Zucchini Lemon Garlic Spaghetti 20Aug08
This was dinner tonight. Inspired by the zucchini strand spaghetti from smitten kitchen. But a completely different flavor… the only things in common are zucchini and spaghetti really. This is a very quick and easy, light spaghetti dish that I’ve altered from my lemon fettuccine with sun dried tomatoes. Hope you like it!
Ingredients:
3/4 lb of spaghetti (about 2 quarter-sized diameters worth) – cooked al dente
2 zucchini – grated through a large grate
4-5 cloves of garlic – chopped fine or through a garlic smusher
1 shallot – sliced thin
1 1/2 lemons
zest of 1 lemon
parmesan cheese
butter
crushed red pepper flakes
fresh ground pepper
salt
chili oil (optional)Step 1: Spaghetti time
While spaghetti is boiling, prep your ingredients! Grate your zucchini or cut them into very thin long slivers. Chop up the garlic and shallot. Make sure to add salt and olive oil in the spaghetti. When the spaghetti is al dente, turn off the heat and dump the water. Do not strain! Pour out as much as you can without using a colander. The starchy water will help soak up the lemon juice later.Step 2: Flavors
While your spaghetti is boiling, heat up about 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan. Throw in the garlic and let that cook in low-medium heat. Then throw in the shallots. Add another tablespoon of butter and the crushed red pepper flakes (as much as you’d like really). Let that simmer until the garlic bits turn a little toasty and the shallots are translucent.Step 3: Mix it up
Once the garlic and shallot looks toasty, now add in the lemon zest and lemon juice. bring that to a nice simmer and add another table spoon of butter. Once that’s melted, slowly add in the spaghetti. You don’t need to pour in the excess water. add salt and fresh ground pepper to the mix. Let that sit and bubble for about 2 mins mixing constantly to let the flavors work into the pasta. Now toss in the zucchini and mix for another 2 mins – if you chopped them by hand, you might want to throw them in before the pasta. Plate your pasta and add freshly grated parmesan cheese, fresh ground pepper if you want, and drizzle some chili oil.
If you don’t like lemony flavor, this dish is so not for you. If you don’t like spice, I woudn’t suggest this either. The spicy mix complements the lemon really well so you want to make sure you add a little extra! Enjoy!
Excellent recipe! But the truffle?
ha, truffle could be a great addition as well! hard to find truffle here though…
This looks and sounds fantastic! I love lemony and love spicy!
Nice recipe. We tried it tonight and it came out great. I was a little afraid at first because of the lemon, but it imparted a subtle freshness – sort of light doing a pesto with lemon basil. As a bonus: We got our daughter to eat more zucchini than I would have expected.
Thanks Michael! I’m glad you liked it, pretty easy to make and I like that it’s pretty light too!
It looks delicious! My family won’t eat a spaghetti noodle unless I’m cooking traditional spaghetti. Maybe they’ll bend for this one.