A week and a half ago i met superchef Michael in an ayahuasca workshop. I’m not sure whether it was his fantastic guitar music and drumming and singing, or his wild ginger hairdo, his wonderful little daughter, the zucchini spaghetti he and Ariella served us, or all of the above, but since then i’ve felt a little bit in love – with the whole wide world.

Of all those beautiful things, there was one that i could recreate at home. Spaghetti made of zucchini, isn’t that brilliant? Now that i’ve encountered it, it seems to be everywhere. But until last week the thought had never occurred to me.

I make spaghetti from zucchini now using a julienne cutter, which i got for only € 6,95.

Here you go, my version of the recipe by Michael and Arielle (from Restaurant Golden Temple in Amsterdam):

Recipe for Zucchini Spaghetti

Cook some tomato chunks (ca 390 ml) with herbs in a pan and cook slowly until the sauce thickens and tastes a bit more sweet. Roast 100gr of roughly chopped walnut in a dry pan. Chop 8 dried tomatoes with a small handful of pine nuts, a tablespoon of fresh parsley and one tablespoon of fresh basil. Stir in the tomato mixture with the tomato sauce.

Cut one zucchini into spaghetti strings. Drizzle with some olive oil and lemon zest (grated lemon rind).

Put the zucchini on a plate, spoon on the tomato sauce and to with walnuts and some pepper and salt and olive oil if you wish.

Zucchini with walnut (oil) and lemon rind is really a winning combination. Try it!

For an extra tasty, hearty tomato sauce:

Fry a small onion in some oil until it’s brown (but not burnt). Add a small clove of garlic, fuinely chopped. fry for an additional 30 secs and then add the tomato chunks.

In stead of onions, you can also use black semi-dried olives. Make sure to use good ones. The ones we in Holland get in the supermarket, are not good. Go to a specialist and taste a few different varieties. You’ll be amazed by the differences in taste and say goodbye to the salty supermarket crappy ones forever!