Italian Summer Pasta with Zucchini - always from scratch (2024)

This Italian Summer Pasta with Freshly Grated Zucchini is so flavorful and creamy. You would have no idea there isn't any cheese or cream in it! The broken-down cherry tomatoes and zucchini make for an easy AND flavorful pasta dish.

If you love vegetable-based pasta like this one, you may love our simple pasta with eggplant or lemon pasta with spinach.

This is our first recipe ever on our page! We developed this summer zucchini pasta in 2022 specifically for our first post on Always From Scratch. This recipe has been republished and changed to make it even more delicious and user-friendly!

Ingredients Notes and Substitutions

The key to this dish is SIMPLE ingredients.

Bucatini. I didn't mean to make this a dish for bucatini but during a recipe test, I used some bucatini just to clean out my cupboard and it was perfect. The sauce is so thin and it goes right through the whole of the pasta. I absolutely recommend bucatini but if not, spaghetti works well, and for shorter pasta, I would use rigatoni or penne.

Zucchini. Grated zucchini works the best. When we originally created this dish, we would slice the zucchini and fry it. Grating allows the water to release and helps develop the sauce

Cherry tomatoes. People often substitute grape tomatoes for cherry tomatoes because they're cheaper...DON'T do that, please. The grape tomatoes won't break down as well and the sauce will not taste the same.

Step-by-Step Instructions

This pasta comes together so easily. It is extremely forgiving. You can have this on the table in under 45 minutes.

Start by grating the zucchini with a cheese grater. The smaller the better for this recipe. It'll make it easier to break it down in the sauce. See the picture below for reference.

Step 1: Add olive oil to a pan and bring to medium heat. Add in the minced garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute.

Step 2: Then add in the zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and lemon juice. Stir occasionally until the cherry tomatoes begin to break down and the zucchini softens. Add the salt.

Step 3: The skin of the tomatoes will begin to soften as they break down. Don't smash the tomatoes, just gently stir until they break down on their own. If you smash them up, you won't know when they are actually cooked through.

The zucchini will eventually begin to break down and become part of the sauce after 10-15 minutes of simmering. Be patient.

Step 4: In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt to the water. Add bucatini and boil until al dente. Make sure to save 1 cup of pasta water.

Step 5: Add the capers and basil and stir. You can see in the image that the tomato skins have started separating and the zucchini is almost unrecognizable.

Step 6: Add ½ cup of pasta water to the sauce. Allow it to continue simmering for another 5 minutes or until the sauce begins to redden.

Once the bucatini is al dente, drain it and add it to the sauce. Add another ½ cup of pasta water right before you add the pasta back to the sauce.

Stir the pasta well with the sauce and let the sauce cook for another minute while you stir vigorously and the pasta absorbs some of the sauce. Take the pasta off the heat.

Serve with parmesan cheese and fresh pepper if you like! This pasta is so flavorful on its own, that you may not even want cheese. Summer zucchini pasta is the perfect light summer meal or side dish.

FAQs

Our Favorite Summer Pasta!

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