Zucchini Part Two

Supper in Under Twenty Minutes for This Easy, Tasty Spaghetti

Jul 30, 2026

Hello lovely people, I’m Sally — a former restaurant chef turned home cook and cookbook author. With this weekly newsletter I hope to make your life a little easier and a little (mostly) healthier, one recipe at a time. You can find out more about this newsletter and me here. If you liked this post, please click the little heart above and share it! ❤️ It helps spread the word so more people can share in the deliciousness.

Have you been discovering well-meaning donations of zucchini on your doorstep a few too many times lately? Or are you the guilty party spreading the wealth from your overzealous garden plans, which have once again yielded more squash than you could possibly eat? If so, you have a zucchini problem. Don’t worry, I’m here to help.

I confess, I’m either too hot or too tired to spend an hour hovering over the stove to get dinner on the table. Thirty minutes is my breaking point. By mid-summer, I could eat a tomato sandwich for supper every night and be happy. Sadly, not everyone is all in for the same menu night after night. So, we’re eating lots of salads over here, with peaches or watermelons or tomatoes, greens, herbs and some feta or cheddar thrown in. If I have room in my brain to think ahead, I might have cleverly roasted a few plain old chicken breasts in the oven early in the day, smearing them with something from the condiment selection in the fridge: Japanese BBQ sauce, chili crisp, Thai chili sauce, or a simple sprinkling of herbes de Provence and a squeeze of lemon.

Lemon Spaghetti with Zucchini and Mint
Back to the zucchini. This pasta dish is surprisingly tasty, considering its few but significant ingredients and the ease of pulling it off in 20 minutes or less.

First of all, the zucchini here is never cooked. It doesn’t go into a steamer, or a skillet, or a hot oven, so the slices don’t turn watery. Slice the zucchini into thin rounds with a mandoline, if you have one, or a good chef’s knife. Coat them with a little olive oil so they retain some of their crispness when tossed with spaghetti right out of the pot. Mint, lemon and butter are the workhorses in the flavor department. Plus, freshly ground black pepper. Who knew?

To keep things super-fresh, add half the zucchini and mint to the spaghetti at first and then top each bowl of pasta with the rest of the rounds. Toasted pine nuts add just enough richness to this summer pasta, which you can serve hot or at room temperature.

Lemon Spaghetti with Zucchini and Mint Recipe
Serves 4 | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes

1/4 cup pine nuts
2 small zucchini (about 12 ounces total)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pinches salt
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into slices
12 ounces (3/4 pound) spaghetti
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup packed mint leaves, torn into pieces
1 lemon, quartered (for garnish)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 lemon, quartered (for serving)

1. In a small, dry skillet over medium-low heat, toast the pine nuts, stirring often, for 3 minutes, or until they are lightly browned; set aside.

2. With a mandoline or a sharp thin knife, slice the zucchini into thin rounds. In a bowl, toss them with the olive oil, using your hands to coat the slices. Sprinkle with salt and toss again.

3. In a bowl large enough to hold the pasta, combine the lemon rind, lemon juice and butter.

4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for 10 minutes or according to the package directions, until it is tender but still has some bite. With a heatproof measuring cup, scoop out 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water; drain the spaghetti into a colander but do not rinse it.

5. Add the reserved 1/4 cup pasta water to the bowl of butter and lemon and whisk until the butter is mostly melted. Add the hot pasta to the bowl and toss to coat the spaghetti. Add plenty of salt and pepper, half the zucchini slices, and half the mint; toss again.

6. Divide the spaghetti among 4 shallow bowls and top with the remaining zucchini, mint, and pine nuts. Serve hot or at room temperature with lemon wedges.

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COOKING LESSONS
• Use slender, young zucchini because they’re sweeter and drier than large squash, which have a high water content.
• A slicer is super convenient to get the zucchini coins nice and thin so some of them wilt in the heat of the pasta while other rounds retain a little crispness.
• I ditched my mandoline after a trip to the hospital in my younger years, and have been perfectly happy with this simple slicer ever since. It’s great when I want thin slices of vegetables like radishes or cucumbers. It’s way pricier now than when I bought it’s but still worth the investment.
• Pasta swaps: I like this with long pasta, but you do you. Some choices: Fettuccine, linguine, wide pappardelle, thick bucatini, and if you’re in a hurry, capellini (angel hair) or vermicelli, which cook in a nano second.
• Herb swaps: Basil, of course, and parsley, or any other herb that floats your boat. I’ll gladly make a case for mint with the zucchini and lemon—it’s a little more of a surprise.
• Butter: I don’t cook with butter that much, but it is the hero in this pasta for its flavor and also for the texture it creates when it emulsifies with the lemon and pasta water.

Cooking Lessons

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