Dominique Rizzo | Bespoke Food Tours
Braised Zucchini and Tomatoes
Easy
Prep 10min Cook 30min
This makes a fantastic side dish, a sauce for pasta or a topping for bruschetta.
I first made this Braised Zucchini and Tomatoes dish with the Sicilian zucchini which my mother grew from seeds found here in Australia. Its Sicilian name is “ Cucuzza” and it hangs from a vine very much like a bunch of grapes, pale green in colour and with a slightly tough skin that needs to be peeled. The inside of the cucuzza is very similar to that of a normal zucchini. I remember these as a little girl on my uncle’s farm in Palermo and wandering through the vines almost like trying to use the zucchini like an obstacle course and trying not to knock them as I walked through. They can grow up to a meter in length and the tendrils, leaves and stalks are also eaten with pasta and cooked with tomatoes in a type of minestrone.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 zucchini, diced into 1-1/2 cm cubes
- 2 fresh tomatoes diced
- 1 cup water
- Salt and fresh ground pepper
Recipe Steps
Warm the oil in a heavy based pan and add in the garlic and zucchini, fry these for about 5 minutes and then add in the tomatoes.
Cook the vegetables together for 4 minutes and then add the water. Bring the water to a simmer, lower the heat and then continue to cook for a further 20 minutes until most of the water has been cooked out and the zucchini is cooked through.
Season with salt and pepper and serve with crusty bread.