Zucchini Pasta
For my birthday, my dear friend Fred gifted me with Stanley Tucci’s book, What I Ate in a Year. I’ve long been a Tucci fan (ever since Big Night, possibly the best movie about food ever made), and have been loving his new TV series where he goes around Italy eating stuff.
This all coincided nicely with zucchini season, so it felt the right time to make a big ol’ zucchini pasta. The great thing about zucchini in a pasta sauce, is that it naturally cooks down to become quite creamy. When I’m making a cream sauce for pasta, I often cook down a bunch of zucchini and puree it into the sauce for added nutrition and creaminess.
This is a take on something Tucci raves about: Spaghetti alla Nerano. It’s basically pasta, zucchini and cheese. Sounds amazing, right??
You take your zucchinis (I used one regular green one and one yellow summer squash) and cut them thinly on a mandolin. Of course you could do this by hand as well if you don’t have a mandolin. Then you put some vegetable oil in a large dutch oven and fry them in batches until they are soft, but also golden brown. Pull them out and drain them on a paper towel, and while you’re doing that, you can cook your pasta. Tucci uses spaghetti here but I felt like something more tubular, so I used a rigatoni.
You return most of the cooked zucchini to the pan along with some garlic if you like and some pasta water. Grate in some pecorino or parmesan. I added a little bit of cream cheese as well, as I didn’t have ton of pecorino. You stir this and mix it until it becomes emulsified and saucy, then throw in your pasta and toss it all together. You can also add some fresh herbs if you like, basil would be perfect.
Serve it in a big bowl with some of the reserved fried zucchini on top, lashings of pecorino and freshly-ground pepper.
Et voila! The perfect, easy summer dinner, and a great way to use up a couple of those zucchinis that seem to proliferate overnight in your garden.
PS if you still have too much zucchini after making this, here’s some more help in the form of zucchini fritters and zucchini cake.
Zucchini Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 zucchinis med-large
- 1/2 cup vegetable-based oil
- 250 g dried pasta
- 2 tbsp cream cheese
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup pecorino or parmesan cheese grated
- 1/2 cup fresh herbs parsley or basil
Instructions
- Wash your zucchinis and cut them into coins either on a mandolin (mine slices 1/4" slices) or with a knife, as thin as you can.
- In a large dutch oven, add your oil, and heat it on medium-high heat until shimmery.
- Add a layer of the sliced zucchini to the oil and fry on one side for about 4-5 minutes, then flip and fry for another 3-4 minutes on the other side. They should be soft in the middle, and caramelized on the outside. Remove to a paper towel to drain. Repeat for the rest of the zucchini.
- In a large pot, bring a litre of water to a boil and add 2 tsps of salt to the water. Add your pasta and cook it according to package directions, until it is al dente. Drain the pasta, but reserve some of the pasta cooking water.
- In the dutch oven you were using previously, if there's any oil left, drain it all off except for a tablespoon or two. Heat the pan over medium heat, and add back in the fried zucchini. Add the garlic and stir till fragrant, then add in the cream cheese and 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Stir everything together until the cheese melts into the pasta water and the zucchini and it becomes saucy and emulsified.
- Add your pasta into the sauce and add more pasta water if needed if it's too thick. Add half of the grated cheese and half the fresh herbs and stir everything well to coat the pasta and melt the cheese. Taste for seasoning (I haven't added a lot of extra salt here because both the cheese and the pasta water are seasoned) and add additional salt if needed.
- Serve in a bowl, garnished with additional grated cheese, fresh herbs and freshly cracked pepper.