When it’s hot, staying in front of the stove becomes quite difficult. However, there are some dishes that can be prepared well in advance and enjoyed cold, like the so-called “cold first courses” (couscous, pasta or rice salads). Today, we talk about a cold pasta that contains no animal fats or lactose, seasoned with zucchini cream and walnuts, delicate in flavor, light, and for this reason suitable for both lunch and dinner. All my recipes are customizable according to taste, seasonality, dietary needs, and occasions; this cold pasta with zucchini cream and walnuts can also be enriched with other ingredients or prepared with gluten-free pasta
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients
- 9 oz short pasta of choice
- 7 oz walnut halves
- 3 salad tomatoes
- 12 oz zucchini
- 10 leaves fresh basil
- to taste fine and coarse salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch freshly ground pepper
- 1 piece of spring onion or fresh stalk
Steps
Heat water in a large pot (we’ll need it to cook the pasta as well).
In the meantime, remove the waste parts from the zucchinis, wash them, and cut them into chunks.
Wash the basil leaves and salad tomatoes, which we will cut into pieces.
Shell the walnuts as well.
Once the water starts boiling, add coarse salt, wait for it to resume boiling, and add the zucchini chunks.
Cover, let them cook for exactly 5 minutes, then drain the zucchinis very well with a slotted spoon and, in the same water, once it’s boiling again, pour in the chosen short pasta and cook it very al dente.
Finally, drain the pasta as well and transfer it into a bowl.
Put the zucchini chunks into a blender with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, the washed basil, 3.5 oz of walnut halves, a piece of fresh spring onion or its equally aromatic stalk, and a pinch of pepper if you like. Blend everything until you get a smooth and velvety cream. Taste and adjust the salt if necessary, as zucchinis have a very delicate flavor that tends toward sweetness.
Season the pasta with the zucchini cream, the tomato pieces, some more chopped basil leaves, and the remaining crumbled walnut halves. Mix everything together, add another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil if you deem it necessary, cover well, and let it rest in the fridge until serving time, although the cold pasta with zucchini cream and walnuts is delicious right away.
