Pasta with Goat Cheese and Zucchini
Pasta with goat cheese and zucchini. The perfect weekend night dish – easy and flavorful – and ready in under 30 minutes.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 to 4 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups penne pasta
- 3 small/medium sized zucchini (about 1 pound) – quartered vertically then sliced into 1/4″ slices.
- 1 veggie bouillon cube
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 3 large cloves of garlic – minced
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2.5 oz of goat cheese – half a 5 oz package – crumbled
- 1/2 large lemon – about 3 tbs
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds – toasted
- 2 tbs minced parsley – I used flat leaf parsley
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add bouillon cube and pasta and cook according to package instructions. Before draining pasta, set aside a little pasta water to add to the sauce if the pasta seems too dry.
- In a large sauté pan, toast almonds over high heat for 1 minute until slightly browned. Shake the pan continuously so they don’t burn. Set aside.
- Using the same large sauté pan, heat 1 tbs of olive oil over medium heat and add the zucchini, one clove of minced garlic and 8 twists of black pepper from a pepper mill. Stir occasionally until zucchini is nicely brown and cooked through – about 8 minutes.
- When pasta is done, drain and set aside in the colander. In the same pan that you cooked the pasta, add 2 tbs olive oil, 2 minced cloves of garlic, lemon juice and red pepper flakes. The pan will be hot so swirl the ingredients around for 30 seconds then add in the drained pasta and most of the crumbled goat cheese. Stir to combine. Add in the cooked zucchini, toasted almonds and minced parsley. Toss gently to combine. If pasta and goat cheese sauce seem dry then add a few tablespoons of reserved pasta water to loosen up the sauce. Sprinkle a little crumbled goat cheese on the top of the dish before serving. Serve immediately.
Notes
I used penne but fusilli or ziti would work well also.