Recipe: Zucchini Pasta Puttanesca

Spiralized zucchini makes this traditional Italian pasta a little less carb-heavy, but maintains all the flavour. Using only a few simple ingredients, this vegetarian and gluten-free dish comes together in only a few minutes, making it the perfect weekday dinner. With tasty black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and bit of pancetta to give it that indulgent feel, you won’t even know the pasta is missing.

Ingredients

• 5 medium zucchini
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• ½ cup diced pancetta
• ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
• ½ cup Italian black olives, pitted
• ¼ cup capers
• ¼ tsp chili flakes
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup fresh Italian parsley
• Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
• Extra Parmesan cheese to finish

Preparation

Use a spiralizer to turn your zucchini into noodles, set aside. Next thinly slice your garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and black olives. Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a medium sauté pan along with pancetta and garlic and fry until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add remaining olive oil to pan along with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers and chili flakes. Let cook for 5 minutes on medium heat until oil turns an amber colour.

Add pancetta and garlic to amber oil. Then add zucchini noodles to pan and toss for about 1 minute. Noodles should be hot but not mushy. 

Remove noodles to a large serving bowl or platter and grate in ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, squeeze in lemon juice, sprinkle on parsley and season with pepper. Toss until noodles are fully coated. Top with shavings of Parmesan cheese if desired, enjoy!