Prep Time: 10 minutes

Raw pasta is one of the most amazing and perplexing dishes ever. It looks and tastes like pasta, however it is more like a salad in disguise. Spaghetti noodles are no where to be found and it's gluten free.

Zucchini pasta is served cold so it goes very well with pesto, which also is served cold traditionally. This pesto is packed with flavor and creaminess from avocados, tahini and basil, and the zucchini pasta is soft, yet firm like al dente. Because zucchini is neutral in flavor, you may even be able to trick people into believing that they are eating real pasta!

As for creating the pasta shape, there are several ways to go about it. You can julienne the zucchini with a special machine called a spiralizer which looks like a large pencil sharpener. I just bought one and I love it. They are fairly inexpensive and will change the way you prepare vegetables. It works very similarly to a a sharpener in that you crank a vegetable into a blade and curls of veggie-ribbons come out the other side.

If you don't have a spiralizer you can use a julienne tool, which is a potato peeler with notches in it to make thin ribbons, or simply use a normal potato peeler and have long, thick tagliatelle-shaped pasta.

Pasta

1 regularly sized zucchini (1 per person)

Handful of baby arugula

1 lemon, zested

1/2 cup slivered almonds

Creamy Avocado Pesto

1 avocado

6-10 Italian basil leaves

1 lemon, juiced

2 scallions

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons tahini

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Pasta

Prepare the zucchini noodles with either a spiralizer on the julienne setting, or use a peeler for long, linguini-shaped noodles. You can cut the pasta strands to whatever length you wish. Combine zucchini noodles in a bowl with washed arugula, lemon zest and almonds, set aside.

Pesto

In a food processor chop garlic and scallions until fine. Add avocado, basil, lemon, tahini and oil and blend until smooth Season with salt and pepper - to taste.

Combine

In a large salad bowl, combine the pasta and pesto and toss together. Serve immediately as the avocado will not keep for more than an hour.

Image from flickr.com