Spaghetti con le zucchine (Spaghetti with Zucchini)

FrankNaples and Campania, pasta, pastas, soups and risottos/primi piatti, summer35 Comments

As we’ve seen before, pasta and vegetable dishes are a quick and easy solution for weeknight dinners, when you don’t have the time or the energy for anything fussy or fancy. This may be the easiest of them all: Spaghetti with Zucchini.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

  • 500g (1 lb) spaghetti
  • 500g (1 lb) zucchini, sliced into thin rounds
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed
  • Salt and pepper
  • A few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped (optional)
  • Olive oil

Optional:

  • Red pepper flakes
  • Ricotta cheese
  • Grated Parmesan cheese
  • A few fresh basil leaves
  • An egg yolk

Directions

You begin, as many of these dishes do, with an aglio e olio base: pour a generous amount of olive oil into a skillet (remember, this is going to be your sauce and you can always leave the excess oil in the pan when you serve) and in it, lightly sauté one or two crushed cloves of garlic over a lively flame.

When the garlic is just beginning to color, add thinly sliced disks of zucchini. Season with salt and pepper, and cook over high heat, tossing the zucchini slices from time to time to ensure even cooking, until they have become quite tender and lightly browned, about 5-10 minutes at most.

Meanwhile, get your pasta on the boil and, when it’s al dente, drain it (but not too well) and transfer it to the skillet with the zucchini. Add some minced parsley. Mix well, allowing the pasta to absorb some of the flavored oil.

Serve your Spaghetti with Zucchini immediately, with a some additional minced parsley as a topping.

Notes

Of course, you can dress this dish up a bit more: add some peperoncino if you want some heat (although I find that it tends to overwhelm the delicate flavor of the zucchini). One variation that I particularly like is to add a dollop of ricotta cheese, some grated parmigiano and a few shredded basil leaves at the very end and mix well. It turns the dish in an entirely different direction. (If you want a richer dish, you can add an egg yolk as well to the ricotta and basil mixture.)

Spaghetti is the classic choice, but you can really use the dry pasta of your choice. Linguine would also be nice, as would rigatoni. The dish is not really apt for fresh egg pasta.

Some recipes for Spaghetti with Zucchini will tell you to fry the zucchini disks in a single layer, and turn them individually so they brown evenly on both sides, etc. etc. If you’re like me, you’ll be perfectly satisfied with a less pignolo method mentioned above. Just be sure to keep the flame high, use plenty of oil and toss frequently, and even if some zucchini disks will turn out a bit less browned than others, the dish will turn out fine. But by all means, if you have the time and inclination to fry the disks individually, more power to you!

Back on Sunday… Happy eating your spaghetti with zucchini. Buon appetito!

Print Recipe

Quick Note: Spaghetti con le zucchine (Spaghetti with Zucchini)

Total Time30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 500 g 1 lb spaghetti
  • 500 g 1 lb zucchini, sliced into thin rounds
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic peeled and slightly crushed
  • Salt and pepper
  • A few sprigs of parsley finely chopped (optional)
  • Olive oil
  • Optional:
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Ricotta cheese
  • Grated Parmesan cheese
  • A few fresh basil leaves
  • An egg yolk

Instructions

  • You begin, as many of these dishes do, with an aglio e olio base: pour a generous amount of olive oil into a skillet (remember, this is going to be your sauce and you can always leave the excess oil in the pan when you serve) and in it, lightly sauté one or two crushed cloves of garlic over a lively flame.
  • When the garlic is just beginning to color, add thinly sliced disks of zucchini. Season with salt and pepper, and cook over high heat, tossing the zucchini slices from time to time to ensure even cooking, until they have become quite tender and lightly browned, about 5-10 minutes at most.
  • Meanwhile, get your pasta on the boil and, when it's al dente, drain it (but not too well) and transfer it to the skillet with the zucchini. Add some minced parsley. Mix well, allowing the pasta to absorb some of the flavored oil.
  • Serve immediately, with a some additional minced parsley as a topping.

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35 Comments on “Spaghetti con le zucchine (Spaghetti with Zucchini)”

  6. Reply

    I had this dish once when vacationing in Sicily and it was delicious. I had no idea how it was made, but now I know.
    Thanks for the recipe.

  9. Reply

    I always finish this recipe by adding just a little squeeze of lemon juice, it helps lighten up the oi.

  10. Reply

    I made this last night and it was SO good. It really made me wish I had planted zucchini this year.

    I love your blog! Congratulations on your first year.

  14. Reply

    It always amazes me how many dishes one can forget. This used to be a regular at my house when we were growing up, but I haven't had it in a least 20 years. I completely erased this dish from my memory until today. That's the nice thing about surfing the food blogs, re-finding recipes that got lost in the labyrinth of our brain. Thanks for bringing it back, can't wait to prepare it.

  15. Reply

    What a versatile and easy dish. Love the simplicity of the preparation and the humble ingredients of this dish. I am making one! Thanks for sharing this….

  17. Reply

    Summer zucchini – how sweet this is. Waiting for a bumper crop of zucchini to explode in my yard (and their flowers) and shall do this.

We'd love to hear your questions and thoughts! And if you tried the recipe, we'd love to hear how it went!