Zucchini Pasta

From New York Times.

This series by the chef Jeff Schwarz and the photographerGreg Kessler traces the trajectory of seasonal food — from its original source to a place on your table.

Restaurant cooking for vegetarians can be like herding cats. I say this as a vegetarian-leaning chef and diner myself. We are a fickle and confusing bunch that embraces one restrictive trend after another (soy-free, gluten-free, raw) while at the same time whimsically eating dairy, eggs and even fish! We want healthy food, but not health-store food. Our choices at most restaurants, where a side of brussels sprouts comes with a fistful of lardons, are few and far between. We can be difficult to deal with.

As the former chef of a restaurant that embraced local vegetables, I wanted to create a vegetable-only entree that checked off the food trend boxes but still had a wow factor. I kept coming back to pasta but didn’t want to make the usual vegetarian ravioli (nut cheese between two thinly sliced beets) or vegetarian lasagna (same nut cheese layered between eggplant and zucchini). I was stumped. All the while, the local produce deliveries kept arriving, especially zucchini, which is a quick-growing fruit that farmers love to unload on busy restaurants. We seemed to put it everywhere on the menu — just never as the main attraction.

One day as I was cutting up zucchini, I remembered a raw cooking class I took some years back at Purple Valley Yoga in Goa, India. A Japanese woman was teaching us how to prepare a carrot salad with a spiral mandoline (slicer). Delicate, thin ribbons spun out with little effort. I went online and ordered one straightaway. What arrived was lime green and felt sort of cheap, but surprisingly it went through hundreds of zucchinis with ease.

Making zucchini pasta is simple, but there are some rules to keep in mind. Green or yellow gold bar zucchini are better to use than the yellow, pear-shaped variety. Zucchinis are firmer skinned and more cylindrical than other squashes, which works well in the mandoline. Be sure to squeeze out as much water as possible with a cheesecloth or kitchen towel or the zucchinis will leach a puddle of water onto the serving plate after salting.

In the restaurant, we made a pesto for the pasta, but I have found that a combination of olive oil, lemon juice and basil leaves works just as well and is easier to prepare. We served it with Sungold tomatoes and corn to add sweetness, and sunflower seeds for crunch. It became so popular that the meat eaters wanted it as well, but with lobster. Which was O.K. with me — it meant I could also mark the box next to “Paleo” on my diet trend checklist.

Yield: 4 Servings

4 medium zucchinis, cut into 3-inch cylinders
1 cup cherry tomatoes (preferably Sungold), halved
Kernels from 1 ear of corn
⅓ cup raw sunflower seeds
1 pound cooked lobster (optional)
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup basil leaves
Salt to taste

1. Place one zucchini cylinder in a spiral mandoline, and firmly hold the mandoline in place while spinning the zucchini through the blade. Repeat with the remaining zucchini pieces.
2. Wrap the zucchini ribbons in cheesecloth and squeeze out any excess water. Discard the water, and place the dry zucchini ribbons in a large bowl.
3. Add the tomatoes, corn and sunflower seeds to the zucchini.
4. If using lobster, dice the meat into 1-inch chunks, reserving some claws for garnish, and add it to the bowl.
5. Mix in the olive oil, lemon juice and most of the basil leaves.
6. Add salt to taste, garnish with the remaining basil leaves and the lobster claws if using, and serve.