Lemony zucchini pasta sauce with basil and Parmesan
Fresh flavor and a lovely, thick texture make this zucchini pasta sauce a winner. Plus, it’s really simple to make: just roast the vegetables, then blend everything together. Add a few toppings like cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, and some sausage, and you have a complete meal.
Best reasons to make zucchini pasta sauce
- Healthy: This pasta sauce is mainly vegetables and uses broth, not cream, so overall healthy in my book.
- Zucchini glut: If you’re lucky enough to have seemingly endless zucchini in your garden, this sauce is a great way to use up a couple!
- Kid-friendly: If you have little picky eaters, you can sneak in some vegetables with this sauce. At least it worked with my two little pasta lovers.
- Easy: Chopping and waiting for the veggies to roast is the hardest part. Nothing difficult here.
Zucchini pasta sauce ingredients
Along with the zucchini, the other vegetable in this zucchini pasta sauce is onion. Roasting brings out a grilled and slightly sweeter flavor in these two.
The lemon and Parmesan cheese are very important in this recipe to balance the flavor of the zucchini. Lemon juice brings acidity, and the zest brightens the flavor. Parmesan brings the savory flavor that can otherwise be lacking. Basil, like the lemon zest, also adds a nice fresh flavor. There’s enough basil in this sauce to make you think of pesto. 😊
The two unexpected ingredients that complete my version of zucchini pasta sauce are fennel seeds and capers. Fennel, for its distinctive anise flavor that complements the zucchini well, and capers for a little added tang.
Finally, vegetable broth thins out the zucchini purée into a sauce.
What to serve with zucchini pasta sauce
I like to make this an all-in-one meal. So, the recipe includes directions for some recommended, but optional, mix-ins:
- Fresh cherry tomatoes
- Bulk sausage
- Toasted pine nuts
These particular mix-ins won’t take you any extra time in the oven, and you won’t have to use the stove.
First, the sausage (which goes great with the fennel seeds 😉) can cook in the oven for the same amount of time as the zucchini. If you get Italian sausage that already contains fennel seeds, reduce the amount accordingly in the recipe.
Then, you can also toast the pine nuts for a few minutes in the oven at the same temperature. A slightly lower temperature is usually better for nuts and seeds, but here we make do in the interest of efficiency. Just keep an eye on the nuts so they don’t burn.
Other mix-in ideas
Of course, you can let your imagination run wild with the mix-ins: pick another vegetable, your protein of choice, toasted nuts, etc. These could include sautéed mushrooms, roasted eggplant, broiled asparagus, shredded chicken, hot halloumi, toasted walnuts, etc, etc.
What type of pasta goes with zucchini pasta sauce?
A pasta shape with twists or an indentation for the thick sauce to cling to is ideal. For the photos, I used casarecce, which is shaped like it’s extruded through a little S shape to about 4 cm long. Other more common pasta shapes like rotini or shells will do just fine here, too.
More pasta
If you’re on a pasta kick, try out my other pasta sauce recipe, the ultimate umami tomato sauce.
Zucchini pasta sauce
Ingredients
For the roasting pan
- 800 g (28 oz) zucchini
- 150 g onion about 1 medium
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp fennel seed
- 1 tsp capers drained
To add after roasting
- 120 ml (½ cup) vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 30 g (6 tbsp) Parmesan cheese
- 15 g (½ oz) basil
Mix-ins & pasta
- 350 g (12.3 oz) bulk sausage
- 5 tbsp pine nuts
- Handful cherry tomatoes
- 320 g (11.3 oz) dry pasta cooked, such as rotini, shells, or casarecce
Instructions
- Roast the vegetables: Preheat the oven to 210 °C, convection mode. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, then cut each half widthwise into four pieces. Slice the onion about 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick. Mix all of the ingredients "for the roasting pan" together in a bowl. Transfer to a large baking dish, and roast in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Make the mix-ins: Place the bulk sausage on a small baking sheet or in small baking dish. Shape into a mound about 3 cm (1 inch) high. Bake the sausage on a rack below the vegetables for 20-25 minutes, or until no longer pink. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the pine nuts in a small baking dish. Toast in the oven for 3-4 minutes, until golden.
- Slice the cherry tomatoes.
- Finish making the sauce: Once the vegetables have finished roasting, let cool slightly, then transfer to a food processor. Add the ingredients “to add after roasting,” except for the basil. Blend until mostly smooth. Add the basil, and blend for another few seconds until blended in.
- To serve, mix the zucchini sauce with the pasta, chopped sausage, and tomatoes. Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.