Spirooli Slicer

Pesto is one of those sauces that just screams summer to me.  Growing up every relative in my family would plant huge boxes of basil and bring me their picked basil leaves at the end of Summer to make into pesto sauce for them.  In those days before “raw” meant a thing to me, I would make the pesto with fresh walnuts, grated parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil and basil; now I leave out the parmesan and no one ever even notices.  My grandmother taught me to place the prepared pesto sauce in ice cube trays to freeze for later use throughout the Fall and Winter in dishes like rice, pasta and roasted vegetables.

I’ve broken down this recipe so you can make the pesto sauce separately from the ricotta cheese sauce and freeze it in ice cube trays for future dishes if you wish.  If you do not wish to freeze the pesto for future use, you can save time by combining all of the ingredients for the pesto and ricotta cheese sauces in a food processor all at once and make one sauce instead of two.

Equipment You Will Need: a spirooli slicer, a food processor, a dehydrator (optional)

For The Pesto Sauce:

• 1 bunch of pesto (about 2 cups leaves)

• 2-3 large cloves garlic, crushed

• 6 T Extra-virgin olive oil (plus more if desired)

• 2-3 T walnuts (optional)

•  Sea Salt to taste

In a food processor combine the olive oil and garlic and process until garlic is finely chopped.  Add the basil, walnuts and sea salt to taste.  You should have a paste like consistency.  If you prefer a thinner sauce just keep adding olive oil until you reach a desireable consistency.

For the Ricotta Sauce:

• 1 cup raw pine nuts, soaked for 4 hours

• 2 T nutritional yeast

• Zest of one lemon

• 1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice

• 3 T filtered water

• Sea Salt to taste

• Freshly ground pepper to taste (optional)

Place pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon zest and lemon juice in the food processor and process until combined.  Gradually add in the water until a fluffy ricotta consistency develops. Taste and add sea salt and fresh ground pepper accordingly.

For the Zucchini Spaghetti Noodles:

• 6 small zucchini (1-1.25 inches diameter) or 3 large zucchini (2-2.5 inches diameter), washed and dried

• More lemon zest (optional)

• Basil leaves cut in chiffonade slices (optional)

• Handful of toasted whole pinenuts (optional…not 100% raw I realize, but man are they good!)

Cut of the tops and bottoms off of each zucchini.  Run each zucchini through a spirooli slicer fitted with the largest hole slicer.  Place spiraled zucchini into a large mixing bowl.   Mix pesto sauce with the ricotta sauce until almost fully combined.  Pour resulting sauce over the zucchini spaghetti noodles until spaghetti is thoroughly covered. Dust with more lemon zest, slivers of basil and/or toasted pinenuts if desired*.

Zucchini Spaghetti

Optional: Another nice way to finish this dish is to warm the sauced spaghetti in a baking dish in a dehydrator set at 145o for 30-40 minutes before serving.  *Dust with lemon zest and basil after warming in the dehydrator.