Content

• Ingredients
• To step
• Part 1 of 5: Cutting the zucchini into your favorite pasta shape
• Part 2 of 5: Making the zucchini pasta “sweat”
• Part 3 of 5: Cooked zucchini pasta
• Part 4 of 5: Stir-fried zucchini pasta
• Part 5 of 5: Microwave zucchini spaghetti
• Necessities

If you can't or don't want to eat regular pasta and are looking for a healthier alternative, without grains, try making zucchini pasta. It is not difficult at all and the result is surprisingly delicious. With the ingredients below you can turn a simple zucchini into macaroni, spaghetti or even lasagna!

Ingredients

For 4 persons

• 4 large zucchini
• (optional) salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) canola or sunflower oil
• (optional) water

To step

Part 1 of 5: Cutting the zucchini into your favorite pasta shape

1. First, decide whether or not you want to peel the zucchini. If you peel the zucchini before cutting it into strings or any other shape, the result will be more like regular pasta. If you leave the peel on, the result will look less like real pasta, but it will look more colorful.
   • It is healthy to leave the skin on. Most of the zucchini fiber is in the skin, and that dietary fiber makes your digestive system work better.
   • Cut the zucchini flat on one side and place the zucchini with the flat part on the counter or on the cutting board. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the dark green skin of the zucchini to reveal the light green flesh.
2. Make ribbon macaroni. With a vegetable peeler or mandolin (a rectangular vegetable grater with interchangeable blade parts) you can cut the zucchini into long, thin strings so that you get a kind of ribbon macaroni.
   • Move the slicer or vegetable peeler lengthwise along the entire side of the zucchini and cut long, flat pasta strands that way. When you get to the seeds, turn the zucchini one turn and start slicing strings from the other side. If there are seeds in the pasta, the strings will disintegrate during cooking, so it is better not to use the part with the seeds.
   • If you use a mandolin (vegetable grater), use one of the smallest blade parts so that you get nice thin pasta strands.
3. Cut the zucchini into slices. If you would like thicker but still flexible slices, for example to make lasagna, use a vegetable grater or a sharp kitchen knife.
   • Cut elongated slices of the zucchini with a knife. The slices should be on the thin side but not fall apart.
   • As soon as you get close to the seeds, turn the zucchini one turn and start cutting on the other side. If there are seeds in the pasta, the slices will disintegrate during cooking, so it is better not to use the part with the seeds.
   • If you are using a mandolin (vegetable grater), use the thickest blade part. Run the zucchini lengthwise over the knife so that you get long slices.
4. Make zucchini spaghetti. To make zucchini pasta in the form of spaghetti strands, use a vegetable peeler, a julienne peeler, or a vegetable grater.
   • Run the vegetable peeler or julienne peeler lengthwise from top to bottom along the side of the zucchini. Peel off only a thin part of the zucchini (no thicker than 1/2 inch) at a time, so that you get thin, spaghetti-like strands. If you're using a julienne peeler, that thickness should already be set, so in that case you don't have to worry about that while cutting.
   • If you're using a mandolin, use the blade part for julienne strands. By sliding the zucchini lengthwise over the leaf you get thin pasta strings.
   • As soon as you get close to the seeds, turn the zucchini one turn and start cutting on the other side. If there are seeds in the pasta, the strings will disintegrate during cooking, so it is better not to use the part with the seeds.
5. Pasta shreds of zucchini. You can make zucchini pasta chips with a cheese or vegetable grater.
   • Move the grater back and forth over the zucchini. While doing this, press firmly on the zucchini and you will get small, rice-like vegetable chips. For chips too, it is better to grate lengthwise than widthwise, because it will then be easier to grate around the seeds.
   • As soon as you get close to the seeds, turn the zucchini one turn and start grating on the other side. If there are seeds in the pasta, it will disintegrate during cooking, so don't use the seed part.
6. Make spirals. With the help of a special spiral vegetable cutter you can cut spiral pasta from the zucchini.
   • Press the zucchini against the blade of the spiralizer and turn the handle of the appliance. As you turn the handle and push the zucchini at the same time, spirals should come out on the other side.
7. Zucchini pasta can be eaten raw or cooked. You can eat raw zucchini pasta as it is or in a salad, but you can also boil the pasta, stir-fry it or cook it in the microwave. In this way, the paste becomes softer and the result is more like regular pasta.
   • Zucchini itself contains quite a lot of water, so you should always drain the zucchini paste, even if you want to eat it raw. You can let the paste “sweat,” as we describe later in this article, but you may find it easy to just let it drain in a colander for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you can still roll the pasta in kitchen paper and carefully squeeze out more liquid.

Part 2 of 5: Making the zucchini pasta “sweat”

1. Preheat the oven to 95ºC. Line a baking tin or roasting tin with kitchen paper.
   • Normally you should never put kitchen paper in the oven. An oven produces dry heat, which can cause the paper towels to catch fire. But because zucchini contains so much water, the kitchen paper quickly becomes moist so that it does not dry out and does not catch fire in the oven.
2. Place the zucchini pasta in the baking tin or roasting pan. Spread the pasta strands out as flat as possible.
   • If you can't put the zucchini pasta in one layer, use multiple baking tins. In order to dry out properly, all pasta strands must touch the kitchen paper in the mold. If the pasta strings are superimposed, the top layer will dry faster while the lower strands remain moist.
   • Before putting the tin in the oven, sprinkle a little salt over the zucchini pasta. Due to the salt, the moisture dries up faster.
3. In the oven, let the zucchini pasta "sweat."Put the zucchini pasta in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until most of the liquid has dripped from the pasta, ie “sweat”.
   • This sweating is an important part of making a dish with zucchini pasta. It's the most effective way to get the moisture out of the pasta, and if you don't get as much moisture out of the pasta as possible before further processing, you will likely end up with a rather watery pasta dish.
4. Therefore, squeeze out all the excess moisture. Roll the zucchini pasta in kitchen paper and carefully squeeze as much of the remaining liquid from the pasta as possible.
   • The paste should now be dry and no longer soft. That is why you also have to cook the zucchini pasta, just like regular macaroni or spaghetti.

Part 3 of 5: Cooked zucchini pasta

1. Bring a pan of water to a boil. Fill a pan half or two thirds with water. Place the pan on medium heat until the water has come to a good boil.
   • Add salt. As soon as the water boils, add a lot of salt. The zucchini absorbs the salt during cooking, which gives it more flavor on the inside and outside. You can also add the salt before the water boils, but it will take longer for the water to boil evenly.
2. Briefly cook the zucchini pasta in the boiling water. Add the zucchini pasta to the boiling water and cook the pasta until al dente without disintegrating.
   • The exact cooking time depends on how soft you want the zucchini pasta to be and how dry the pasta is at the beginning of the cooking time. If the paste is still quite moist, 2 minutes is usually enough. If, on the other hand, the pasta is very dry, you have to cook it for 10 minutes for “al dente” pasta and 15 minutes for smooth, soft pasta.
   • The most important thing is to stick with it and pay close attention. If the pasta strands start to fall apart, remove the pan from the heat immediately and drain the pasta.
3. Serve the pasta. Drain the water and spoon the pasta onto plates.
   • Drain the water by transferring the pasta to a colander. Leave it on for about 5 minutes. In this way, all the excess moisture can drip from every pasta string.

Part 4 of 5: Stir-fried zucchini pasta

1. Heat some oil in a wok or large frying pan. Put about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of canola oil or another type of oil in a wok or large skillet and heat the oil over medium heat until it is more fluid and shiny.
   • Carefully turn the pan around until the entire bottom is covered with hot oil. When the oil is hot enough, you should be able to spread it easily over the bottom of the pan this way.
2. Stir fry the zucchini pasta briefly. Add the zucchini pasta to the hot oil and stir-fry the pasta for 6 to 7 minutes. Turn the pasta regularly while stir-frying.
   • Stand by it and keep a close eye on the zucchini pasta as it stir-fries. If you let the pasta sit in one place for too long, chances are that the strands will burn, stick to the pan or disintegrate.
   • This way the pasta will be cooked, but it will remain slightly crisper than if you boiled the pasta in water.
3. Serve the pasta. The pasta is now ready to serve. You can serve the zucchini pasta with a sauce or other side dishes of your choice.
   • You can store leftover zucchini pasta perfectly. Cooked zucchini pasta will keep in the refrigerator for about a day.A leftover zucchini pasta is delicious both cold and heated as a main or side dish for a subsequent meal.

Part 5 of 5: Microwave zucchini spaghetti

1. To do this, take zucchini strips that are still slightly moist. With this method it is important that the zucchini pasta is still quite moist, otherwise the pasta will dry out in the microwave.
   • Therefore, you can skip the “sweating” part in the instructions above altogether, or you can just skip the part where you squeeze the excess moisture out of the zucchini with kitchen paper. It is usually better to let the zucchini pasta drain in a colander for 10 minutes before putting it in the magenotron.
   • Even if you let the zucchini pasta dry beforehand, you can prepare it this way. Simply add 2 or 3 tablespoons (30 - 45 ml) of water to the zucchini pasta in the bowl to keep the pasta moist enough and prevent it from drying out.
2. Place the zucchini pasta in a microwave safe dish. Make sure that the pasta strands are in an even layer and cover the dish loosely with a microwave-safe lid or with microwave foil.
   • Do not cover the bowl completely airtight. If using a lid, leave all holes in the lid open or on purpose leave the lid slightly open while cooking. If you are using plastic wrap, don't seal the top tightly, but drape the plastic loosely over the bowl.
3. Place the bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes on the highest setting. Cook the zucchini pasta al dente, but not so cooked that it falls apart.
   • Pay close attention while the zucchini pasta is in the microwave. If you leave it in for too long, the paste can become mushy, too hard, or fail in some other way.
4. Serve the pasta. Drain the excess liquid and spoon the pasta onto plates.
   • When cooking zucchini pasta in the microwave, some water will almost always remain at the bottom of the bowl. In that case, you can drain the zucchini pasta using a colander.

Necessities

• Vegetable peeler
• Vegetable grater with interchangeable blade parts (mandolin)
• Cheese grater
• Spiral cutter
• Sharp knife with smooth blade
• Colander
• Baking tin or roasting pan
• Paper towel
• Pan
• Wok or large skillet
• Dish that can be put in the microwave
• Microwave foil