The thyme-scented hills of Liguria inspired this creamy grated zucchini pasta
Around this time last year, my partner and I visited Italy for the first time. We stayed in a small town in the Ligurian hills, in northern Italy, just inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Our rental home, like most Ligurian dwellings, was located on a hillside dotted with olive trees and lightly perfumed by abundant shrubs of thyme. We arrived exhausted and very hungry. Although we had stopped at a supermarket along the way, we lacked ingredients for the hearty meal we craved. What we did have was a pound of pasta, a few enormous zucchinis purchased from a local market, and a hunk of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
In a hungry hurry, I familiarized myself with my new Italian kitchen and got to work improvising a pasta sauce. I grated the zucchini and sauteed it with shallots until most of the water evaporated, mashing the mixture to a pulpy sauce as it cooked. I added a generous knob of butter and a small mountain of Parmesan cheese, but after a taste, I knew it still needed something. Although I wouldn’t normally choose thyme as a seasoning for a pasta dish, the small shrub outside the kitchen door called to me, and I picked a handful of leaves and threw them into the pan. The result was a fragrant, slightly creamy pasta sauce that was homey and comforting—even while six thousand miles from home. As late summer ushers in its annual bounty of zucchini, I find myself turning to this dish once more.
The secret to getting this sauce just right is cooking out most of the liquid from the zucchini. Wait for the zucchini pulp to turn slightly translucent and very soft—this concentrates its natural sweetness and helps keep the dish from tasting bland and watery. The mixture may seem a bit thick, but it creates a velvety sauce once tossed with starchy pasta water. I like to serve the pasta topped generously with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese as well as a few additional thyme leaves that add an extra punch of herbaceous aroma. One bite, and I’m back in the thyme-scented hills of Liguria.