(Pine nut free!) pesto Fettuccine with brown buttered zucchini.
Rustic pasta dish featuring pistachio pesto, burst cherry tomatoes, butter browned zucchini all over lemon pepper Fettuccini. This is the kind of meal to slow down for. Savor each bite, appreciate each ingredient. When zucchini is cooked down in butter, it transforms into a rich, luxurious sauce, the perfect companion to bright and zesty pistachio pesto.
The Deets on Pesto.
Pesto is a magical marriage of basil, cheese, nuts and garlic. The variations are endless. You may get a slap on the wrist from an Italian, but the classic pine nut can be subbed for walnuts, sunflower seeds or pistachios, as I did for this dish.
Make the pesto ahead of time to speed up cook time. Pesto freezes beautifully. I highly reccomend to make a big batch of pesto and enjoy throughout the cold, basil-less months.
What type of basil for pesto?
A mix of sweet and Genovese basil is used for the pistachio pesto. Sweet basil has a slightly milder taste with hints of warm spice. Genovese basil is the classic basil of choice for pesto. Some of my Italian ancestors came from Genoa (pronounced Genova), the birthplace of pesto. I think of them whenever I pick Genoevese basil from my garden. I love how a simple ingredient can make one feel connected to a group of people, a relative or an entire culture.
Make life easier.
Besides making the pesto beforehand, here are a few more tips to ensure this dish goes off without a hitch.
- For the sauce, use a pan or braiser with a wide surface area, around 15 inches. This will deter the zucchini from overlapping excessivly and encourage browning.
- Smashing garlic before cooking isn’t to be cool (although, I’m sure you’re the coolest). Smashing garlic makes the flavor stronger. How you chop garlic does effect the intensity. Finer=milder.
- Use a mandoline to slice the zucchini for uniform slices. Thin is best to create the sauce.
- Preheat the oven with the oiled pan inside it. This will ensure the tomatoes will immediately begin to brown and carmalize.
- Use olive oil rather than Extra Virgin for the pan with the tomatoes to avoid the oil from smoking. When oil smokes it can impart a dirty, bitter taste. Yuck!
Cooking tips.
In the heavy bottom pot or braiser used for the sauce, set the heat to medium or a med/low depending on your stove top. The butter should not smoke.
This dish comes together quick, around 30 minutes. It doesn’t have to be constantly stirred. The idea is to evenly incorporate the ingredients and let it all mingle long enough for the zucchini to release it’s juices to contribute to the sauce.
EVERYTHING from the pan of tomatoes joins the pasta party. The oil becomes infused with garlic and will further flavor the pasta and help create a rich sauce.
Once added to the sauce, the garlic needs to be smashed and evenly incorporated. No one wants to eat an entire garlic clove by suprise.
When adding the noodles, rather than draining them with a colander, use tongs and just plop them from one pot to the other. The residual pasta water- full of starch and salt- will thicken the sauce and help it cling to the noodles.
Turn the heat off when adding the pesto. We are not looking to cook it, just add the lovely flavor as it is. In fact, many traditional Italians refuse to use a food processor for pesto because the heat of the blades moving so fast heats the pesto slightly. I’m not a purist in that way but a mortar and pestle is always an option!
Let’s talk Fettuccine.
Another layer of flavor comes from Lemon Pepper Fettuccine by Pasta Pappone. The ingredients are simple; semolina flour, lemon juice, lemon peel, black pepper and natural spring water. The noodles are aged slowly, as they would be in Italy. I love the extra burst of citrus flavor the fettuccine gives the dish while highlighting the other ingredients in the sauce perfectly. Being a midwest girl and a local-food advocate, being a Chicagoland based company with humble roots selling at farmers markets makes me super happy. They have grown and are now selling at many grocery stores, Marianos and Whole Foods to name a few.
Description
Rustic pasta dish featuring pistachio pesto, burst cherry tomatoes, butter browned zucchini all over lemon pepper fettuccini. This is the kind of meal to slow down for. Savor each bite, appreciate each ingredient. When zucchini is cooked down in butter it transforms into a rich, luxurious sauce, the perfect companion to bright and zesty pistachio pesto.
Ingredients
Pistachio Pesto Ingredients
Instructions
- Begin by combining all of the pesto ingredients into a food processor. Add more oil if needed.
- Pour olive oil into a sheet pan. Place in oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Bring pot of water to a boil for the Fettuccini.
- In the meantime, heat a heavy bottom pan, such as a braiser, on medium heat. Add butter, zucchini, capers and 1 garlic clove. Careful not to burn. Set to med/low if stovetop runs hotter than most.
- Stir so butter coats all. Add oregano, salt, nutmeg, pepper and lemon zest.
- Leave untouched a few minutes. Liberally salt cooking water (not listed in ingredients list) Cook noodles per package instructions.
- To pan in oven, throw tomatoes in the oil along with remaining garlic clove. Roast around 15 minutes, careful to not burn garlic.
- Stir pot with zucchini periodically while tomatoes roast.
- Add everything (oil & all) from the pan with the tomatoes to the pot with zucchini. Zucchini should be forming its own sauce at this point.
- Smash garlic cloves and mix well into sauce.
- With tongs, transfer noodles to sauce, allowing the residual water that naturally comes along with the noodles to add to the sauce.
- Turn heat off. Add 3/4 cup pesto, lemon juice, cheese, parsley and basil. Stir so cheese melts and basil wilts.
- Serve with more cheese and remaining pistachio pesto.
