Zucchini Surprise!

All summer long I've been getting compliments on my garden. Since I don't have a lot of sun in the backyard, I decided to experiment with the sunny front yard. There was a patch of empty clay soil which is challenging to grow anything. I put a little fence in the shape of a square on the patch near the sidewalk. I added a few bags of soil and mixed in some fertilizer. I knew I wanted to focus on zucchini and cucumbers like my grandfather used to grow. Zucchini like fertilizer in the soil at planting so I mixed it in right before. Success! the plant blossomed, neighbors were constantly stopping by to admire my small garden. 

Before I left for New York for the summer, I had a few squash growing, I was excited! The plants were blossoming and a small light green round squash appeared. I was a little disappointed because I had thought I was planting the long green Italian zucchini but I figured I would make it work. When I returned I made a big discovery. These were not zucchini at all, they looked like pumpkins! Surprise! They were the size and shape of small pumpkins but light green and yellow in color. Oh my! and there were about 20 of them! I researched and it seemed as though they might be a Mexican Summer Squash. This brought on more attention from the neighbors, why was I growing pumpkins in July?

Zucchini Surprise Recipe

As I did more research it seemed they might be similar to zucchini so I decided to make a recipe my grandma used to make for me. 

Ingredients:

1 Large Mexican Summer Squash (Or about 4 Zucchini)

1 1/2 cups of Diced Tomato (jar or fresh, if using fresh remove skin)

1 Cup of garbanzo beans (cooked or from a jar)

1  box of spaghetti

5-6 Cloves of garlic

2-3 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 1/2 Teaspoons of fresh thyme 

1/2+ Teaspoon Himalayan salt 

1/2+ teaspoon of black pepper

Pinch of crushed red pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Peel squash. Despite looking like a pumpkin, the skin on the Mexican summer squash was very thin and easy to peel. I cut it in half first, scooped out the seeds, then peeled it. After that I cut it into cubes about 1/2 inch in size. 
2. Mince garlic cloves and place in frying pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and crushed red pepper. Heat garlic for about 2 minutes until fragrant. 
3. Add squash over medium heat for ten minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally. Then cover and let simmer for another 5 minutes until it's slightly soft. The squash should release some water, creating a thin sauce in the pan. 
4. Add fresh thyme
5. Add garbanzo beans
6. Add Diced Tomatoes
7. Keep stirring until the squash is very soft 
8. Serve over freshly cooked pasta. The tomatoes and zucchini should create a thin sauce but if it's not enough add more olive oil over the pasta. 

Enjoy!