recipe, advice and variations of the first course

Here’s how to make pasta with zucchini to perfection: a first course that can be prepared in many different ways, but which is always good!

Here is the recipe for pasta with zucchini, a tasty and rich first course gusto, perfect to bring to the table on any occasion and ideal when you can’t waste too much time cooking. In fact, this quick pasta is not only a lot simple to preparebut it’s also an excellent ‘save dinner’ solution.

Today we will see how to prepare it in two variants, a classic one and a pasta with a zucchini cream. Not only that, there will be many other recipe ideas to be able to choose your pasta with zucchini, simple and delicious. Finally, we will see some delicious variations to make it even tastier. Let’s start the recipe for pasta with zucchini right away by following the photo steps or the video recipe!

How to make pasta with zucchini

1. How do you make pasta with zucchini? First of all, put the water on for the pasta, salt it and when it reaches the boil, dip the pasta, remembering to drain it al dente

2. Wash yourself the courgettes, then cut them into slices or strips.

3. Do the same with the shallot and brown it in a pan with a drizzle of oil, adding some cooking water to soften it.

4. Add the finely chopped courgettes, salad e pepper and leave to cook until they are soft. It will take approx 10/15 minutesbased on the size you gave the vegetables.

5. When the pasta is cooked, drain it in the pan and stir with a drop of cooking water and grated cheese, so as to emulsify the sauce with zucchini and make it bind well to the pasta. Enjoy your meal!

How about trying all our quick first courses too?

Pasta with zucchini pesto

If you want a creamier dish, we recommend pasta with zucchini cream! To make the variant of the zucchini sauce, all you have to do is blend the vegetables cooked in a pan, so as to obtain a sort of pesto with which to season any form of pasta (tagliatelle, spaghetti, short or fresh pasta). There is no single recipe, but it’s up to you to choose the ingredients and the doses to make it.

If you want to enjoy first courses with light zucchini, prepare one lighter sauce blending the blanched courgettes with pepper, salt, a drizzle of oil and some mint or parsley for flavouring.

If, on the other hand, you want to make it all more gluttonous, add some cheese (Pecorino or Parmesan will do just fine), some pine nuts and some fresh basil leaves too. A variant indeed creamy is that of zucchini pasta and Philadelphia. All you need to do is add 140 g of spreadable cheese and a little cooking water to the blended zucchini cream and make stir-fry everything with the pasta already cooked and drained.

If the problem is the consistencyfix with cooking water, which will make it soft and creamy. This is a little “magic” trick that works every time. For other tips, we leave you the recipe for zucchini pesto and this dish will have no more secrets for you!

Pasta with zucchini: delicious variations

Finally, we want to suggest a few delicious variants of this first course with zucchini. Which ones are we talking about? Of course, the version with zucchini and bacon cannot be missing, but neither is the one with shrimps and some light but always delicious versions.

Risotto pasta with zucchini

How to transform an easy and classic recipe into a gourmet dish? To your aid comes the risotto pasta with zucchini. We have decided to give it an extra touch by adding the sausage, but you can easily omit it.

• 360 g of short pasta
• 2 l of vegetable broth
• 2 courgettes
• 150 g of sausage

To prepare it, bring the broth to the boil and add the pasta, cooking it until completely absorbed. At this stage a lot it depends on the type of pastait may be that less liquid may be enough and, precisely for this reason, we advise you to add the broth a little at a time, stirring often precisely as for a classic risotto. While the pasta is cooking, immediately add the zucchini and sausage cut into small pieces and let it all cook together, mixing well.

Pasta with zucchini and bacon

For the land variant here is the pasta with zucchini and bacon. Let’s see together ingredients and preparation.

• 320 g of pasta
• 2-3 zucchini
• 250 g of bacon
• vino bianco q.b.
• Grated Grana Padano to taste
• 1 shallot
• EVO oil to taste
• sale q.b.
• black pepper to taste

Wash and cut the zucchini into rounds or pieces and cook them in a pan with the shallot and 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Then take the bacon, cut it into strips or cubes and add the salami to the pan until it is thick Crisp, blending it with a drop of wine and not adding other fats. Add the sauce to the freshly drained pasta, serve and serve nice dusting with black pepper and grated cheese. We are sure you will like it and, if you want, you can also try the recipe with speck!

Pasta with zucchini and shrimp

As for the fish variant we propose pasta with zucchini and shrimp!

• 400g pasta
• 4 zucchini
• 400 g of shrimp
• 40 g of pecorino
• 30 g of Parmesan
• fresh basil to taste
• 25 g of pine nuts
• 1 sprig of parsley
• sale q.b
• pepe q.b.
• 1/2 glass of white wine

Sauté the shrimp in the pan scalding them quickly with a drizzle of oil and a drop of white wine. Salt and pepper them and once cooked (a few minutes will be enough) let them rest, then unite them to gravy. The sauce is prepared in this way: after having washed the vegetables, a part of the courgettes will be grated, combined with the pine nuts, pecorino, parmesan, fresh basil and oil. Blend everything and put it to rest. The other part of zucchini instead will have to be cut into rounds and sauté the oil in a pan with a drizzle for a few minutes. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it al dente and sauté it in a pan with a ladle of cooking water, add the courgette creamthe zucchini slices and the prawns before serving.

Light zucchini pasta with courgette flowers

Who is looking for one light version can make wholemeal pasta with crunchy courgettes: wholemeal pasta with courgettes and courgette flowers.

• 320 g of wholemeal pasta
• 2 zucchini
• 8 courgette flowers
• 200 ml of vegetable cream
• 2 tablespoons of EVO oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• sale q.b.
• pepe q.b.

While you are going to cook the pasta in boiling salted water, wash the courgettes and flowers well. Then cut the ends of the courgettes and cut into slices or wedges a few millimeters thick. Heat the pan in theoil with garlic and throw the courgettes to cook for about 5-10 minutes over high heat, making sure they don’t burn and season with salt and pepper. Once the pasta is cooked drain it al dente add the vegetable cream and a few tablespoons of the cooking water to the pan with the courgettes. Finally add the zucchini flowers cut into strips, stir everything over a low flame and serve.

If you want a light oriental-inspired version, prepare your wholemeal pasta by seasoning it with crispy zucchini sautéed in a pan and completed with a dressing based on soy sauce and fresh cherry tomatoes cut into slices and added raw. We advise you to don’t add too much salt for cooking pasta since the soy sauce makes the sauce with zucchini quite tasty.

Pasta with almond pesto and zucchini

Finally, for those with a sweet tooth for dried fruit, the dish we can only recommend is pasta with almond pesto and zucchini.

• 360 g of pasta
• 350 g of zucchini
• 80 g of Parmesan
• 40 g of peeled almonds
• 10 basil leaves
• ½ clove of garlic
• olive oil to taste
• sale q.b.
• pepe q.b.
• 150ml of olive oil

Cook the pasta and, in the meantime, toast the almonds in a pan, then wash the vegetables and cut them into 4, removing the seeds. Boil the vegetables in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes then drain them and leave them to cool. At this point, put the boiled zucchini cut into cubes, the almonds, the fresh basil, the garlic, the Parmesan, a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper in the blender and blend until you get a smooth cream. Once the pasta is ready, drain it al dente and dress it with your alternative cream made with almonds. Finish by decorating with chopped almonds to taste.

Still not enough? Here are all the best recipes with zucchini!

storage

The quick pasta with zucchini, seasoned with all our proposals, must be consumed at the moment in order to fully enjoy the tastes and aromas of these first courses. If, on the other hand, you want to keep the sauces separately, you can keep the sautéed zucchini for maximum 2-3 days in the refrigerator, same time also for the cream (both with pine nuts and the version with almonds). We advise against freezing in the freezer in any case.

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