really good. After reading everyones reviews, I didn’t add any sugar and cooked the zucchini just until crisp-tender (not an hour). This was very good! Will make this again.
I loved this dish! I thought it was very easy and healthy! I only made a few changes……. I added more garlic because my husband and I love it!! I also added fresh mushrooms and a can of diced tomatoes (drained). I used rigatoni instead of shells because thats all I had. I also only used 1/4 cup of sugar due to what others had stated. I simmered it for 1 hr like the recipe said and it turned out wonderful! Iadded low fat parm cheese and that topped it off!!! Great dish I will make again!! PS this dish is just as good the next day! (and I am not a “left-overs” type of girl!! Yum!
This turned out good. I did listen to other reviewers and only put in 1 Tablespoon of sugar and I eliminated the water entirely.
After reading prior reviews I cut sugar out completely. Taste was great, but cooking zucchini an hour was too long as it got too mushy. Next time will do the same thing only cooking 30-45 minutes.
Easy, good flavor! I used no salt tomato sauce since my husband has high BP. And I was short on time,so I kept it on med-high instead of low. Just remember to stir.
This was edible but just barely. I cut the olive oil down to two tablespoons and that was plenty. I cut the sugar down to 1/4 a cup and it was still wayyyyyyy too much. I can’t imagine what this would have been like if I had added the full 1/2 cup. This was a lot soupier than I expected- not necessary a bad thing, but if you’re expecting a really thick sauce this won’t do it. Overall, the overwhelmingly sweet taste completely overpowered the flavors of the zucchini and tomato sauce. I wouldn’t make this again.
I fixed this for 20 people. I kept in mind the prior rating and cut the sugar by 1/3, and used Splenda granular instead of regular sugar. The sugar could have been cut more. Everyone enjoyed it, and I will fix it again.
This recipe was good, but it had *way* too much sugar in it. It was like eating candied zuchini sprinkled with oregano. I would cut down on the sugar by half, and not simmer for a full hour if I was to make this again. I prefer a little more sauce and there wasn’t much left after condensing for 60 minutes.