Hello, and welcome back to TwoSteps SCD!
Today I wanted to share a recipe that defies SCD logic and seems to trick my senses and taste buds every time. What is it? Well, its spaghetti using zucchini noodles with pork meatballs and a tomato marinara sauce.
What has inspired this dish and many others like it (curry's, pesto noodles, etc.) is the spiral slicer that my mom, and co-author of our book, bought me as a birthday gift last year. I had heard of people making noodles out of zucchini for SCD adaptations but just didn't want to bother with it, and like so many other things, thought the taste and texture just wouldn't be right. Just easier to go without right? Wrong!
The noodle maker (featured to the right on the Favorite SCD tools carousel) makes beautiful, long zucchini noodles in a matter of seconds and is very easy to clean. The most important part though is that the noodles actually come out tasting and looking like real spaghetti noodles. You can twirl them around a fork, toss them with sauce, etc. basically do anything you would with regular spaghetti or pasta.
Ready to give it a shot? Here we go:
Meatballs-
In a separate bowl mix together:
1 lb ground pork
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
a dash oregano
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 egg
1/4 cup almond flour
Mix everything together with your hands then form into small meatballs. Add some oil to a large pan, wait till oil is hot, then add meatballs and brown on at least two sides. Cook until the meatballs are nicely brown then remove from heat (the meatballs will not be cooked fully at this point). Drain most of the fat out of the pan reserving enough to coat.
Sauce-
Add 1 cup chopped onions to pan with reserved oil/fat. Cook until tender then add 2 cups sliced mushrooms and cook until soft. Poor marinara sauce into pan over the onions and mushrooms.
For the sauce you can do a couple things: You can make your own sauce like here or you could buy a pre-made sauce from a reputable source. *Remember no natural flavors, tomato paste, starches or other illegal scd ingredients and fillers. I recently had a great marinara sauce from Eden foods, which I trust to be scd compliant, at least for my length on the diet. This is the sauce I used here.
After you add the sauce to the pan let it heat up then nestle the meatballs back into the sauce and cook until the meat is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.
Noodles-
At this point get out your spiral slicer, wash a zucchini ( I figure one medium zucchini equals one large serving) then process the zucchini into noodles.
From here you can cook your "noodles" by adding them to the sauce for a few minutes prior to eating (only do this if you plan on eating all of the noodles in one day) or you can add the noodles to boiling water for about 1 minute or until you are happy with the texture then drain.
Once everything is fully cooked add the sauce and meatballs on top of you spaghetti, add some Parmesan or cheddar cheese and call it a meal.
For more recipes and SCD help find our book here: Amazon.com
Thank you!
Tucker and Carol
