I am so glad that the weather has been cool enough to permit pots of boiling water and simmering sauce. After sautéing the mushrooms, onions, pepper, and garlic I added 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and cooked that briefly. Next I deglazed the pan with red wine. I added a 28 oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes and left the whole pot to simmer with the lid slightly ajar for half an hour.

At this point John turned on the water to boil and I browned the zucchini half-moons in olive oil spray and a teaspoon of butter. I did not want to put them straight into the sauce because they would have disintegrated. When the pasta was cooked and about two cups of the cooking water reserved, I put about half of the sauce in with the zucchini and John added the fusilli. Half the reserved pasta water went in with the fusilli and the other half went into the leftover sauce which had thickened up quite a bit during its simmer. I will save the remaining sauce for another application in the future.

What a delicious dinner! We practically licked out our bowls!