Zucchini Noodles & Homemade Marinara Sauce

Zucchini Noodles in Marinara Sauce

Let’s Make Delicious Zucchini Noodles in Homemade Marinara Sauce!

Homemade Marinara Sauce

First let’s make our homemade marinara. You can make this recipe with a high powered blender, but today I’m using my KitchenAid Hand Blender and Accessories Kit, which is a high powered blender, chopping attachment, and high-powered whisk all-in-one.

I recently did a comprehensive review of this device, which you can view here: KitchenAid Hand Blender and Accessories Kit Review.

Please note: if you are using a high powered blender, you will need to transfer the vegetables from the pot into the blender after initial cooking, then transfer them back into the pot to finish. 

If using an immersion or hand blender, like I am, you can do everything in one pot. 

This sauce will yield roughly 28 oz, which is about 7 servings.

In a medium pot, drizzle about 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Add 3 cloves garlic, 28 oz plum tomatoes (which is 8-10 tomatoes) and 1/2 white onion chopped into 4 pieces.

Turn the burner onto medium, cover and allow to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until all ingredients are cooked through. I stir just about every 2 minutes.

Then turn burner off. Add 4 tbsp fresh basil, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp sea salt, and 1 tsp ground pepper.

If you have a non-stick pan like I do, use the pan guard on the blender arm. Twist the blender arm onto the motor body to lock into place, plug in your device (unless you opted for the cordless version), then use the hand blender in the pot to pulverize the vegetables until they become pureed.

You will easily understand the technique involved. The power button won’t be pushed at all times in the beginning. You will sit the blender on top of each large vegetable then gingerly press down, easily pulverizing them. When drawing the hand blender up, you will stop pressing the power button, to avoid splashing.

When the primary pulverizing is done, you will go in a circular motion with the hand blender until it’s entirely pulverized. This whole process takes about 2-3 minutes. 

Remember, you never want the motor body portion of the hand blender to be submerged, but you want the mixture to be deep enough for splashing to be at a minimum. It’s important to pick the right sized pot to accommodate this sweet spot in the height of your recipe. 

When finished, we add 1 bay leaf, stir it in, turn the burner back on to medium low, cover, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Once your sauce is done, give it a taste to make sure you don’t need to adjust the spices. Cover and move your sauce to the back burner. 

Zucchini Noodles

Now, let’s spiralize some zucchini. I’m using a really fun device today.

It’s the Kitchenaid Spiralizer Attachment. It attaches to any kitchenaid stand mixer and it spiralizes produce as well as creating perfectly uniform slices. I recently did a review and tutorial on this spiralizer, which you can view here: KitchenAid Spiralizer Attachment Review.

For your reference, one zucchini is perfect for 1 serving. To make the full recipe, you would spiralize 7 zucchini. Today, I’m just going to spiralize one and add one serving of sauce to it, which is about 4 oz. But feel free to make the full recipe for guests or meal prep (after cooking, this recipe freezes and reheats extremely well). 

Let’s spiralize the zucchini using the medium spiralizer blade. After doing this, we cut the very long noodles that were created into spaghetti length portions. I like to do this with kitchen shears. 

In a pan, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil. Add in your zucchini. Turn the burner on to medium heat. Cover and allow to cook for about 3-5 minutes. Try to make them not too soft. Think of it just like pasta, you want them al dente.

Now add in roughly 4 oz of our homemade marinara sauce and mix it well. Then plate and serve it with a little parmesan to the top and perhaps a tbsp of capers if you enjoy those.  

This is such a delicious meal. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!