This pasta dish includes one of man's most wonderful substances: Brown butter. It also includes a tomato sauce with roasted zucchini slices, roasted garlic, browned butter and ricotta cheese.
Zucchini
- 2 medium zucchini, sliced on mandolin
- pasta of choice (pictured above: penne)
- extra virgin olive oil
- kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper
- Heat oven to 400. Place zucchini slices in a 9 x 13 pan, drizzle with oil, salt, and pepper, and roast for about 20 minutes until all brown and melty.
Roasted Garlic
- 1 head garlic
- extra virgin olive oil
- Heat oven to 400. Take off the papery outer skin of the garlic bulb. Don’t remove all the skin, just the stuff that comes off easily. The head of garlic should still remain intact. Slice off the pointy end of the bulb to expose all the cloves. Place in a small greased ramekin and cover with olive oil. Sprinkle just a pinch of salt and cover with aluminum foil. Place in oven and roast for about 45 minutes. The cloves of garlic will be all nice and soft.
Sauce
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 small onion, halved
- 1/3 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup basil leaves, torn
- In a large sauté pan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Let the butter brown, about 5-7 minutes. You will see brown specks that have formed on the bottom of the pan. Be careful to not burn the butter, otherwise the taste will be altered. Add in the roasted zucchini slices and roasted cloves of garlic. Mix those into the browned butter. Stir in crushed tomatoes. Add onion halves. Let the mixture come together over low heat for about 40 minutes. Once the onion halves are soft, remove from the sauce. Add cheeses. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with basil.
- Serve with pasta (I used penne) cooked according to manufacturer's directions.
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