The Underrated Italian Pasta Sauce that You Need to (and Can Easily) Make

My father always swore by tomato sauce as strictly the best (and often times only) sauce that he would eat his spaghetti with.

I don’t blame him. It’s a classic, and it’s easy. I was always an Alfredo type of girl, but it just doesn’t satisfy me (or my queasy stomach) as much as it used to.

It wasn’t until I was living in dismal quarantine in Florence, Italy, that I tried a pasta sauce made with any other fruit or vegetable besides tomato (I know it’s a fruit, hence the distinction), the first one being zucchini.

Now why would zucchini taste good as a pasta sauce? That’s beyond my belief.

I can’t stand the texture, I hate mushy vegetables, and I had just never seen such a thing in the states.

Well, it turned out that the mere handful of single-serving bags of pasta in a sweet and savory zucchini sauce with roasted tomatoes and garlic was gone in a day. ONE day.

Would I have ever known it contained ZUCCHINI if the bag wasn’t labelled? No.

(Granted, half of the bags actually were illegible due to the fact that they were scribbled in Italian. This vocab word, “zucchine,” we knew.)

Talk about the best way to get your veggies in… blend ’em up!

Fast forward about 2 years, and I recreated what is finally as close to this recipe as I can recreate. This time, it’s topped with a ball of fresh burrata cheese and an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

The flavor reminds me of a fresh pesto, but much creamier. And not the kind that makes your stomach ache, but instead satisfies every craving from sweet to savory.

The Recipe

This creation makes a decadent sauce with notes of Tuscan herbs and a light, cheesy finish.

The best part? It’s simple to make.

1. Roughly dice up 3 medium zucchinis, while the oven preheats to 400 degrees.
2. Drizzle the zucchinis with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper before placing them in the oven to cook for ~20-30 mins, or until golden brown.
3. Boil salted water, and cook a box of pasta of your choice.
4. In an immersion blender, add 2 cloves of garlic, half a cup of parmesan cheese, ~2 tablespoons of olive oil, ~8 basil leaves, fresh or dried oregano, salt and pepper.
5. Once the zucchini is cooked, add it to the blender to combine all ingredients. Grind until smooth or the desired consistency.
6. Add the zucchini blend to the cooked pasta. Top with 1/4 a ball of fresh burrata or mozzarella cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper.

Enjoy!

I’ve come a long way with my cooking since I first tried out this recipe back in June of 2021.

That go-around was more of a pesto, because I didn’t roast the zucchini before blending with the herbs, oil and parmesan. It made for a heartier, less creamy sauce, and honestly just tasted like regular pesto with an earthy taste. The sauce was still delicious, just not what I was aching to recreate.

This roasted zucchini pasta sauce makes for a great summer dinner, especially now that we have welcomed in the month of August (and it is no longer too hot outside to heat the oven!).

Cheers, and I hope you enjoy this simple yet unordinary pasta recipe, inspired by a few cooks in Florence.