This caramelized zucchini pasta recipe is a perfect blend of simplicity and flavor. A great example of using what you have on hand. With just a few ingredients like zucchini, garlic, and Parmesan, you can whip up a delicious vegetarian dinner in no time.
One of the reasons I love pasta is that it can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. Most of the time, when you don’t know what to make for dinner, when you don’t have any vegetables on hand, pasta just means sautéing onions in olive oil and garlic, tossed with noodles and some parmesan – and it tastes great. Take this Caramelized Zucchini Pasta:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This recipe is a classic example of using what you have on hand. We all have those days when the last thing we want is to run to the grocery for ingredients for a last-minute recipe. This Caramelized Zucchini Pasta uses ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen: lemon, parmesan, pasta, and olive oil.
Those ingredients alone are enough to come up with a decent pasta, but if you want to take it to the next level, this is a great exercise in creativity: take a look at what else you have lying around in your kitchen and don’t be afraid to take risks!
This is actually how this pasta came to be: I had zucchini in the fridge and not much else, and more importantly, I had very little interest in shopping for ingredients.
Ingredients for Caramelized Zucchini Pasta
In this simple vegetarian pasta with zucchini, garlic, and lemon, fresh zucchini is cooked down until caramelized.
Cooking the zucchini in fat over medium low heat for a long time turns it into a rich jammy paste that is then tossed with the pasta. Zucchini is about 94% water and much like cucumber, it’s an excellent vegetable if you want to stay hydrated.
That fact gives cause for certain comments such as, zucchini is waterless and tasteless! But the truth is, it doesn’t take much to take this “boring” vegetable to turn it into something deeply flavorful. All it takes is a little patience.
Just like caramelized onions, when you cook down zucchini, its natural sugars caramelize and concentrate its flavor. The most important ingredient in this process is time. You can’t rush it. This can be done with any fruits and vegetables to make them sweeter and deeper in flavor.
In order to impart even more flavor and balance to this dish, a few other ingredients are necessary: lemon for acidity, garlic for flavor, and parmesan for a nice savory kick.
For caramelizing the zucchini, this recipe calls for both olive oil and butter: the butter adds flavor and the olive oil has a little higher smoking point so it prevents the butter from burning.
Ingredient Substitutions and Variations
This quick and easy pasta dinner is incredibly versatile. It offers plenty of room for substitutions and additions. As they cook down, you can elevate the flavors of the zucchini by adding garlic, anchovies, lemon zest, thyme or red pepper flakes.
The real trick here is to be patient since the caramelizing process cannot be rushed. The reward is that the longer the zucchini cooks, the sweeter and jammier it gets. If the heat is too high you might get burnt bits so it’s best to just accept it and trust the process.
You’re going to need a few zucchini – two pounds of grated fresh zucchini gets you about 1 cup of caramelized paste – so use however many you have on hand or make your judgment about how rich you want your sauce to be. You can either grate or thinly slice the zucchini, whatever sounds easier for you.
If you don’t have zucchini on hand, leeks work well too – same instructions, same process. If you don’t have leeks, caramelized onions will work great, too. But if you do have zucchini, make sure to use as many as you can for a richer, saucier pasta.
Think of this zucchini pasta as a step above spaghetti aglio e olio. It’s just as simple, but slightly more complex, what with the sweet and caramelized flavors. So it’s up to you to keep building on flavors.
For a vegan version, you can skip the parmesan and butter and still wind up with a deeply flavored pasta. This recipe is also gluten-free friendly, all you have to do is use gluten-free pasta.
Tips for Perfectly Caramelized Zucchini
Caramelized zucchini is incredibly easy and like I said before, it’s all about patience. You have to use a lot of zucchini, at least 3 or 4, as they’ll cook down significantly. All of that water will evaporate and you’ll end up with a deeply sweet and flavorful jammy paste.
Start by heating olive oil and butter in a large skillet. The larger the pan, the quicker the zucchini will cook down as they have more room ro come into contact with heat. That’s called the Maillard reaction: a chemical reaction that happens when amino acids and reducing sugars in food are heated, producing melanoidins and giving food its distinctive flavor and color.
If using extra seasoning ingredients, you can add them now: like anchovies, red pepper flakes, garlic, or shallots. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper.
The first 5-10 minutes will see a lot of water bubbling up. That’s all the water being drawn out from the zucchini. The next 10 minutes all that water will start to cook off. The final 10-20 minutes the zucchini will start to caramelize and brown.
Keep the heat low, stirring every once in a while. If you notice any burnt bits, you can add a splash water to prevent it from burning.
How to buy and store zucchini
When buying zucchini, pay attention to size: very large zucchini are watery and bland. Choose ones that are about one and a half inches thick and not more than seven inches long.
The skin should be glossy and free of nicks, scrapes, and dents. Look at the end that was attached to the stem. If part of the stem is still attached, its color should be fresh, not darkened by age. Fresh zucchini are firm, unyielding to pressure.
Fresh zucchini will keep in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator for a week. Keep them loose rather than in a bag to better maintain their crispness.
Because of its soft skin, grit can easily become embedded in it. For that reason, Marcella Hazan recommends always soaking uncut zucchini in cold water for at least fifteen minutes, then scrub them under running water with a rough cloth or a vegetable brush before cooking.
That’s a great tip that goes for most vegetables!
If you make this Caramelized Zucchini Pasta please be sure to leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you and I love responding to every comment. And don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram. I’d love to see your photos!
Ingredients
3-4 medium zucchini
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
red pepper flakes
1/2 lb pasta of choice
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 lemon
kosher salt
black pepper
Fresh basil, for garnish
Directions
Grate or thinly slice the zucchini. Thinly slice the garlic.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini, garlic, and red pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and cover with a lid. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes - it'll release a lot of water. Uncover and cook until the liquid evaporates, for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Continue to cook until the zucchini is reduced and jammy, 20 to 25 minutes. If there are any brown bits in the bottom of the pan, add a little bit of water and deglaze to release the flavors - lower the heat if necessary.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water.
Add the pasta to skillet, tossing to combine. Stir in the parmesan cheese and pasta water a little bit at a time, until the pasta is glossed with sauce. Keep adding more pasta water as needed. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Stir in the lemon juice. Serve with basil and more parmesan.
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