I have mentioned before that I tend not to use a ton of gadgets in my kitchen. I do have a couple of items that I’ve grown to love such as my uniquely sized measuring spoons and cups and my latest purchase, a Cuisinart mini chop. But generally speaking, if I have this knife, a good sized cutting board, some sheet pans and my 12-cup Cuisinart, then I am in good shape, baking notwithstanding!
And then, my cousin came for an overnight. Since she was coming directly from one of her jobs as a private chef, she brought this “gadget” with her and proceeded to make us a delicious dinner of Zucchini Noodles with Greek Meatballs. I once purchased sweet potato noodles at a Whole Foods that I prepared as shown here, but this was my first experience with a spiralizer, the gadget that allows vegetables to masquerade as noodles.
Now, I am also not big into food fads. I hadn’t adopted the whole “vegetable noodle as substitute for pasta” thing into my culinary repertoire. It’s not that I didn’t think it was a good idea, but rather that I didn’t have a spiralizer and certainly didn’t want to buy another expensive gadget only to use it once and have it collect dust.
But when I saw how easily my cousin whipped her zucchini into long strands of deliciousness using a reasonably priced spiralizer, I had to rethink things. I know, I am extremely late to the party. Have you seen this tee-shirt? Another cousin of mine purchased it for me, and it sums up how I felt about the “zoodle” craze, until now of course.
For some reason after I purchased my gadget, I got into my head that the first thing I wanted to develop a recipe for was for a Caprese Zoodle Salad. Caprese, that delightful combo of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil is one of mine and my husband’s favorite summer flavor combinations. I imagine it might be one of yours too. I usually make a Caprese Pasta Salad several times during the summer.
After a couple of trials and errors, I think I came up with a recipe that you and your family are really going to love. It has now been husband approved, ladies night out approved and given a thumbs up by a college student named Emily who is going to do some recipe testing for me (thank you, Emily!).
Here’s how things played out in pictures from multiple cooking sessions…
The first time I made the dish, I just used green zucchini…
But when I got to Rhode Island, the local farm sells golden zucchini which were too beautiful to pass up. So I made the recipe using half green and half golden zucchini. You can use whatever is available and I’ve written the recipe using zucchini and yellow summer squash. It is best to use really fresh squash for this dish so the noodles will be naturally soft and work well with a no-cook preparation. I used the “thin spiral” blade on my spiralizer…
And here they are mixed together. You can make the noodles early in the day and store them in the fridge, layered with some paper towels to absorb excess moisture. If you are using the noodles right away, you should still give them a good pat down with some paper or cloth towels. I also like to give them a little chop so that they are easier to serve and to eat. This is optional of course!
So to make things a little interesting, I didn’t want to use just raw tomatoes although if you wanted to, that would be perfectly fine. I opted to split the tomatoes and coat them with some olive oil, Herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and roast them until they were caramelized but still retained their shape…
You can use any combination of grape tomatoes you like. The yellow ones tend to break down more easily so I would stick with red, orange or garnet if you can. If you don’t have Herbes de Provence, you can leave it out or you could substitute an Italian seasoning mix. Almost any dried herb such as thyme, basil or oregano will also do, but if you have really fresh tomatoes, they barely need any enhancement at this time of year…
They are like candy! You can also do this technique and then serve these on top of some crostini that is spread with some fresh ricotta for an appetizer. Top with sliced basil. Yum! But I digress…
In addition to the roasted tomatoes, I would add pearl sized fresh mozzarella for easy eating and of course, some freshly sliced basil. But what about a dressing of some kind?
A traditional caprese salad is simply dressed with a fruity olive oil, salt and pepper. Balsamic is not welcome. Don’t agree? Read this great article from J. Kenji-Lopez Alt about how not to (expletive) a Caprese Salad!!!
So the first time I made the dish, I just used a simple drizzle of olive oil and I also sauteed the noodles before tossing all the ingredients together thinking that would soften them up. The result was lackluster even though it was pretty to look at and tasty. The sauteeing robbed the zucchini of some flavor and the dish needed more zing…
So, the next time I made the dish I used a red wine vinaigrette that I infused with a large clove of minced garlic and I left the noodles raw, both of which helped to amp up the flavor without compromising it too much. This picture was from the second attempt. At the bottom of that bowl there was a fair amount of liquid that had run off from the dish so the last time I made it for my ladies night…
I tossed all the ingredients together, let the dish sit for about an hour for the flavors to combine and then lifted the contents of the bowl out and onto a serving platter, leaving behind the excess vinaigrette. The zucchini had softened up nicely but held their shape and were not soggy. The dish even held up in the fridge and was delicious leftover on day two and three. Just allow it to come to room temperature for the best flavor.
Double batch!
One of the women from my ladies night went home and ordered her spiralizer straight away! I hope you have a chance to make this soon and if you don’t have a spiralizer never fear. I have seen spiralized noodles popping up at lots of supermarkets of late so I have given a cup measurement for the noodles in case you purchase your “zoodles”. Depending on the freshness of your squash or purchased noodles, you may need to let your noodles sit less time or a little longer depending on their water content.
But in any case, please come back to the blog and comment if you do make this dish and let me know if you have any other fun spiralized dishes that you already enjoy making! I’ve only just begun!
Until next week…
One Year Ago: L.A. Story Part One
Two Years Ago: Grilled Zucchini Roll-Ups with Herbs and Cheese
Zucchini Noodles are tossed with roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella pearls and fresh basil in a red wine-garlic vinaigrette for a twist on the traditional Caprese salad! Flavors improve as the dish sits and is good leftover!
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchini and summer squash (2 each, total weight 1 3/4 - 2 pounds)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes (all red or a mix of colors)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
- 1 cup fresh mozzarella pearls
- 20-25 fresh basil leaves
- 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Using the thin spiralizing blade on your spiralizer, create noodles with all of the zucchini and summer squash. You should have about 6-7 cups. Place the noodles onto a cutting board and cut into manageable lengths for easier eating, optional. Using a paper towel, wipe any extra moisture off of the noodles and place in a large mixing bowl. You can prepare the noodles early in the day if you like and store them in the fridge packaged between layers of paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
- Halve the cherry tomatoes (you should have 2 1/2-3 cups) and place in a bowl. Toss with the 1 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of Herbes de Provence and salt and pepper to taste. Place tomatoes onto a sheet pan and roast in the oven until soft and starting to caramelize but still retain their shape, about 25-30 minutes.
- In the meanwhile, prepare the dressing. Whisk together the vinegar, minced garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Slowly whisk in the 3 Tablespoons of olive oil until dressing is emulsified.
- Julienne the basil leaves.
- Toss the zucchini noodles with the dressing. Add the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil and mix well.
- Season with the additional 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Toss again.
- Allow the dish to sit for about 1/2 hour or so for the flavors to combine.
- To serve, lift the noodles out of the bowl and place on a serving platter. Drizzle with just a bit of the dressing left at the bottom of the bowl.
- Enjoy!
Tips from The Kitchen Scout
If you cannot find mozzarella pearls, you can substitute any fresh mozzarella that you cut into bite sized pieces. You want them small enough that they are easy to eat and spread out well in the dish.
In a birthday swap I won a Veggetti Pro, which is a Spiralizer.(Thank you Allyson!) It is a great tool and I have been Zoodling(making zucchini noodles) ever since! I made a version of your salad that was delicious. I used less tomatoes and Zoodled some yellow squash instead. I like the Zoodles raw and cooked. I have put them into salads as well as stir fry. It’s a new and fun way to eat your veggies!
Yay!
What a beautiful message Val….and a yummy, summer fresh recipe. Both are so good for us. Thank you
Just made this for the second time (in a week!) I didn’t have enough time to roast the tomatoes and I actually liked it a bit better. Maybe because the tomatoes I had were really tasty. Also needed to substitute white balsamic vinegar for red and it was a nice, light dressing.
Yes, the tomatoes at this time of year are like candy already so glad to hear you enjoyed them that way too. White balsamic is a great idea! Thank you for commenting.
Looks yummy!
I’ve made something similar but used my mandolin to make the “noodles”. Yours looks much prettier 🙂
Thank you, Nancy!
Can you recommend a brand of spiralizer? i have been looking at them but the choices go on and on.
Hi Marty, there is a link in the post to the very inexpensive version I purchased to dip my toe into the spiralizer world. It has worked fine for me with zucchini and my cousin has also used it for butternut squash and beets. It has 3 blades which is also nice. I am sure there are far superior models out there but I don’t have any personal experience with them.
I loved reading this. Amylou did buy the pre spiraled noodles at Whole foods so now we are hooked. I am glad you bought the spiralizer!!
This is incredibly delicious! I was lucky enough to have it again on Day 3 for lunch and I think it was even better. I have a cheap “as seen on TV ” spiralizer but if it doesn’t work, I’ll order the bigger one.