Easy Spaghetti Sauce Recipe With Zucchini & Carrots

One of my favorite easy spaghetti sauce recipes is this vegetarian spaghetti sauce, so simple and easy that an unskilled man in the kitchen, as I was when I first tried it, can end up putting a taste-pleasing and unexpected dish on the table.

You can't mess it up (Promise!) and as a bonus, it comes with a story.

Carrot and Zucchini Sauce over pasta, otherwise known in our house as "birthday pasta" may not seem challenging to anyone with experience, but for me, then a true beginner in the kitchen, learning to make it was like riding a bicycle for the first time - without training wheels.

My wife's first birthday away from her family came six months after our move to New York.

Homesickness was complicated by finding our new life more challenging, expensive and less enjoyable than what we'd come to expect as occasional visitors. So, I wanted to do something special.

My cooking skills were limited. On our first date, I'd served my first ever spinach salad, guided by a chef friend. It may not sound like much now, but it was a triumph for a single guy living alone with a diet featuring hot dogs as a regular staple.

I was so green (not a bad color, actually) I had to ask a helpful shopper in the supermarket what zucchini was just to buy the right ingredients.

Lucky for me, my vegetarian pasta sauce recipe worked out perfectly because it was simple, healthy and delicious - as required. Vegetarian Zucchini and Carrot Sauce over pasta has become a favorite.

The perfect, easy end to any day but especially after the tough ones.

Carrot and Zucchini Pasta Sauce

So, there I was in the kitchen, my wife due home soon, a little sad about spending her first birthday without her family. What better way to brighten a nice spring day than with a colorful pasta, one so simple even a beginner like me could cook get it right.

This really is easy, and something you can resort to fast in a pinch.

Here's what I pulled out of my shopping bag.

• 2 medium zucchini shredded
• 2 carrots (about roughly equal to the volume of the zucchini), shredded
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
• 2 Tbs Olive Oil8 oz. box of fusilli or any other pasta with lots of surfaces to hold the sauce
• 8 oz. curly or corkscrew pasta that will hold the sauce
• Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated (or vegan substitute.)

If you can do all the shredding in a blender, all at once, it'll help make sure they are well blended.

Preheat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the zucchini, carrots and garlic. Be inventive as you like here. I enjoy garlic, but if you don't go with one. If you like the sweet taste of cooked carrots, tip the balance their way. Zucchini is fairly neutral, so use it as you would a base. Play with it. Sauté the mix until it becomes soft. This usually takes about three minute.

Now, cover and let the sauce sit and get acquainted with its flavors while you cook the pasta and open the white wine (from Italy, of course.) As for the pasta, it's unimportant as long as it's twisty or otherwise provides surfaces to hold a non-fluid sauce. A half-pound of fusilli works as should any other pasta of its kind.

Mix the sauce thoroughly into the pasta in a casserole dish. When done, sprinkle a generous amount of grated Pecorino Romano cheese or your favorite vegetarian alternative over the top, then make more available for individual tastes at the table.

This will feed four people without leftovers.

Endless possibilities for you here.

If you're making homemade pasta sauces, there are tools to help you be more creative.

Over time, I'll post complimentary links for you because we can all help each other in staying healthy.

Ease and taste make this vegetarian spaghetti sauce an easy treat for you, your friends and family.