Fettuchini with Zucchini & Cottage Cheese

This recipe is from epicurious.com. From 2013! It was in the pasta folder in my email…I had some time to look through that folder & found this recipe.

The recipe called for ricotta cheese which I did not have so I decided to use cottage cheese ..it was in my fridge! My mom always made noodles & cottage cheese which I LOVE, so I thought it would work & it did. I also had 4 small zucchini in the fridge as well, which if you have read some of my posts you know that I like to look in the fridge & use what is in there for dinner….sometimes:)

I had to  get the fettuccine & I should have gotten the flat-leaf parsley that was needed for this recipe..but I didn’t, but I will next time. I think it will add some nice colour to the dish, I used some dried parsley to ‘green’ it up…So this recipe is really inspired by the one on epicurious.com FETTUCCINE WITH SHREDDED ZUCCHINI, FRESH RICOTTA, AND LEMON ZEST since I changed a couple of things. Use the link to find the recipe & see the original one.

This is a very mild flavoured pasta dish, so if you like your pasta with lots of zesty sauce, this recipe might not be what you like, but you could try it! I really liked it & so did Murray. We actually had some lox ( smoked salmon) in the fridge, so I cut some up into small pieces & added it to the pasta,which was good, not necessary of course, but I did this because I thought Murray would appreciate some ‘protein’ with his supper! I took a picture of the pasta with the lox but it did not turn out so I do not have a picture.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Salt

1 pound of fettuccine

Olive oil

1 tsp grated garlic or more to taste…the original recipe called for 3 or 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Zest of 1 lemon

4 small zucchini, or 2 large ones

Pepper

1 cup cottage cheese.(.or ricotta)

Dried parsley to mix in & garnish with if desired

Method

1. Boil water in a large pot with a generous pinch salt, Add the fettuccine to the boiling water. Stir
2. While the water is boiling, prepare your ingredients.
3. Mince the garlic & zest the lemon, put near the stove
4. Grate the zucchini with a hand grater or in your food processor, set aside near the stove …you are going to sauté this
5. When the water is boiling, add the fettuccine to the water & cook the fettuccine according to the package instructions, stir often to avoid the pasta from sticking to itself & ensure even cooking
6. While the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a large skillet
7. Add the garlic to the warm olive oil & sauté it until it is golden… my oil was too hot & the garlic was jumping all over the place, so don’t have your oil to hot!
8. Add the lemon zest& cook it for about 30 seconds stirring it with the garlic
9. Now, add the zucchini to the skillet & cook for a few minutes, stirring to mix in the garlic & lemon zest
10. Season the zucchini with salt & pepper
11. Now you pasta should be done, drain the pasta, but reserve some cooking liquid. I actually used a pasta scoop & put the pasta right into the skillet with the zucchini…
12. Toss it all together & then add the cottage cheese/ricotta & toss to combine. Add some reserved pasta cooking liquid if you want to make a ‘creamy’ sauce
13. Season again with salt & pepper to taste & sprinkle in some dried parsley if you want

You can scoop more cottage cheese/ricotta cheese onto the top of the pasta just before eating..yum or cut up some lox and mix it in…

Enjoy!