Italian Zucchini with onions, carrots, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.
I had several zucchinis left in the refrigerator, so I made my old, easy, quick, tasty, flexible, one-skillet Italian Zucchini favorite. There are some recipes that don’t require precision measuring. This is one of them.
My mother always made this dish when we had an abundance of garden squash. As I recall, it never turned out the same way twice. It depended on her mood and what was on hand. I’m the same way.
The base ingredients are zucchini (or a mix of yellow and green squash), onion, garlic and Parmesan. In recent years, I’ve kept it to the fewer ingredients. But you can also add ground beef, or not; bits of fresh tomato or spaghetti sauce, or not; cheddar cheese, or not. A couple of thinly sliced carrots, or not—as you can see in photo, I do.
This is not precision bread baking, so feel free to use ingredients to taste. Even so, you might want to make the base recipe first before customizing.
One-Skillet Italian Zucchini
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbs. olive oil or vegetable oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large onion, sliced and cut into semi-circles
- 3-4 small zucchinis, thinly sliced (or mixed with yellow squash)
- ¾ tsp. salt, or to taste
- ½ tsp. pepper
- ¼ cup fresh Parmesan cheese, or to taste
- Dash of hot sauce, if desired
Directions:
Pour oil in large skillet. Sauté garlic and onion several minutes till soft. Add squash, salt and pepper and hot sauce, if desired. Continue cooking about 10 minutes. Adding a lid part way through will hasten cooking time. Top with Parmesan cheese just before removing from skillet.
Serve alone or over noodles.
Kitchen Notes: If adding the carrots—which I recommend for color and sweetness—either slice them very thinly or partially cook whole carrots for several minutes before slicing into skillet.
