This aromatic sauteed zucchini with pesto recipe is an easy-to-make and delicious side dish or light meal.
Another summer, another glut of vegetables. And these zucchini with pesto are such a wonderful recipe for using many of those extra veggies.
I didn't even like these veggies that much in my childhood and youth – the only recipe I really liked then was this one for easy pan-fried zucchini in batter - but I do love them now.
When confronted with so many of them every summer, one has to learn to cook them properly, and once you have a few good recipes, you learn to love them, and then there is no stopping: a simple soup, elegant sauteed zucchini with onions, no-noodle zucchini lasagna, this amazing savory zucchini slice and so on.
Today's recipe is a simple side dish: sliced zucchini with pesto and a few sun-dried tomatoes in oil. It is reminiscent of hot summer days in Italy, a recipe for times when it is just too hot to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
If you serve this as a side dish, the quantities indicated will serve four people. If you decide to go super healthy today and have it as a main meal with some bread, pasta, or polenta on the side, this recipe will only serve two people.
If you wish to increase the quantities, I recommend using two large pans or pan-frying the vegetables in two batches. Otherwise, it will become difficult. The slices will be too many for just one pan, and they will not fry properly either.
Ingredients
- Zucchini: Choose medium ones. Thicker and larger ones are fine as well, but in this case, please remove the seeds. Too many seeds are not nice to eat; they are rather tasteless and will make the dish soggy.
- Pesto: You can use homemade pesto of any kind; I often use wild garlic pesto because I make and freeze it every spring. But basil pesto, lemon balm pesto or any other you like is great.
- If you buy it, choose a good-quality brand. Don't go for the cheapest version; you will definitely notice.
- Sun-dried tomatoes in oil: I used julienne sun-dried tomatoes in oil. If you only have halves, you will need about 4-5 halves, depending on their size. Chop the tomatoes in both cases.
How to make pesto zucchini?
- Step #1: Slice the zucchini in half-moons and add them to the hot skillet.
- Step #2: Pan-fry them for 5-6 minutes, shaking the pan often.
- Step #3: Add pesto and chopped tomatoes to the pan. Stir well but carefully for 1 minute. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and add the fresh chopped herbs.
What goes well with this dish?
Serve as a main dish with crusty fresh bread on the side, on a bed of creamy basic polenta, mix them with pasta, or have them with rice, bulgur, or couscous.
Serve as a side dish with:
- Skillet chicken breast
- Prosciutto wrapped chicken breast
- Breaded chicken breast without eggs
- Tunisian tajine
- Trout with onions and tomatoes
Do you like this recipe?
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Zucchini with Pesto
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini a total of about 450 g/ 1 lbs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons pesto
- [2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes in oil or about 4-5 sun dried tomatoes in oil halves]
- a few sprigs of thyme
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- If doubling the recipe, saute the zucchini in two batches or using two large pans.
- Halve and slice the zucchini. If using very large zucchini, halve them, remove the seeds with a spoon, quarter and slice them.
- Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet or non-stick pan. Pan-fry the zucchini for 5-6 minutes, shaking the pan every minute or so to make sure that the zucchini slices get fried on both sides.
- In the meantime, remove the excess oil from the tomatoes by patting them lightly with kitchen paper. Chop them.
- Chop the herbs and set them aside.
- Add the pesto and the chopped tomatoes to the zucchini. Stir well but carefully for about 1 minute.
- Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and add the fresh chopped herbs.
- Serve immediately as suggested above.
Thao @ In Good Flavor says
Combining zucchini and pesto is such a great idea! I'm loving the combo, and all your serving suggestions sound so good!! Having it with a large chunk of crusty bread sounds wonderful right now as my stomach is growling 🙂
mjskitchen says
Summer squash with pesto has always been a favorite of mine, but I've never added sun-dried tomatoes. Those sounds like such a great addition to an already delicious dish. Growing squash again this year, so can't wait to try this.