Aspen Columnist Tackles Zucchini Glut With Creamy Pasta Sauce

Aspen —"Is zucchini coming out of anyone else’s ears?"

That is the question Katherine Roberts opens with in her latest column for the Aspen Times. She asks it every year, but this time she has a new weapon to deploy against the summer glut.

Roberts recently inherited a Nutribullet Magic Bullet from her partner, whom she identifies in the piece as "the Spaghetti Assassin." He apparently owned two units. One was still sealed in its box. Roberts now owns a personal blender that sits on her kitchen counter, and she is using it to crush the late-summer vegetable babies into oblivion.

The short version: She made a zucchini sauce over Labor Day weekend. Her "attic hoarder companion" gave it rave reviews.

The recipe yields two cups and calls for five medium zucchini. It is a heavy-hitter of ingredients. You need half a yellow onion, two cloves of garlic, arugula, basil, pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano, lemon, and heavy cream. It is not a quick stir-fry. Roberts details the process: sauté four zucchinis in rounds, then grill one zucchini cut into planks. She likes the different textures the grilling provides. She also admits she likes to turn a 20-minute cooking task into an hour-long affair.

Roberts wrote that she has been putting zucchini on every possible plate of pasta all summer. This sauce is the next step. You blend the cooked vegetables with arugula, basil, pine nuts, oil, and lemon juice until smooth. Then you add the cheese. You warm it with heavy cream and toss it with your choice of cooked pasta.

The recipe is designed for mid-September, when the zucchini are peaking and the goal is simply to get rid of them. Roberts notes that you can use any type or size of zucchini. She also includes a critical warning in her cook’s notes: Do not blend the cheese until it is fully incorporated. It takes about 30 seconds more after the initial blending.

Roberts is not alone in this struggle. The Western Slope grows a lot of zucchini. If you have a garden, you know the weight of those green logs on your counter. The Magic Bullet is not magic. It is a small, loud appliance that turns vegetables into paste. But for Roberts, it is the tool that finally solves the problem of what to do with five medium zucchini at once.

She mentions her partner keeps "blending into my life" in the form of piles of boxes adorning their attic. Some of those boxes are useful for kitchen creations. The rest are just clutter.

Roberts ends her column with a photo caption that repeats the opening question: "Is zucchini coming out of anyone else’s ears?"

The answer, for most people in the valley right now, is yes.