One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta

When we got home from our vacation we were pleased to find that our garden had grown a ton! It's kind of amazing what ten days can do. It wasn't long before we were enjoying peas and beans right from the garden. And soon we were discovering that our zucchini plants were producing nicely too! 

While we don't have zucchinis coming out of our ears just yet (I'm sure we will soon), we've picked enough that I knew it was time to start collecting all the recipes using zucchini that I could find.

Last night we tried one of the new recipes I came across on Pinterest, and it was delicious! 

Besides being delicious, it was also really easy, and didn't even make a lot of dishes for me to have to clean up. That sounds like the perfect trifecta: easy, less mess, and delicious! 

Have you heard of one pot meals? Where you cook everything all at once in just one pot? This pin I found for Zucchini Mushroom Pasta was just that kind of recipe. It instructed to put everything, pasta and all, in your pot and cook it.

I was skeptical at first, wondering if I really trusted that cooking it this way would work out, or if we'd end up with mushy vegetables, or not quite cooked enough noodles. But, to my surprise it turned out just right! 

The vegetables were as if they were steamed, not the mush I worried about. And the noodles were just right too. Once again I was mightily pleased with a Pinterest find (don't ask about dessert though... that turned out to b e a pintastrophy, you might hear about it later!).

The other great thing about this recipe is that we got to use veggies right from our garden. Both the zucchini and the peas were freshly picked. I think that made my kids more excited to try this dish.

Normally I couldn't get away with putting mushrooms into a meal like this. But, I chopped them a little extra and most of my kids didn't even know they were there. They all ate it up and loved it! 

I wanted this to be the main dish for dinner, so I added some chopped chicken into it. I started that cooking in the boiling water a few minutes before I added the other ingredients, just to make sure that it was thoroughly cooked. 

Also, when I made this I doubled the amount of pasta (I used Penne Pasta) and water, and also doubled the cream and parmesan cheese. I used almost two whole zucchinis, and a handful of sugar snap peas that my son picked for me from the garden. And I used however many mushrooms I had. I figured exact measurements of the vegetables weren't that important. I didn't have any fresh thyme on hand so I just added a little dried thyme and it seemed to work out fine.

Here's the recipe as I found it, feel free to change it up as you like! 

ONE POT ZUCCHINI MUSHROOM PASTA

(makes six servings)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound spaghetti

1 pound cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 zucchini, thinly sliced and quartered

2/3 cup peas

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 sprigs thyme

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/3 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat, combine spaghetti, mushrooms, zucchini, peas, garlic, thyme and 4 1/2 cups water; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until pasta is cooked through and liquid has reduced, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in Parmesan and heavy cream.

Serve immediately.

My Changes: 

I used 2 lbs of penne pasta, 9 cups of water, regular mushrooms, sugar snap peas (including the shells), regular salt, and a few shakes of dried thyme. For the sauce I premixed 1/2 cup of heavy cream with 2/3 cups of parmesan cheese before adding it to the pasta dish. 

This was delish! I'm sure we'll have it again!! It was a great way to incorporate our fresh garden zucchini into our dinner! 

I'm still looking for more recipes using zucchini, what are your favorite zucchini recipes?