Rigatoni with Zucchini (Courgette) Pesto and Broccoli is a hearty pasta dish. Chewy fat tubes of pasta stirred through a rich creamy green pesto sauce and slices of broccoli for a hint of bite. And no actual cream in sight.
This recipe is jam-packed with green – zucchini, mint, basil and broccoli. The mere act of laying out everything for the ingredients shot made me feel happy 💚
This is perfect 'meatless Monday' fare. Without feeling hard done by and reaching for the biscuit tin after. It still feels like comfort food. I’m not into ‘hiding’ vegetables in kids’ food, but if you are, this works well. My youngest claims not to like zucchini but eats other greens. He can’t tell what’s what here and demolishes this 😈
The pesto sauce is silky and smooth. It tastes so creamy, even though the only fats come from small amounts of olive oil, parmesan and pine nuts. The creaminess comes from the blended veg itself.
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🕕 30-minute Meal
This is one of those wonderful pasta dishes that can come together in around half an hour. You can do most of the sauce prep while you're cooking the pasta. We start by getting the zucchini prepped. Once the zucchini starts cooking, you can get the water on for the pasta. As soon as the pasta’s cooked, we simply combine and dish up. This is best served as soon as you make it. The photos here don’t do the dish justice, by the time I’ve taken the shot (still learning!), it’s lost some of its unctuousness.
❓ Overview of recipe
1. Pasta - boiled in salted water
2. Pesto - saute slices of zucchini, then blend with pine nuts, fresh herbs, oil and parmesan
3. Broccoli - finely slice broccoli and briefly throw in with the pasta at the end of the cooking time. Drain together
Stir everything together with a little pasta water and serve!
Don't chuck out the pasta water!
We scoop off about a cup of the pasta water before we drain the pasta and broccoli. This will contain some starch from the pasta. It’s perfect for loosening and bulking out the pesto. It also helps the pesto stick to the pasta and bring everything together. There's aren't many pasta recipes that don't benefit from a little pasta water. Think twice before pouring it down the sink!
This recipe is a slightly adapted version from Justine Schofield .
🥘 Ingredients
Zucchini – provide the bulk of the pesto. Sweet, delicate flavour. Try and find smaller ones with unblemished skin.
Rigatoni - big ridged tubes of pasta which bulk out the dish. The tubes get filled and coated with the pesto. A more generous portion of pasta per person than usual because the sauce is quite light.
Broccoli – adds visual interest (the little tree shaped slices are so cute) and a little bite to the dish.
Pine nuts – traditional to pesto recipes. This oily seed (not actually a nut) adds a nutty creaminess to the sauce.
Mint & Basil – mint and zucchini are a well-known great flavour combo. Basil is traditionally used in pesto.
Parmesan – we blend a small amount into the pesto to add a touch of umami saltiness. This balances the other creamy sweet flavours. Of course, we can always garnish with more to finish off the dish too.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – used to loosen the pesto, coat the zucchini for sautéing and drizzling over the finished dish. It’s distinctive texture and flavour is perfect for Mediterranean recipes.
🔪 Instructions
Zucchini/Courgette prep
We cook, then blend the zucchini. The way you cut them and what they look like isn’t important. Slicing them evenly and thinly will speed up cooking time though. You could coarsely grate or use a knife to thinly slice the zucchini if you don’t have a mandoline.
I do recommend using a mandoline, which makes light work of slicing the 3-4 zucchini used in this recipe. Please don’t use one without using some finger protection though. Cut-resistant gloves are so good. They're made from a metallic thread to protect your hands. It doesn’t have to be this exact one. I’ve no affiliation with this brand. I’ve never got on with the finger guards that come with mandolines and didn’t bother with them. Big mistake. After slicing off the tips of my fingers several times I wondered if there was an alternative. There is! You only need one glove (some come in pairs). Using a glove means you can still use your hands in a more natural way. Also you don't end up squashing the thing you’re cutting like you do using a finger guard.
Saute Zucchini
Don’t be tempted to rush the process of browning the zucchini. Gently cook over quite a low heat at first, making sure the slices are well-coated in oil. The slices will tend to clump together. You can drag them apart for quicker cooking. Once they’ve given up a lot of their water content, they'll steam-cooked for a bit to soften. Then you can crank up the heat and work to get great colour on them. You’ll need to stir often to stop them sticking too much or burning. The colouring (caramelisation of natural sugars) gives the zucchini great flavour. Take it as far as you dare without burning them. We don’t waste the fond either (the stuff left behind in the pan). Use a touch of water to loosen this and add it to the pasta with everything else.
Blend Pesto
Finely grate the parmesan. Blend with the other pesto ingredients – sautéed zucchini, basil and mint, pine nuts and oil. Use a tablespoon or so of water to loosen the fond from the zucchini pan with a flat-ended spatula and add this too.
Prep Broccoli
Thinly sliced broccoli florets cook fast and don’t dominate the dish. Don’t throw away the stem – cut away or peel the tough outer layer, then thinly slice into rounds. You can cut the larger rounds in half. Break the head of the broccoli into florets and thinly slice these up into the stem to make thin tree-shapes. Don’t worry about the bits that break off, we can use it all. Add all the broccoli for the last minute of pasta cooking time.
Drain the pasta, reserving about a cup’s worth of the water. Return the pasta to the hot pan. Stir through the pesto. Add as much of the reserved pasta water as you want to bring the dish to the consistency you want. Serve with some grated parmesan and an extra drizzle of olive oil.
And Serve!
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- mandoline (recommended)
- Stick blender/small food processor
Ingredients
- 400 g dried rigatoni pasta
- small head broccoli (about 150g)
Zucchini Pesto
- 500 g zucchini/courgettes (3-4 medium-sized)
- olive oil
- 20 g parmesan
- small handful basil leaves (about 15g)
- Small handful mint leaves (about 15g)
- 25 g pine nuts (2 Tablespoons)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
To Garnish
- freshly grated parmesan
- drizzle olive oil
Instructions
- Prepare Zucchini/Courgette – coarsely grate or thinly slice using a mandoline or knife.500 g zucchini/courgettes
- Sauté Zucchini /Courgette- preheat the frying pan over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then the zucchini. Toss to coat, dragging apart slices that have clumped together. The slices will give up a bit of water and cook in the steam generated. You can crank up the heat to get some colour on the zucchini, stirring often to stop it sticking too much. The slices will start to mostly disintegrate and reduce in volume.olive oil
- Pasta Water - bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil.
- Make Pesto – finely grate the parmesan. Add to a tall container (if using a stick blender) or small food processor. Add the collapsed heap of zucchini. Add another 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the basil, mint, pine nuts and salt. Add a tablespoon or two of water into the still-hot pan and de-glaze. A flat-ended wooden spatula is handy for loosening the stuck-on bits. Add this to the other pesto ingredients and blend until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl for quicker use once the pasta is cooked.olive oil20 g parmesansmall handful basil leavesSmall handful mint leaves25 g pine nuts½ teaspoon salt
- Prepare Broccoli - cut off the broccoli stem. Peel or cut a thin layer from around the outside, trim the end and discard. Slice the rest of the stem into thin rounds. Separate the broccoli head into small florets and thinly slice to get little ‘tree’ slices.small head broccoli
- Cook Pasta - cook the pasta in plenty of salted water for the suggested cooking time on the packet MINUS a couple of minutes, before it's cooked all the way. In the last minute of this (reduced) cooking time, skim off about a cup of the frothy starchy pasta water and set aside. Tip the broccoli into the pasta to cook with it for the last couple of minutes. You want the broccoli to still have a touch of bite to it when you finish cooking the pasta.400 g dried rigatoni pasta
- Combine – once the pasta is cooked, strain it with the broccoli. Stir through the zucchini pesto. Add as much of the reserved pasta water as you want to loosen to the desired consistency. Use a flexible spatula to combine everything together gently but thoroughly. Serve with plenty of freshly ground black pepper.freshly ground black pepper
- Serve - with extra freshly grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.freshly grated parmesandrizzle olive oil
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