Back in the mid 1990’s, my church published a cookbook with recipes from the membership. I began making a zucchini with bacon and onion sauce dish submitted by a fellow parishioner in the mid- to late-2000’s, and, besides finding it tasty, I was pleasantly surprised both at how easy it was to make, and, even more surprisingly, how it immediately came across as a restaurant-quality dish. In fact, shortly after, I happened to be at a restaurant, and ordered a similar dish as an appetizer!
Note that the amounts of some of the ingredients shown below are sometimes greater than listed in the recipe, in order to have some of the sauce leftover.
First, bacon was taken out (in this case, half slices):
The bacon was sliced crosswise / diced:
The bacon was then placed in a cast iron skillet:
Onions were taken out:
The onions were cleaned and trimmed:
The onions were quartered:
The onions were then chopped coarsely:
The onions were then placed in the cast iron skillet with the bacon:
The stove was turned on to a low to medium heat:
A pot was filled with water:
Salt was measured out:
The salt was added to the pot of water:
The stove under the pot was turned on high to boil the water in the pot:
The water was brought to a boil, and put aside.
Tomatoes were taken out:
The tomatoes were cleaned and trimmed:
The tomatoes were quartered …
… the tomatoes were further chopped:
… and the chopped tomatoes were placed in a mixing bowl:
Sugar was measured out:
The sugar was added to the mixing bowl with the tomatoes:
More salt was measured out:
The salt was added to the bowl with the tomatoes and the sugar:
Water was measured out:
The water was added to the bowl with the tomatoes, sugar, and salt:
… and the bowl with the tomatoes, sugar, salt, and water was put aside.
Three zucchinis (in this case, grey zucchinis) were taken out:
The zucchinis were cleaned and trimmed:
The zucchinis were cut in half along their length:
… and the zucchinis were put aside.
Soon, the bacon and onions were beginning to be cooked and caramelized:
… and the tomato mix was added to the bacon and onions in the cast iron skillet:
… and the ingredients in the cast iron skillet were mixed together:
The ingredients were brought to a simmer:
The ingredients were reduced, during which the tomatoes also disintegrated into the sauce
At this point, the salted water was brought back to a boil:
… and the zucchini halves were added to the boiling water …
… and the zucchini halves were boiled for ten minutes (obviously, the photo was taken about eight seconds after the timer was set):
At this point, the sauce had sufficiently reduced to my liking, and was ready for serving:
The zucchini were served onto two plates:
And finally, sauce was spooned onto the zucchini:
Supper was yummy, with a nice, tangey sauce!