Pasta and fried courgette salad from Plenty (page 254) by Yotam Ottolenghi

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Ingredients

basil
lemons
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Notes about this recipe

KNivia on March 23, 2026

My husband made this for dinner and it’s delicious! Loaded with a tasty green basil pesto and edamame with the zucchini! It’s so good. The addition of the capers and lemon zest is a must…don’t skimp here and the buffalo mozzarella is the perfect addition. Definitely used some saved pasta water to thin out the sauce, but what a nice weeknight meal!
noor_37m4rf on February 27, 2026

I tweaked this recipe a bit by blending the edamame and vinegar into the dressing, which made it more pesto like. I didn’t have any parsley on hand. It ended up tasting great! Next time I wouldn’t fry the zucchini, it made it a bit greasy, so I’ll try to roast it in the oven.
acwebb2 on February 19, 2026

This was very good, though I did make some changes. I roasted the zucchini in the oven instead of frying, and blended all the basil, parsley, and lemon zest together, with the juice of the lemon added. I didn’t have edamame so I threw in some chicken for protein.
patioweather on September 14, 2023

I've made this twice. The first time I made it, I thought it was incredible and added it to my "favorites" list. The second time, it struck me as much too greasy. Maybe it had to do with my zucchini frying technique? If I do it again, I'll try and cook the zucchini in some other manner.
Margret on September 09, 2023

Made it twice, the first time with edamame, it was very good. The second time I omitted the mozzarella and the edamame and added pan-roasted tofu cubes marinated with lemon and pesto (found in a recipe from Elisabeth Fischer in “Tofu Miso Tempeh”), I made the pesto with pinoli, basil and a little bit of mint, also very good.
kaityblueeyes on June 19, 2022

This was a win! Everyone loved it, even the 4 year old. Didn’t have parsley in the garden so used some cilantro and lots more basil. Used burrata and it was heavenly.
Lsblackburn1 on July 30, 2021

I can’t believe I’d never made this before! Lovely and fresh tasting - and uses a lot of the garden. I also did my zucchini roasted - 30 minutes at 425.
Apollonia on July 25, 2021

Made this for probably the fifth time and enjoyed it as much as ever. Great for a casual dinner party because it can be made ahead and is perfect at room temp. I have done the zucchini in the oven as well as fried, and frankly like it almost as much, so often do it that way.
Rutabaga on April 19, 2020

For a fast-to-prepare meal, I made this recently using jarred pesto (not as good as homemade, but still nice) and sautéed asparagus in place of the zucchini. It's a good recipe to turn to for a quick, fresh-tasting meal.
anya_sf on July 16, 2018

The zucchini had to be fried in batches, but didn't really take that long. I only used enough oil to thinly coat the pan - maybe a few tablespoons, nowhere near 2/3 cup. Due to the basil puree, the salad ends up fairly oily anyway. We really enjoyed this. I might add a bit more lemon zest or a bit of juice next time. I used 1 cup edamame and 4 zucchinis to up the veggies a bit. I'll make this again.
pistachiopeas on June 28, 2017

Made this again and we both really loved it, again, maybe even more than last time. I didn't mind frying the zucchini either. Smitten Kitchen points out that not much of the oil gets absorbed by the zucchini and looking at the pan, I'd agree.
Rutabaga on August 24, 2015

I made this recipe again today; sadly, it had been a few years since I last made it, even thought it's a wonderful salad. I did run into a few issues to avoid for the future. First, using the blender to pulverize the herbs and oil simply did not work for me. The quantity was too small. After some struggle, I gave up, and finished the pesto off in the mortar and pestle. Also, I used green chickpeas in place of the edamame, as that was what I had on hand. It wasn't a bad substitution, but we definitely prefer the edamame, which has a stronger presence in the salad and offers a welcome crunch.
cilantrolime on July 06, 2014

The first time, I followed the recipe exactly. It was tasty, but I hated frying zucchini. Then I made it again a couple of weeks later. I used very nice small yellow summer squashes from the farmer's market. I roasted the zucchini slices in the oven, in a single layer, with a little oil sprayed on top. It came out wonderfully. Roasting brought out the sweetness in the zucchini. I omitted the mozzarella and didn't miss it. Lemon zest and juice are essential though.