The first time I cooked zucchini noodles they were tasty but watery. Like soup!

I didn’t want soup. I wanted spaghetti!

Let’s talk about how to do this right, because you don’t want to resign to biting off the end of a zucchini and dipping it into spaghetti sauce.

Nope.

We aren’t desperate.

This technique will help you cook perfectly steamed/sautéed zucchini that is dry, flavorful and ready to hold your favorite pasta sauce.

Start by spiralizing, peeling, or cutting your zucchini noodles [14 methods available here]. I used two medium-sized zucchini for a single serving. A perfect quantity if you’re really hungry or perfect to split if not.

Place noodles in a colander over a plate. Sprinkle them with a pinch of salt and let them sweat for about 30 minutes.

Next toss them with your hands and gently squeeze. Do that a few times and a decent amount of water will be left on the plate.

Next place them on a mix of towels. I used a white dish towel and a kitchen towel for underneath. Fold the towel over the noodles and press gently to absorb any remaining water. Do this for about one minute.

Then empty the noodles into a large non-stick pan.

Add in a few cloves of minced garlic if you like. Of course you do.

Cook the noodles for about fifteen minutes on medium heat. No lid required. Stir every few minutes to evenly cook. At minute ten the noodle ends start to caramelize achieving a rich ‘roasted’ vegetable flavor.

I took a few photos throughout the process to show that absolutely no water was collecting. The pan is at a 45 degree angle here.

Here are the noodles right before I removed them from the heat. Still no water.

For this dish I added pasta sauce straight out of the jar because the noodles were already warm. There will be a little liquid from the sauce, but that happens with regular pasta too.

We’ve been doing really good at keeping up with our weekly zucchini haul from our CSA share. I haven’t even had to make zucchini bread yet.

Cooked zucchini noodles cradle the fork perfectly.

Bon appétit! xo

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