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I Tried Making Meghan Markle's Pasta Recipe And Here's What Happened

Was the four-hour sauce *really* worth it?

If you like pasta, you'll be pleased to know that Meghan Markle has a zucchini bolognese pasta recipe that's by now pretty much as famous as the royal duchess herself.

Wpa Pool / Getty Images, Via Instagram: @stronghungrygirl

The recipe asks you to cook zucchini and onions down for four (!) whole hours — which is supposed to transform the veggies into into a magical, velvety, glorious sauce*.

*Or so says Meg.

And as a lover of delicious vehicles for rigatoni myself, I knew I had to test it out.

FOX

To start out, I chopped my zucchinis and onions into small pieces.

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

No need to slice them into perfect little slices, as I later realized, since they'll be cooked down into smithereens.

I then tossed the chopped onion into some olive oil and let it sizzle away.

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

Once the onion was slightly cooked, I added the zucchini, a bouillon cube, and water, and set the heat to low, as the recipe instructed. EASY PEASY.

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

Now the most important part: letting all the ingredients cook down for FOUR HOURS.

NBC

But what they don't tell ya in the recipe is you can't just let the pot sit unattended for four hours — you have to check it about every half hour to make sure the water hasn't evaporated and that your zucchini isn't burning.

Here's what my zucchini sauce looked like one hour after cooking:

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

The water had all but dissipated, so I had to add another cup at this point. Note that the recipe calls for just half a cup for the entire recipe, but that'll evaporate out pretty quickly, even with the lid on. 😑

And two hours after cooking:

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

Again, the water evaporated and parts of the zucchini had started burning a little, so I added another cup of water and stirred.

And finally, after four hours, here's what the final result looked like:

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

I definitely did not imagine the color would turn so brown-red, but I figure that's a result of the slow-cooking process caramelizing the onions and zucchini, the bouillon cube, AND — I won't lie — a bit of burnt zucchini getting mixed into the sauce. Watch your pots, people!

Before serving, I tossed the pasta with some lemon juice, and topped it with parmesan and red pepper flakes and voila! Presto done-zo.

The verdict? It was good! The sauce was creamy, tasted slightly sweet, and surprisingly clung pretty well to the rigatoni.

Michelle No / BuzzFeed

This is what it looked like the night I made it, and as leftovers the day after. It was good, but its texture was less buttery than I thought it'd be. The recipe was also definitely less hands-off than expected — since you have to stir and watch the pot every now and then. But for how many vegetables I was able to pack into a single sauce (and zero sugar, heavy meats, and hardly any oil), it definitely delivered on flavor.

It kind of tasted how I'd imagine a vegetarian version of bolognese to taste — thick and meaty in texture and flavorful (honestly, thanks in large part to the bouillon) — but actually meatless.

If you want to try it out, I'd recommend doubling the recipe and making a bigger batch (to make it more worth your time), and adding at least 2 cups of water to this larger batch every hour.

I'd also be interested in trying it out in a slow cooker. With at least two cups of water per zucchini added, I have a feeling the sauce might achieve its ideal creamy consistency without burning any of the ingredients. If you try it out (with or without the slow cooker), let us know in the comments below!

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