I fell in love with Zucchini noodles couple of years ago when my mother introduced me to it. She cooked a dish of her delicious tomatoes sauce and instead of regular pasta, she made zucchini noodles. Curly zucchini strings mixed with rich tomato sauce was not only delicious, it was so light. I ate a bowlful of this without feeling stuffed. I love regular pasta but I do have a tendency to overeat it. I think lot of people do because it just so addictive. Well with this, I can eat big helpings without feeling guilty or stuffed.
Tableware
For my pasta day, I put together my Italian inspired tableware:
- Pasta bowl -I’m using my yellow Italian pasta bowl from Crate & Barrel. I always loved Crate & Barrel for their contemporary dinnerware with simple designs and this bright yellow dinnerware is so versatile, it goes with almost everything. I thought it would perfect for my zucchini noodles.
- Salad bowl -For my small salad, I’m using my Italian white cabbage shaped bowl from Williams-Sonoma. I’m using this as a salad bowl this time, but this will be great to use as bowls for condiments, or breakfast bowl for your fruit or yogurt.
- Place mats -I tend to always find, fun, colorful place mats like this at Sur La Table. Red and white checkered mats are perfect for pasta day.
- Green glass tumbler- I’m using this retro style glass tumbler more now, ever since I used if for my first post.

Meat Sauce
For my noodles, instead of my usual tomato sauce, I went with a hearty meat sauce. Meat sauce with plenty of spices, chunks of ground beef, carrots and tomatoes.
Ingredients that are essential to making a sauce like this is using lots of spices like oregano, paprika, nutmeg and especially cumin. To enhance the flavor of cumin and oregano, I sauté the two spices and garlic together first in sizzling olive oil. This way olive oil will get marinated in the spices and beef and vegetables when added to the pot will be flavored with the marinated oil.
Other spices like nutmeg will enhance the flavor of ground meat and paprika and smoked paprika will add the slight spiciness and smokiness to your sauce.

I like my meat sauce to have pieces of ripe tomatoes and used one large ripe tomato in addition to a marinara sauce (1 cup to add extra flavor). Tomatoes and carrots will add natural sweetness to the sauce and moisture from tomatoes means I usually don’t need to add extra water.
Last ingredients to add are fresh basil and bay leaves, and instead of salt I add several tablespoons of grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Cheese will not only add the needed salt, it’s going to thicken the sauce and add even more flavor. You can then let your pot simmer under low heat for 1 hour.
Salad with Goat Cheese, Blueberries and Pearl Tomatoes
In case all the veggies from the pasta is not enough, there’s a side salad. You can see from my previous posts, I keep my salads pretty simple. Here all I did was put together red leaf lettuce that I rough chopped, crumbled some goat cheese, added chopped basil, fresh blueberries and pearl tomatoes. Top it off with some balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and you’re all done. Substitute other berries if you don’t have blueberries. Strawberries or blackberries will work just as well.

Making the Noodles
You can make zucchinis into curly strings in no time by using a spiralizer. There are different vegetable spiralizers out there, but I use a simple no fuss hand held gadget from OXO. I bought this gadget because it doesn’t take up large space, easy to use and clean. Blade cuts well and zucchini will come out long and curly. Two medium sized zucchinis will produce enough noodles for 2-3 people.

Key to making good zucchini noodles are not over cooking it. You don’t want watery green mush ruining your meat sauce. Boil these noodles for 2 minutes and drain completely. I also use paper towels to pat the zucchini dry to ensure I don’t have any wet noodles.
When your sauce and noodles are ready, grab your pasta bowl, fill up your bowl with your sauce and noodles. Don’t forget some chilled wine.

Zuchinni Noodles with Hearty Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 lb 90% lean beef ground meat
- 2 medium carrots peeled and chopped
- 1 large ripe tomato rough chopped
- 3 large cloves of garlic chopped
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp ground paprika
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 3-4 tbsp grated pecorino romano cheese
- 2-4 medium zucchini, spiralized
- basil leaves for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Put large pot over medium heat and add olive oil. When olive oil starts sizzling, add cumin seeds, oregano and garlic, stir well and be careful not to burn them. Once spices become fragrant, add ground beef, break down large pieces and saute until no longer pink.
- Add carrots, tomatoes and mix the ingredients well. Then stir in nutmeg and paprika. After the spices are combined, add marinara sauce. Let the sauce simmer for 5-6 minutes under low heat then add basil leaves and bay leaves.
- As the sauce is simmering, add 3-4 tablespoons of grated pecorino romano cheese to the sauce. Simmer sauce for 1 hour, add water if needed.
- When your meat sauce is about ready, boil zucchini noodles for 2 minutes in a separate pot then drain. Pat noodles dry with paper towels. Serve meat sauce and noodles in a bowl and garnish with basil leaves.
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