This recipe started out being something else entirely. I had intended to do a quick sauté of zucchini, fresh tomatoes, garlic, and oregano and serve it over roasted garlic pasta. But the day was hot and bringing a large pot of water to a boil in my teeny tiny hot kitchen didn’t appeal, so instead it became a salad.
I have many tools for making zucchini noodles, but if you’re into making vegetables into noodles I suggest you purchase a spiralizer, it is the fastest, easiest way to create noodles. Since I had an abundance of olives, they became part of the salad, and in keeping with the pasta theme I used a microplaner to dust the noodles with a fine coating of ricotta salata.
I love ricotta salata, it reminds me of my childhood. Ricotta salata is ricotta cheese that’s been aged and hardened. The ricotta in the stores doesn’t taste anything like the ricotta of my childhood. There used to me a cheese manufacturing company in Livermore, and on our regular trips to and from Manteca we often stopped there to get their delicious fresh cheeses. Their ricotta had a distinct flavor that I can only taste in ricotta salata.
Since it looks like noodles this may be away to get your kids (and other reluctant vegetable eaters) to eat some vegetables.
Recipe
2 zucchini, washed, dried, and spiralized into noodles
1 green onion, sliced thin
½ t dried oregano
Pinch red pepper flakes
1-2 T olive oil
Zest and juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
4 smallish ripe tomatoes cut into wedges
¼ C olives
2 oz. ricotta salata
Place the zucchini noodles in a medium bowl. Add the green onion, oregano, and red pepper and gently mix until combined. Add the olive oil and lemon juice, mix gently. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Divide the noodles among four serving dishes. Arrange tomato wedges and olives around the noodles and top each salad with a generous dusting of ricotta salata.
This salad really doesn’t hold well so it should be eaten within several hours of making.
Serves 4
