If you miss pasta (and really who doesn’t?) you’ll love this quick and easy low calorie, low carb zucchini pappardelle in a garlicky sauce. No special equipment required, you just use a vegetable peeler to create the pappardelle!
For this recipe you’ll need: zucchini, olive oil, garlic powder, olives, Parmesan, cracked black pepper, kosher salt, and Mozzarella cheese.
If you are in a hurry click here to go straight to the recipe.

I could eat Italian food every single night of the week. Except Saturday because on Saturdays I’d have Asian food… and maybe Sunday so I could have French… I could eat Italian food a lot.
I love the sauces and how they cling to the pasta. I love the way the pasta looks on the plate. I love the seasonings. BUT I absolutely hate the carbs. Ick.
Pappardelle pasta is basically a very wide, very thin, very long egg noodle. It’s wonderful with a ragu or other chunky sauce because there’s more surface area for the ingredients to cling to because of the width. A couple of months ago my husband and I were at Boulvardier in Bishop Arts District here in Dallas and I splurged and ordered the pappardelle with wild boar ragu. OMG it was unbelievably good. So full of carbs, though!
Yesterday I got my hair done (yay!) and I was starving when I got home. I really wanted pasta and had almost given in to my cravings and hit my favorite Italian place on the way home. As I sadly drove past my beloved restaurant I promised myself that when I got home I’d fix some sort of low carb pasta type dish that would knock my socks off.
I’m a stickler for keeping promises. I’ve broken promises on occasion but it’s rare and there was no way I was going to break this promise! I had some zucchini in the vegetable drawer and I figured that it would work great for pasta if it wasn’t overcooked.
I was right.

I just gave it a quick sear in a garlicky olive oil, stirred in the remaining ingredients and piled it in a pasta bowl. That stuff disappeared pretty darn quick! It would be great with a meat sauce on it as well — I don’t think it would be good with alfredo because the delicate zucchini woud be overwhelmed by the creamy sauce.
Anyway, give this a try. It’s got under 200 calories and just 3.7 carbs per serving. There’s not a lot of protein but you could add grilled chicken to the plate and it would be delicious. One of my favorite ways to eat pasta has always been with butter or olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, pepper, garlic, and Parmesan so this was perfect for me.
A vegetable peeler is a necessity. You can’t slice the zucchini thin enough to make the pappardelle. You just pull the peeler down the length of the zucchini to create wide noodles. No need to peel. Get a good olive oil because this dish is simple and the olive oil will make a huge difference. You can use Kalamata olives, black olives, green olives, or whatever kind you like.
Here’s that low carb zucchini pappardelle recipe. Let me know what you think. 🙂

Table of Contents
Zucchini Pappardelle
Ingredients
- 4 ounces zucchini thinly sliced vertically with a vegetable peeler
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped olives
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan
- 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 tablespoon shredded Mozzarella
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a heavy pan until sizzling.
- Carefully add the zucchini and saute gently and briefly until tender but not mushy.
- Stir in the olives, Parmesan, pepper, garlic powder and salt.
- Remove from heat.
- Add to dish and garnish with the mozzarella.
Notes
Carbs – 5.4
Fiber – 1.7
Sugars 2.1
Fat – 17.4
Protein 4.1
Nutrition
If you liked this low carb zucchini pappardelle you may also like…
- Old Fashioned Stuffed Peppers
- Chewy Low Carb Pizza Crust
- Keto Zucchini Bread
- Creamy Sun Dried Tomato, Parmesan, and Chicken Zoodles Cafe Delights



Yum, I love zucchini!! I can’t wait for my city’s farmer’s market to return, where it always feels like they have ALL the zucchini in August, lol! Love the flavor profile of the olives and garlic.
SO good! I love olives and garlic! Must be the Italian in me. 😉