Zucchini Pasta and Meatballs

In October of last year I did a whole foods cleanse offered up by the babes at Simple Green Smoothies. One of the recipes included in the cleanse was a zucchini pasta. At the time, I passed. It was winter and the idea of veggie pasta when I was craving hearty warm fare just didn’t fly.

However, early this year I decided to give the zucchini pasta thing a go and I was super pleasantly surprised! I love this stuff!

The first problem I had to overcome in making this dish was how to julienne the zucchini. I have a basic fear of useless kitchen gadgets. Though lots of people use a ‘spiralizer’ to make veggie pastas the idea of having a large-ish gadget that I may seldom use hangin around in my kitchen is less than appealing. After all, I only recently got rid of the rotating cheese grater thingy from some long ago home party.

I went searching for the most simple, and space saving, solution and came up with a julienne grater from Kuhn Rikon that for $22 works perfectly. My sister in law bought me another one from Zyliss at the same time so I ended up with two, but the Kuhn one works best.

When using a peeler you have the advantage of only using the firm textured outer layer of the zucchini, the part without the seeds. The inner core can be saved to make zucchini soup. You’ll need about 4 decent sized squashes to make enough spaghetti for 4.

The trick to making great zucchini pasta is to sweat the squash in salt, allowing excess moisture to be drained out and keeping your pasta from becoming mushy when you cook it. Don’t miss this step, it makes a big difference.

While your pasta is sweating away you can put together your meatballs. They could also be made ahead of time. I’ve cooked batches of meatballs and then frozen them with really great success. Because they are so small they defrost really quickly and can even be defrosted by simmering them in your pasta sauce.

How many to make really depends on what you like. Some people like just a few meatballs, some, like my men, prefer more. I used 2 lbs of organic ground beef for 4 servings.

This meatball recipe, adapted only slightly from Melissa Joulwan, called for Italian seasoning and fresh parsley, which I didn’t have. I substituted dried parsley and a favourite herb blend by The Silk Road Spice Merchant, their Winter Stewing Blend. I also don’t use the cream of tartar that she suggests as I can’t find any information that explains why it would help to tenderize the meat beyond what the baking soda is already doing.

In this case I was making the whole dish all at one time so while my meatballs were baking in the oven I put together my simple marinara sauce. I use this sauce for all kinds of dishes as it is really easy to put together and I always have the ingredients on hand. It is one of those recipes that I never measure ingredients for. I just throw a bunch of herbs into the palm of my hand and dump ’em in. You can’t really screw it up unless you get too much anchovy paste which can make it too fishy, unless you like fishy…

Then I just stirred the meatballs into the sauce to simmer for a few minutes before serving over the ‘pasta’.

Last year I had a ton of zucchini in my garden. I know what I’ll be doing with it this summer!

Zucchini Pasta and Meatballs

Servings: 4

Author: Mia Staysko

A delicious way to enjoy the spaghetti and meatballs experience without the carby pasta

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Ingredients

For the Pasta

• 4 large zucchini
• Salt

For the Meatballs

• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp warm water
• 2 lb best quality lean ground beef
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 4 large cloves garlic minced
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tps red pepper flakes or more to taste
• 2 tsp italian herb blend or Winter Stewing Blend

For the Marinara Sauce

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 large can organic diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley
• 1 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp anchovy paste or to taste

Instructions

For the Pasta

1. Using a julienne peeler, peel strips of zucchini into a colander. Start on one side and when you hit the core (the part where you start to see the seeds) move 1/4 turn and begin again, making your way around the zucchini. Save the cores for another use.
2. Between each zucchini sprinkle salt onto the zucchini and gently distribute so it is fairly evenly covered.
3. Place your colander over a small bowl to catch the water that will sweat out of the squash and leave on counter for at least 30 minutes. Rinse.
4. If you are in a hurry dump zucchini onto paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and pat dry. If you've got the time, you can also just leave the squash in the colander on the counter or in the fridge to further dry. I usually lift and redistribute the squash a bit so that the inner parts get a chance to dry as much as possible before cooking.
5. When you are ready to cook the pasta, place all of the squash into a large non-stick frying pan over med-high heat and dry sauté for about 3 minutes, until hot and al dente but not mushy and overcooked.

For the Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Dissolve baking soda in warm water.
3. Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix gently to distribute. Using your hands is easiest.
4. Form into whatever size meatballs you like best (I like them to be hearty so about 1 1/4" round works for me). Work gently so as not to compact the meat too much.
5. Place meatballs onto a baking rack over a baking sheet, spacing evenly. Do not crowd them or they won't brown on all sides.
6. Place into oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes (depending on meatball size) until thoroughly cooked. Do not overcook or your meatballs will be dry, especially if you've used lean beef.
7. Add meatballs to marinara sauce for a few minutes to reheat just before serving

For the Marinara

1. Heat a large frying pan over med heat
2. Add olive oil
3. Add garlic and sauté briefly, do not allow garlic to burn
4. Add diced tomatoes and stir, bring to a boil
5. Add all dried herbs and anchovy paste. Stir to combine then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
6. For this recipe you may decide to add your cooked meatballs to the sauce to heat them and distribute the flavours. Do so for the last 5 minutes or so.

Recipe Notes

This recipe can be completely deconstructed. You can use all components together, or you can use each yummy part for other recipes. For example, the marinara could be used over shrimp, the pasta with a different sauce and the meatballs as an appetizer with a sauce or glaze. Get creative!