How to make our 20-minute zucchini noodle pasta recipe with garlic, tomatoes, basil, and parmesan cheese. Jump to the Zucchini Noodles Pasta Recipe or watch our quick recipe video showing you how we make it.
We are in love with this easy recipe. There’s fresh zucchini, tomatoes, basil, parmesan, and lots of garlic. The best part? It only takes 20 minutes to make. By the way, if you are looking for more vegetable noodle recipes, take a look at this Creamy Avocado Lime Sweet Potato Noodles recipe.
Guilt-Free, 20 Minute Zucchini Pasta
This is such a quick and easy recipe. It’s adaptable, too. We love this with 100% zucchini noodles, but a combination of spaghetti and zucchini is great.
This pasta recipe is all about fresh ingredients. The zucchini should be firm and the tomatoes sweet. If you have a hard time finding good, flavorful tomatoes, it is better to use canned. We love canned San Marzano tomatoes as well as the options from Muir Glen.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Easy Mediterranean Zucchini Pasta Salad Recipe with cucumber, tomatoes, and feta. Low-carb and delicious!
How to Make Zucchini Noodles
- The easiest way to make zucchini noodles is to use a spiralizer. They make long, curly noodles in minutes. This is a great tool to add to your kitchen.
- You can also use a julienne vegetable peeler. These come in at under $10 and might even be hiding in your kitchen gadget drawer right now.
- Most mandoline slicers will make noodles, too.
- You can also use a standard vegetable peeler and make wide noodles.
Once you’ve got noodles, you’re ready to cook them.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How to make our 25-minute sweet potato noodles recipe with a creamy dairy-free avocado sauce. Jump to the Creamy Avocado Sweet Potato Noodles Recipe.
How to Cook Them
Zucchini is mostly made up of water so cooking it can be tricky. Here are our tips for cooking it well.
- Don’t peel the zucchini. Peeled zucchini noodles are mushy and have little crunch. Plus, it adds a step and we’re looking for dinner on the table fast.
- Don’t salt the zucchini ahead or time or while it cooks in the pan. Salt draws out water from the zucchini. This will make it less crunchy when it’s cooked. Since salt makes things taste good, we prefer to salt the sauce and not the zucchini.
- Don’t overcook. The noodles should be cooked to al dente (just like pasta). This means they will look wilted, but still have a crunch.
Since zucchini has a tendency to become watery, we do our best to reduce this as much as possible in our recipe. Even so, you will still find some water left at the bottom of the serving bowl. This is okay with us. The liquid mixes with tomato, garlic, cheese, and olive oil, so it’s delicious. By the way, if you are looking for more ways to use up zucchini, here’s our parmesan basil zucchini chips recipe for you. They are addictive.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: We love quick, fresh dinners. These soba noodles tossed with basil pesto hit the spot. Jump to the Pesto Shrimp Soba Noodles Recipe. Also gluten-free!
Guilt-Free Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Noodles Pasta Recipe
- PREP
We’re in love with this easy zucchini pasta recipe. There’s fresh zucchini, tomatoes, basil, parmesan, and lots of garlic. Plus, it only takes 20 minutes to make. Make this with 100% zucchini noodles or swap half of the zucchini for regular spaghetti for a heartier meal.
You Will Need
4 medium zucchini (about 2 pounds)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 to 4 cloves)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, depending on how spicy you like the pasta
2 medium tomatoes, chopped, see note (about 12 ounces)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1 cup basil leaves, torn into pieces
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold water
Salt, to taste
Directions
- Prepare Noodles
- To Finish
Trim and spiralize the zucchini (see notes below for how to do this without a spiralizer). Cut extra long noodles so that they are about the length of spaghetti.
Add olive oil, garlic, and the red pepper flakes to a large, deep skillet. Turn to medium heat. When the oil begins to bubble around the garlic, add the zucchini noodles. Toss the noodles with pasta tongs and cook until al dente — they should be wilted, but still have a crunch; 5 to 7 minutes. Do not let the noodles cook any longer or else they will become mushy. As they cook, keep tossing so that all the zucchini noodles have a chance to hit the bottom of the skillet.
Stir in the tomatoes, basil, and parmesan cheese. Cook for one minute.
Use pasta tongs to transfer the noodles, tomatoes, and basil to a serving dish. Leave the liquid in the skillet.
Bring the liquid to a simmer. Combine cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl then whisk into the simmering liquid. Cook, while whisking, until the liquid thickens to a sauce; about 1 minute. Taste the sauce and season with salt.
Pour the sauce over the zucchini, tomatoes, and basil. Finish with more parmesan cheese on top and serve immediately.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- How to make Zucchini Noodles without a Spiralizer: The spiralizer is not the only way to make noodles. You can use a julienne vegetable peeler or a mandoline. You can also use a standard vegetable peeler to make wide noodles or ribbons.
- Don’t be surprised if after the pasta has been sitting, liquid collects at the bottom of the serving dish. This is okay with us. The liquid mixes with tomato, garlic, cheese, and olive oil, so it’s delicious.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values. We omitted salt from the calculations since you will need to add to your tastes.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Haven’t made it yet but it sounds delicious. Using spaghetti squash tonight.
This is delicious!!!! Made it in no time only next time will use more zucchini as it looks like a lot but as soon as it hits the pot it cooks down so to speak just like fresh spinach! Just loved it!
I loved this recipe!!! I made it Whole 30 friendly by replacing cornstarch with two tablespoons coconut cream. And to make it heartier i cooked some shrimps in the sauce in the end, with some added salt, lemon juice, basil and garlic paste. I did have to remove the shrimp into the zuchinni then dry out the sauce more but that literally took a minute. It was amazing!
I just tried these noodles with a spaghetti sauce and they’re great! Thanks for the tips 🙂
I was surprised how delicious this actually was!! I followed recipe exactly and it turned out perfect, I didn’t even need the cornstarch. Can’t wait to make it again! Thank you for a wonderful recipe! 🙂
A couple years go my sister introduced me to zucchini noodle marinara- essentially marinara sauce with zucchini noodles. Last year I added zucchini to my garden and had to figure out what to do with it when I found this recipe. Oh. My. Goodness! Its amazing! What a super way to introduce the family to disguised healthy eating with flavor that is the embodiment of summer. This year I planted even more zucchini and Zoodles will be part of our lives forever! Amazing recipe. Good work!
Just trying to find out what the serving size is based off the nutrition facts. Thanks.
Hi Alexis, We divide the dish into 4 servings.
This was insanely good!! Next time I make it I’ll be adding crimini mushrooms!!
Never had Zucchini this way before. I liked it and will make it again. My twist, I added sautéed mushrooms and onions to it. I would do less garlic because I used garlic/oregano canned tomatoes. A little less parmesan cheese and I added Mozzarella cheese on top.
For the carnivores, add pepperoni!