Fake-achinni

My hubby calls it "fake-achinni" but it can also be called Zucchini Fettunine Alfredo - raw style! Of course, his label is more catchy and clever than mine. :-D

I've been interested in trying this dish for some time now and finally got around to making it (guess I had to since we bought a bunch of zucchini). It's fairly simple and requires only a food processor and veggie peeler.

The recipe for the alfredo sauce I used sounded pretty good so I followed the list of ingredients. As is, it was too oily (especially the taste) for us. I'm not sure that a 1/4 cup was needed or at least that much. I think next time, for us, I'd only put in a tablespoon of oil. When it comes to the kitchen I'm not real patient sometimes so I didn't soak the nuts first as required. I just threw the pine nuts in and manually chopped the macs pretty good, then threw them and everything else into the food processor. To offset the oil taste I tweaked it based on our own preferences and some other recipes I found by adding in more water, black pepper, cayenne pepper (a few dashes) and 1 tsp of thyme (maybe a tad more) - oh and a pinch more salt. Perfecto! The original recipe suggested a variation of the sauce by adding in sun-dried tomatoes. I like that idea! Will have to try that next time.

Hubby had wanted "spaghetti noodles" but we don't have a spiralizer (yet) so I just used a veggie peeler on the zukes to make long fettuccine-style noodles. I didn't do anything special with the noodles after that - they were ready to go as is.

After putting it all together we warmed it up slightly (being careful with the heat), added more dashes of black pepper on top with some freshly chopped Italian parsley and we were ready to eat! It was sooooo good! I have to admit I was surprised. I mean raw squash? Fake alfredo sauce? I still remember what the old version tastes like and this doesn't taste the same HOWEVER, this is so delicious and so filling that I honestly didn't feel like I was missing out on anything (I know my body wasn't and my brain didn't seem notice :-D). And the zucchini? Doesn't taste like squash. It has a slight sweet flavor and is clean tasting. My hubby who pretty much disliked zucchini before going raw found this dish to be very yummirific! He had to have more.

This dish will be fun to play around with some more. It seems like there's a lot of flexibilty so you could do whatever fits your mood or tastes.

I wonder what those non-raw foodies out there think about this? People who know me might think I've gone mad! Mwah-ha-ha-haaa!

Now, I'm off to watch American Idol.