Raw Patagonia Pasta Primavera (w/ zucchini hummus!)

Maybe an unlikely combination, but definitely a complimentary one in my opinion. My camera battery is dead and it seems as though the van has swallowed yet another one of our belongings (my camera battery charger) so we've resorted to Evan's iPhone to capture the raw dinner I made for us tonight:

Raw Patagonia Pasta Primavera

Chip and Laura (our bffs of Patagonia) left for the weekend and gave us permission to use their shower, bathroom, kitchen, house, internet, laundry facilities, etc. They've been so gracious to us. We feel so fortunate to have run into them while passing through this magical town, which by the way has THE best radio station in America - 100.5 KPUP. It's the only radio station we pick up in the van and it plays an eclectic mix of blues, country, folk, and reggae. No Top 40 spins of any kind. Beautiful.

So I've been craving marinara and zucchini pasta since yesterday. I went to the awesome local natural food store here: 

Red Mountain Foods 

376 Naugle Avenue
Patagonia, AZ 85624

I picked up some giant organic zucchinis (I've only seen little dinky zucs for the past few months. I was shocked to bring back a couple of 14"-ers!), a package of sundried tomatoes (salt and preservative-free), 3 large organic vine-ripened tomatoes on special for $1.69 (they were on the outs - cosmetically inferior - but I was unconcerned as they were about to get annihilated by the food-processor), the largest head of organic romaine lettuce I've ever seen (it was the length of my tibia - longer even! When I compared it to the length of my leg from my foot to my knee..it surpassed my knee cap. Amazing). What else did I get - a half pound of dates that I was going to add to the marinara, but ended up eating on the walk back to the house. Oh, some mushrooms, organic celery, an organic red onion, organic fresh basil, and organic dried oregano. 

They pack this little place to the brim with all your favorite organic fruits and veggies, sprouts, nut and seed milks, spices, dates, and much more. 

The Arizona oranges sold here are some of the best I've tasted. They outrank California and Florida oranges by a long shot. Needless to say, I was beyond impressed with this place. If it wasn't for Red Mountain Foods, I don't think we'd still be here in Patagonia.

I'll try to estimate to the best of my ability the amounts of each ingredient included in the recipe.

Raw Sundried Tomato Marinara Sauce

1 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked for 20 minutes in 1/2 cup water (you can use scissors to slice the tomatoes into smaller pieces before soaking if you'd like) - Don't throw out the soaking water because you will use it in the recipe

3 large organic vine-ripened tomatoes, loosely chopped (you can de-seed for a thicker sauce, but I hate to waste anything so I included the seeds in this recipe)

1/2 cup organic fresh basil leaves, tightly packed

2 tablespoons organic dried oregano

1/2 cup organic red onion, chopped 

1/4 cup organic celery, diced

1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/2 organic lemon, juiced

4 cloves organic garlic

Pinch of sea salt (or more to taste)

Optional: If needed - add 2 dates, pitted (or a few drops of Stevia)

Directions: Add all the ingredients except the celery, 1/4 cup red onion, and the mushrooms into a food processor or high-speed blender (or regular blender). I used a food processor and it got a little messy with all that red, gooey, liquidy mess wanting to explode, but I managed alright. 

Place the processed marinara into a bowl and add the celery, remaining red onion, and mushrooms and mix together by hand with a spoon (this gives it a chunkier texture, which I like)

Zucchini Pasta

2 large organic zucchinis, ends cut and sliced into 5" sections

I used a saladacco spiralizer called "The Garnishing Machine" to create angel hair zucchini pasta. I purchased it when I was at Living Light Culinary Institute back in February/March of 2009 (read more about my experience at Living Light here). I absolutely love it and don't use it nearly enough. 

Here I'm placing a 5-inch chunk of zucchini onto the spiralizer

Then I use light pressure on the top handle and slowly turn it while holding the base of the spiralizer as the zucchini comes out in thin, pasta-like strings.

voila!

Set marinara and pasta aside.

Next use the leftover zucchini "wheels" from the spiralizer for the zucchini hummus (you'll know what I mean when you use this machine - sorry, no pic this time). I had an extra zucchini for the hummus, as well (totaling 2 cups zucchini, chopped).

Zucchini Hummus

2 cups zucchini, chopped

4 cloves garlic

4 tablespoons raw tahini

1 lemon, juiced

sea salt to taste

paprika to taste

pinch of cayenne

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend on "high" until it becomes a creamy consistency.

And then steam your veggies (or not)! I lightly chopped up 1/2 a large head of cauliflower (including the green leaves) and 1 stalk of broccoli (including the stem/stalk). Oh, and I threw in some sugar snap peas because they were on the counter. Obviously, you can choose not to steam veggies and just add them in raw. A good way to break down the tough cellular wall of raw cruciferous vegetables is to soak them in lemon juice for 20 minutes and massage them a bit. You can also include herbs and spices with the lemon juice to add flavor - garlic is the go-to flavor enhancer for me. I opted to steam the veggies this time because I was in the mood for something warm but also because Evan feels that steamed vegetables are more substantial and satiating than raw vegetables. 

*Note: When I steam vegetables, I very lightly steam them. They are still tough and crunchy, the steaming just warms them up and takes the edge off.

The recipe probably yields about 3 servings. Evan and I had a bunch of marinara leftover and some zucchini pasta, but we ate all of the steamed veggies and hummus.

I'm hungry again after writing this! Going back for thirds.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment and/or ask questions!