Quick Zucchini Butter Pasta
A quick zucchini butter pasta that will become a summer week night staple. Flavoured with lemon, garlic, chilli flakes and fresh basil.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
- Pasta of your choice 200g dried or 300g fresh
- 75 g butter
- 3 - 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- ΒΌ tsp chilli flakes optional
- 2 tbsp lemon juice plus the zest
- 2 courgettes chopped into cubes, slices or both
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves torn
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Parmesan to serve
Instructions
- Get your pasta cooking in a pot of well salted water. This sauce doesn't take long so figure out how long your pasta takes to cook then start the sauce when it has 5 or so minutes left.
- Melt the butter in a frying pan and when almost melted add the garlic and let it gently sizzle for 30 seconds.
- Add the chilli flakes and again, let them gently sizzle for 30 seconds. The butter should just be gently bubbling so turn your heat down if you need.
- Add the lemon juice and whisk really quickly, I love to use a flat whisk when making butter sauces.
- Add the zucchini pieces and let them cook in the butter for 1 - 2 minutes. I like them to be quite crunchy, just warmed through.
- Add the cooked pasta straight into the sauce with a little splash of pasta water and let it gently bubble away for a minute or two.
- Take it off the heat and toss half the torn bail through, reserving the other half for the top.
- Top with grated parmesan, lemon zest and a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Notes
- The finished weight of the chopped zucchini was 270g. I didn't quite use the whole two.
- If you drain your pasta make sure you reserve some pasta water beforehand! I like to time the sauce so I can transfer the pasta straight into it.
- If you use salted butter you probably won't need to season. Just taste and season to your liking.
- If you don't like spice, leave the chilli flakes out