Pasta with zucchini recipe
Do you like zucchini? here is a pasta with zucchini recipe you will love!
Zucchini are usually considered a bland veggie, something not so flavorful, but this pasta with zucchini recipe will prove this theory wrong. Many vegetables change dramatically depending on how you cook them and zucchini are one of them.
Seasoning is key and also the texture you’ll get depending on how you cook zucchini changes a lot the taste. I do not like mushy zucchini, I prefer them to be on the crunchy size. Not too hard but you have to feel the bite when you eat it.
Pasta with zucchini recipe: health facts
- Fibers: Courgettes are rich fiber along with many other nutrients. They are also low in calories and easy to prepare. For extra fibers you can pair zucchini with whole wheat pasta.
- Antioxidants: Zeaxanthin is a powerful antioxidant that prevents oxidative stress. Zucchini contains a good amount of it along with other compounds like lutein. Lutein is another antioxidant that helps eyesight.
- Minerals and Vitamins: Other useful compounds that you can find in zucchini to helps our body stay healthy and prevent disease are potassium, folate and Vitamin A.
Meal prep ideas
If you are very busy with work and family and love to prepare ahead your weekly meal, this is the perfect recipe. You can actually cook the courgettes on Sunday and keep it ready in the fridge. They will keep for several days and you will only have to toss them in the pan with the pasta and then add the egg mixture.
For extra meal prepping, if you use short pasta, you can pre-boil the pasta then season it with a bit of oil to prevent it from sticking and keep it in the fridge. When you are ready to cook you just need to re-heat the pasta and the zucchini in a pan and add the egg mixture in the end. This way you’ll also change the carbohydrates in the pasta. Cooking it, cooling it down and heating it again turns carbs into resistant starches (aka Fibers).
Variations and ideas to make a tasty pasta with zucchini
Zucchini can be paired with a lot of other vegetables, herbs and spices and also protein like eggs or fish. A great way to eat prepare a pasta with zucchini is making a zucchini carbonara. Very simple and easy a zucchini carbonara is a very light version of the classic “pasta alla carbonara“, but very tasty as well, you will find the recipe below.
You can also add clams to make a special pasta with zucchini recipe, or also salmon. The key, as usual, is to keep it simple. I often see dishes that are made with a bunch of different ingredients just to stock up on fibers and veggies, but this way you’ll won’t be able to savor the taste of the ingredients. (actually you won’t even be able to tell what’s inside!!)
Pasta with zucchini recipe: zucchini “carbonara“
Everyone knows the “pasta alla carbonara” (unfortunately few know how to make it the right way). Anyways.. today I want to share with you a pasta that is very similar, but does not contain pork cheek. If you are vegetarian, or on a diet, or simply you don’t like pork, this is a great alternative to the classic carbonara.
It’s as easy as the orginal recipe and you need few ingredients to prepare it. The secret in both is when to mix in the eggs. Many people are afraid of eating half cooked eggs so they stir fry the pasta after having added the egg and the result is a scrambled egg pasta.
This recipe is a balanced dish, and perfect to prepare a single course meal, especially if you are using whole wheat, spelt or lentil pasta.
Using vegetables instead of smoked meat you can easily lower calories without giving up too much of the taste.
Pasta with zucchini recipe
Ingredients
- 350 gr of pasta long or short is good, choose the one you prefer
- 3 regular zucchini
- 3 eggs
- 100 gr grated parmigiano grana padano or pecorino
- salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Bring to a boil enough water, add salt and then, as it boils again, pour the pasta (check my recipe on how to cook pasta like an Italian)
- Wash the zucchini and remove the tips. Slice them into roundels and put them in a frying pan with the oil.
- Add salt and pepper to taste and let it cook for 6/10 minutes covered with a lid. Stir from time to time to avoid sticking.
- In a bowl mix the eggs, cheese, and a pinch of salt.
- THIS IS A CRUCIAL STEP: Turn off the heat, drain the pasta (reserve a bit of the water) and pour it back into the pan with the zucchini. Add the beaten eggs and mix well, the eggs will turn into a delicate cream. Add the zucchini and serve with a sprinkle of pepper.
- If the pasta is too dry you can add a tablespoon of the reserved water.
IMPORTANT NOTE
- +++It's important to turn off the flame under the pan when you add the eggs.++++You just need the residual heat from the pan to cook the eggs, with a flame under the pan, the egg will cook instantly and will get the same consistency of a scrambled egg.
