Fried Zucchini & Pesto Penne

I was so excited when I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. Deb always features great recipes and this one was no exception. When we were in Sorrento we had a terrific pasta with zucchini. It is a dish I have never really been able to figure out. There was pasta and there were matchstick zucchini pieces but I don’t know what kind of sauce was bringing everything together. I have never seen another pasta dish like it. Although this recipe has both pasta and zucchini it is still not the same as the one we had in Sorrento. But still, pasta, zucchini–close enough. It went straight to the top of my to try list.

When I first read through the recipe, I thought this was going to be a time consuming dish. In reality though it took about 20 minutes from start to finish. This is definitely a weeknight meal.  I made a few changes to the recipe Deb posted. I used all basil and parsley in my pesto. I added garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese along with my basil. You can use any kind of pesto you want. Store bought, homemade; it doesn’t matter. Fry the zucchini while the pasta is cooking and then combine everything at the end. It is much easier than you would think. This is a great recipe that will definitely be added to my weeknight rotation.

Here is what you’ll need

Fry the zucchini until golden

Combine the pasta, cheese, zucchini, peas, lemon juice and capers

Mix with sauce

Almost brings me back to Sorrento. Almost.