Tomato sauces are a great way to use up all of your vegetable odds and ends – a few mushrooms, a pepper, and some onion can be made into a hearty, vegetable sauce packed with flavor.  With what I had left at the end of this week, I made a sauce that I spooned over roasted zucchini, sprinkled with crispy panko bread crumbs, and served with whole wheat garlic bread.  You could make this basic tomato sauce recipe with any vegetables you have on hand – once the sauce is made, spinach or swiss chard leaves stirred into the hot sauce and left to wilt are another delicious variation.  This sauce forms the basis of many meals at our house – with the addition of red chili flakes and black beans for spaghetti with a kick, or blended up to be used as homemade pizza sauce.

Roasted Zucchini Boats with Hearty Tomato Sauce and Garlic Bread

From Rose’s kitchen

Hearty Tomato Sauce – serves four

• 2-3 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 green pepper, diced*
• 5-6 mushrooms*
• 4 roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 15oz can no salt added tomato sauce
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and black pepper to taste

*add whatever vegetables you have on hand

Roasted Zucchini Boats

• zucchini cut lengthwise with centers scooped out (1 zucchini per person depending on size)
• olive oil
• panko bread crumbs – about 1 tablespoon per zucchini half

Garlic Bread

• whole wheat bread (1 slice per person)
• whole garlic cloves
• canola oil-based margarine

Heat the olive oil over low heat.  Sauté diced onion until translucent and tender, stirring often – usually about 5-10 minutes while you’re chopping up the other vegetables.  Add green pepper and mushrooms (and any other vegetables that you would like to add).  Sauté until onions and pepper are cooked through and soft, and the mushrooms begin to shrink.  Add chopped tomatoes and turn up to medium heat.  Add finely minced clove of garlic to vegetable mixture.  Once tomatoes have started to heat through and soften, add the tomato sauce.  Season with oregano, salt, and black pepper to taste.  Let simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.  Take off the heat and put a lid on the pan.

Preheat your oven to 400F with a rack in the center.  While the tomato sauce is simmering, prepare your zucchini.  Cut each one lengthwise and scoop out the centers leaving a wall around all sides to contain your sauce later on.  Each one will have a canoe-like appearance.  Cut up the centers that you just scooped out and add them to the tomato sauce instead of throwing them away.  Drizzle each zucchini piece with a little olive oil and use your fingers to rub the olive oil over each half.  Place into a baking dish and bake until tender – 10-15 minutes.  Check tenderness by pricking with a fork.

Once tender, take the zucchini out of the oven and spoon some tomato sauce into each half.  Sprinkle each zucchini boat with about 1 tablespoon panko bread crumbs.  These bread crumbs are extra crispy and give some nice texture to this dish.  Put them back into the oven for 5 more minutes or until the breadcrumbs start to turn golden brown.  The extra time in the oven also gives the zucchini a chance to soak up some of the sauce.

The garlic bread can be made while the zucchini boats are in the oven for their final 5 minutes.  My mother made this garlic bread when I was growing up – lots of flavor and far less fat and calories than your typical garlic bread.  It is also very simple and takes no time at all.  Start by making toast.  While the bread is toasting – peel one large garlic clove.  Once the bread is toasted and still hot – take the garlic clove and rub back and forth over one side of the toast.  The crispy texture of the toast traps small pieces of garlic and garlic essence.  Then spread each piece of toast with about ½ teaspoon canola-based margarine and allow to melt.

Serve the garlic bread with two zucchini halves for each person.  This meal would be delicious with the addition of beans to the sauce, or served alongside grilled chicken or fish.  Enjoy!

What is your favorite way to use up all of your vegetable odds and ends at the end of the week?  Let us know in the comments!