My favorite raw dish by far is zucchini pasta. It’s just so damn fun to make. Very few people have tried zucchini in its raw state, and it’s actually quite soft and slightly sweet–not crunchy or uncomfortable to eat in the least!  Sure, it’s no white flour pasta, but it’s delicious in its own right and leaves you with a whole lot more energy than, say, macaroni and cheese.

The marinara sauce is raw in this recipe, but you could easily heat it up. The fun part about zucchini pasta is the variety of sauces you can come up with.  I’ve stuck to this marinara recipe, but will change it up slightly depending on what I have on hand. Sometimes I’ll add basil, sometimes I’ll omit the olives, etc.  Because the olives contribute saltiness to this dish, I did not add salt or pepper. You can adjust that to your liking. Have fun with it!

Raw Zucchini Pasta w/ Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

– 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for approx 30 minutes in water
– 1/4 cup assorted black olives, pitted
– 1 large tomato (or 2 medium sized)
– Small bunch of parsley
– 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
– 1/4 cup water
– 1-2 zucchinis, spiralized

Directions:

Soak 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes in water to soften them up.

Cut them into chunks so they will blend easily.

Assemble the olives.

Depending on how juicy your tomatoes are, you’ll need 1 or 2. My tomatoes aren’t very juicy, so I began with blending one, but later added about 1/2 of another.

Gather your chopped ingredients, including the parsley, and add them to the blender.

Pulse the mixture, adding 1/4 cup of olive oil slowly as it blends. You may need to add up to 1/4 cup of warm water to help get it going. You may also have to stop blending to toss it around so it mixes more effectively.

The sauce should be thick.

Set the sauce aside (or begin to warm it up in a saucepan if you want it hot). In the meantime, cut off the ends of the zucchini to begin spiralizing.

See how it fits?  You simply rotate the right-hand side of this gadget so that the left-hand side pops out pasta-shaped zucchini babies!!

All that’s left of the zucchini are these mushroom-like tops. Pop them in your mouth, or let them lounge on the edge of a glass of cold water with mint leaves for an aromatic and entertaining beverage.

The rest of the zucchini is now pasta!

So easy to make with a spiralizer (which runs for $25, but it comes in handy and worth the buck).  Pour on the marinara…

I only spiralized one of the zucchini for this dish, because I realized I wanted more sauce than pasta tonight.  You can shave some cheese on top (unfortunately, I didn’t have any on hand).

Such a feast for the eyes and absolutely delicious.  The sauce is creamy and dense by virtue of the sun-dried tomatoes and olives, but it is not overpowered by either.  The pasta itself is light, easy to chew, and complements the sauce perfectly.

xoxo