Zuccaghetti
Lemon, zucchini (we used babies but you can also use larger ones), cream, chives, olive oil and tarragon.
To slice the zucchini, we used a mandoline fitted with a julienne blade. Watch your fingers!
That's Lily, our marvelous summer intern, on the right! Note that we require all our interns to dress exactly like Merrill.
Chives are a cooperative herb to chop. Unlike tarragon, which bruises and goes its own way.
The julienned zucchini -- now can you see why a mandoline helps? They are some thin slices!
Merrill salting the zucchini, which then sat for 30 minutes. This softens the zucchini, draws out excess moisture, and conveniently seasons the strands.
See how the slices are glistening? That's all the moisture that's been drawn out by the salt.
Merrill mops off the moisture by blotting the zucchini with a dish towel.
Looking down the barrel of a .... blender. Cream, olive oil, tarragon and lemon juice are about to get to know each other.
Fused forever, the dressing now awaits the zucchini.
Add the dressing to taste.
And then taste!
Author Notes:
Like pasta, zucchini is a great carrier of other flavors and sauces. I recently got a julienne gizmo that is like a peeler but makes tiny little threads of zucchini, carrots, cukes or wherever you apply it. A mandoline or benringer with a julienne blade also works(but not as safe for fingers or as much fun to use). I make this recipe all summer long with a variety of dressings, but this is one of my favorites. It is healthy and light; a great side dish or a light lunch. - dymnyno
Food52 Review: Zucchini and summer squash, if sliced thinly enough, resemble spaghetti -- or, zuccaghetti! -- and make for a tender, refreshing salad. The notion of zucchini spaghetti has popped up here and there over the past couple of years. Sometimes the strands are dressed with oil and chilies, sometimes with a vinaigrette and herbs. Here dymnyno enrobes the thin, dewy zucchini in a tarragon vinaigrette rounded out with cream (add it to taste). This is a salad that gets even better with a little sitting. Dymnyno has you rinse the zucchini after salting -- we found that you can skip the rinsing. But don't skip the eating! - A&M
—The Editors
Serves: 6
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8 small zucchini (about 2 lbs)
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1 tsp salt
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3 tbs tarragon leaves
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2 tbs fresh lemon juice
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3 tbs olive oil
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1 cup cream(1/2 &1/2)
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3 tbs chives, minced
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fresh ground black pepper
- Julienne the zucchini, place in a colander, sprinkle with the salt and drain for 1/2 hour. Then, rinse , and squeeze and towel out the excess moisture. A salad spinner can work.
- In a blender, put the olive oil, lemon juice, tarragon leaves and cream.
- Blend until creamy and all the ingredients are fully incorporated into a creamy dressing.
- Toss the zucchini with the sauce (amount determined by taste).
- Sprinkle with the chopped chives. Grind pepper over mixture to taste.
- Your Best Summer Squash Recipe Contest Finalist!
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Dish in the Raw
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Vegetarian Holiday Side
More Great Recipes:
Vegetable|Make Ahead|Serves a Crowd|Summer|Vegetarian|Gluten-Free|Side
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Could this be made in the morning for an evening presentation?
I made this recipe because I love all of the ingredients. I word to the wise...don't use nonfat yogurt in place of half & half. I made this mistake and the sourness of the yogurt didn't work well with the rest of the flavors.
Dymnyno -- do you use a special jullienne tool? My mandoline has a blade to do jullienne, but it's a pain in the neck to insert. Is there a simple, specialized tool out there that I can create the really fine and consistent jullienne strips you've acheived in your photo? PS: love the recipe!
I bought a (German?) potato peeler a few months ago at Willams + Sonoma, the kind where the blade is horizontal not vertical. The other side is a julienne blade that works great. I use it to make carrot julienne for stir frys. Costs just a few dollars.
I used a julienne tool from Kuhn ricon...it is a pricy little toy, but I love to use it on a lot of fruits and vegetables like carrots, cucumbers jicama, apples, and more. (ordered frm Amazon.com)
Dymnyno -- do you use a special jullienne tool? My mandoline has a blade to do jullienne, but it's a pain in the neck to insert. Is there a simple, specialized tool out there that I can create the really fine and consistent jullienne strips you've acheived in your photo? PS: love the recipe!
This has become a favorite in our home, I added carrots and parmesan instead of cream tonight because I needed to use them but this recipe is perfect all by itself. Thanks!
Thanks, I am a great lover of recipe tecniques...when you find one that works, you have a key to indulge your own creativity.
I made this last night for dinner and it was delicious. I used fat-free half-n-half and added about a cup of roasted tomatoes to the sauce (went to a friend's farm last weekend and came back with many that were so ripe that I roasted them in the oven so they wouldn't go bad before we could eat them). I also added shredded parm and cooked, peeled shrimp on top. I've used julienned zucchini before on a salad but had never used it after salting and resting. I think it tastes better than pasta! Thanks!
I am glad that you enjoyed it. I love all your additions, too.
I am so glad you entered this! (I am working on a zucchini pasta recipe even as we speak, inspired by this!)
Awesome! Delicious!
Love it - thanks!
Brilliant!!! even with half as much sauce for fewer calories this is still very, very good. I could live on this all summer. I think that I will as you suggest, dump it on some pasta. You should have won this contest. I forgot to vote.
Made this for dinner tonight, delightful! Served it under fresh caught striped bass that was pan seared in bacon fat.....next to a handful of grape tomatoes
Jessman, Jullienning (sp?) zucchini is not something that I invented, nor did I claim to do so. I observed a friend using it on carrots and used the same method to zucchini. I made up the sauce using my favorite ingredients...also nothing particularly inventive. But the combination of technique and dressing are entirely my own. I never read Martha Stewart but she does appeal to the populace.
Ummm- this looks awfully familiar.
http://www.marthastewart...
Actually I think Dymnyno's looks nicer and fresher and the tarragon changes the taste profile significantly. There are a lot of recipes out there that are similar to one another, I mean how many varieties of Caprese salad are there? The addition, omission of even a single ingredient or a variation on technique makes the recipe personal and unique to the chef.
If I had a dollar for every similar, and yet completely different recipe I would be a rich man. In a recipe like this, and I have seen lots of spaghetti made from squash, carrots and leeks,(if you don't believe me try me I can spout off twenty while writing this sentence) the differences may seem small but because of the dishes simplicity they are huge. The addition of black pepper, tarragon and olive oil make this so, so different. I am a huge fan of Patricia Wells, and from what I know of her, I think she would think dymnyno's recipe was amazing. She might even change the ingredients in hers to be more like this one.
By the way, I have this uncanny ability to insult while trying to compliment, I get it from my mother, so if I have done so take note. This is a great recipe and I just wish I had thought of it.
I'm turning this into a pasta salad for a BBQ party my father's throwing (and of course I'm cooking for) in a few weeks...do you think it would be good to toss in a few toasted walnuts?
I think that you can tweek this recipe in many ways to suite your taste as long as you don't overpower the flavor of the zucchini.
simply beautiful
Thanks...your recipes definitely enrich lives!
This is fantastic! I do a lot of zucchini "noodles" with pesto, now I am going to try the tarragon cream.
Made this for a dinner party and it was adored. Thanks!
Your recipe is the kick in the pants I need post-vacation to get back in the kitchen...Thumbs up, big-time!
The eternal winner - wow!
More like the matron of honor!
Wow, this is so delicious, dymnyno! Made it for dinner tonight - I didn't have tarragon so I used fresh mint instead. And I used yellow squash and zucchini, so I guess I went Paglia e Fieno with my version. Blender not necessary, if you like to see your herbs, which I do. I whisked liquid in measuring cup till creamy. So so good!
I LOVE zucchini and when I discovered a similar dish in the Times two summers ago I couldn't stop cooking it. I can't wait to try this recipe. Good luck.
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