POTATO-ZUCCHINI SAUTEE (INTERNATIONAL)

Continuing the wine-friendly recipe shtick, I tossed together a vegetable accompaniment for a steak the other night, and discovered to my pleased surprise that the vegetable dish itself went surprisingly well the red wine of the evening, the Boutari 1990 Paros (a sort of Beaujolais/Dolcetto-style red). Since matching red wine to vegetable dishes is not always an easy task, this discovery was more than trivial.

The veg dish was a treat too, the fortuitous result of a lazy decision to throw the potato and green vegetable together into a single dish.

Was as simple as this:

  • Cut two small red-skinned potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes, and boil in salted water until about half-done, 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Cut one medium-size zucchini into similar cubes.
  • Peel and seed two ripe Italian plum tomatos and cut THEM into similar cubes.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon good olive oil in a non-stick skillet and sautee a garlic clove until it's aromatic. Discard the garlic. Drain the potato cubes and toss them in the garlic-scented oil until they just start to brown. Then add the zucchini and tomato cubes with salt and black pepper to taste, cover, reduce heat, and cook it all together for another five minutes or so, until the potatoes are just done, the zucchini is crisp-tender, and the tomato chunks turn into a sort of chunky sauce.

    Serve. Eat. Yum.