Food & Cooking Recipes Ingredients Seafood Recipes Pasta With Zucchini, Mint, and Pecorino 4.0 (2) This light, summery dinner is ready in under 30 minutes. Prep Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 10 mins Total Time: 30 mins Servings: 4 Jump to recipe Whether you’ve got a garden full of zucchini, bought too much at the farmers markets, or simply love the late summer vegetable, this pasta with zucchini is for you. It’s positively packed with summer squash—you’ll need five small or two to three large ones—and gets a savory boost from anchovies and minced garlic. Save some of the pasta water to toss with the noodles and vegetables to form a light, silky sauce, then finish the whole thing with salty pecorino Romano cheese and fresh mint. Simple, delicious, and ready in under a half hour, it’s just the kind of dinner you need this summer. 20 Zucchini Recipes to Celebrate Summer’s Most Abundant Vegetable Credit: Bryan Gardner Buying and Prepping Zucchini for This Pasta When shopping, choose firm, unblemished zucchini that feel heavy for their size. Store them in a loosely closed produce bag in your refrigerator's crisper drawer; they should stay good for at least one week and up to two that way. When you're ready to prep them for this recipe, trim off the tops and either grate them on the large holes of a box grater or use a food processor fitted with the shredding disc. It will look like a ton of zucchini but will cook down quite a bit in the pan. Tip Unlike many other of our zucchini recipes—like these crispy fritters or our chocolate-zucchini cake—there's no need to drain excess liquid from the squash before cooking. Since you're not looking to brown the vegetable and you'll be adding pasta water to form a light sauce anyway, a little extra moisture from the vegetable won't have an impact. Directions Cook pasta; reserve water, then drain: Cook pasta in a large pot of generously salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1 1/2 cups water; drain pasta. Cook anchovies and garlic: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl in oil. Add anchovies and garlic; cook, stirring, just until anchovies break down and garlic turns golden, about 30 seconds. Add zucchini and cook: Add zucchini; season with salt and red-pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is very tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in pasta and reserved liquid: Add pasta and 1 cup reserved pasta water. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced and slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add cheese and mint: Remove from heat; stir in cheese and mint. Add more pasta water if needed, a few tablespoons at a time, until sauce evenly coats pasta. Serve, drizzled with oil and sprinkled with more mint, pepper flakes, and cheese. Variations Switch up your pasta shape: We love a short, curly pasta shape for this recipe but you can use nearly any other pasta shape with great results. Try rigatoni, cavatappi, or farfalle, or swap in a long noodle like spaghetti if that's what you have on hand. Add a different herb: In place of mint, try basil or parsley. To keep this dish tasting bright and fresh, we don't recommend using dried herbs here. Change up the cheese: Use freshly grated Parmesan cheese instead, or try a dollop of ricotta for a more mild, creamy effect. 5 More Summer Pasta Recipes to Try Eggplant and Roasted-Pepper Pasta No-Cook Tomato-Tuna Sauce With Spaghetti One-Pan Pasta Orecchiette With Sausage, Corn, and Chiles Penne With Tomatoes and Parsley Breadcrumbs Updated by Esther Reynolds Esther Reynolds Esther Reynolds is an experienced recipe developer, recipe tester, food editor, and writer with over a decade of experience in the food and media industries.