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This oven-baked Boursin zucchini pasta is the kind of summer dinner hack that feels way too easy for how good it tastes. Everything goes into one glass casserole dish — uncooked pasta, fresh zucchini, a wheel of Boursin, and broth — and the oven does all the heavy lifting. You end up with creamy, herby pasta that looks like you actually tried.
Why You’ll Love This One
Only 4 ingredients — no chopping beyond the zucchini, no boiling pasta separately, nothing fancy required
One dish, minimal cleanup — everything bakes together in a single glass casserole dish
The sauce makes itself — the Boursin melts down into the broth as it bakes and coats every piece of pasta in a creamy, garlicky herb sauce
Weeknight-proof — hands-on time is maybe 5 minutes; the oven handles the rest
Endlessly flexible — stir in rotisserie Chicken, white beans, or cherry tomatoes without adding any real effort
A Few Notes on the Ingredients
The Boursin matters. I know there are other herbed cream cheeses out there — I’ve seen them, I’ve used them — but the Garlic & Fine Herbs Boursin is really what you want here. It’s got the right salt level and that specific herbiness that makes the sauce taste like you seasoned it yourself even though you literally just opened a package and dropped it in the dish. If your store has the shallot and chive variety, that works too. The black pepper one is good but it comes through stronger than you’d expect, so just know what you’re getting into.
Short pasta. I’ve used rotini, penne, fusilli, and once — when I was out of everything else — bowties. They all work. What you don’t want is something too long or too delicate. This isn’t a spaghetti situation.
Broth over water if you can swing it. Low-sodium vegetable broth or Chicken broth, whatever you have. The pasta absorbs so much of the liquid that if you use plain water the end result can taste a little flat. It’s not wrong, exactly, but broth gives it that extra layer.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces short pasta — rotini, penne, fusilli, something like that
- 2 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into half-moons (I probably cut mine a little thicker than I should, but it works out)
- One 5.2-ounce round of Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs cheese, the whole thing
- About 2½ cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth — maybe a little more depending on your dish and your pasta
Here’s How You Do It
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Get out your glass casserole dish — mine is 9×13 and I use it constantly, for everything, probably too much — and don’t worry about greasing it. The broth and the cheese do enough to keep things from sticking.
Scatter your uncooked pasta across the bottom of the dish. Just pour it in and spread it around so it’s more or less even. Then lay your zucchini over the top — try to get it somewhat distributed so you’re not ending up with one corner that’s all pasta and one that’s all vegetables. Nestle the Boursin round right in the center, still in its little wheel shape. Don’t unwrap it and smear it around. Just set it right on top and let it do what it’s going to do.
Pour your broth over everything. You want most of the pasta submerged — it doesn’t have to be perfect, and a few pieces sticking up are fine. Press down any dramatic outliers with a spoon. Cover the whole dish tightly with foil. This step is important. The first time I made this I pulled the foil off halfway through because I got impatient and wanted to check on it, and the pasta on top got weirdly dried out before the rest was done. Keep the foil on for the full first 25 minutes. Just trust it.
When you pull it out after 25 minutes, the Boursin will have started softening and there will be this beautiful smell coming off the dish — that garlic and herb situation is pretty wonderful. Give it a gentle stir to start working the cheese into the liquid. Then back in the oven, uncovered this time, for another 10 to 15 minutes. Stir once halfway through. You’re waiting for the pasta to get tender and for most of the liquid to become sauce.
If your pasta still seems firm at the end and things are looking a little dry — this has happened to me, I think when I eyeballed the broth and came up short — just splash in some hot broth or water, stir, and give it five more minutes. It’ll get there.
Once it’s done, stir everything vigorously to really work that melted Boursin into all the nooks and crannies. I use a big wooden spoon and just mash and fold until the sauce looks smooth and everything’s coated. Let it sit on the counter for a few minutes before you serve it. The sauce thickens a little as it cools and it goes from “good” to “really good” in that window.
Serve right from the dish. Big spoon. Make sure each scoop has pasta and zucchini and that creamy sauce.
Variations
Stir in a cup of shredded rotisserie chicken at the end if you’ve got bigger appetites. You just pull it apart and fold it in right after the dish comes out of the oven, and by the time you’ve let it rest a few minutes, the chicken is warm and everything tastes like it was planned that way. A can of drained white beans works the same way if you’re going meatless.
I’ve added cherry tomatoes — halved, just scattered over the top in the last five minutes of uncovered baking — and they collapse down and get jammy and it’s really pretty. That’s the version I make when someone’s coming for dinner and I want it to look like I did a little more than I did.
If you only have water, it’s fine. Taste it at the end and season with a little salt. If you’re using full-sodium broth, taste before adding any extra salt because Boursin already brings some.
Leftovers
This keeps in the fridge for a few days, maybe three or four. When you reheat it, add a small splash of water or broth to the container and stir it in — the pasta absorbs a lot overnight and it can seem dry when you first pull it out, but it loosens up with a little liquid and heat. I’ve eaten it straight from the refrigerator container standing at the counter, which is not something I’m proud of but is also not something I regret.
Oven Baked 4-Ingredient Boursin Zucchini Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz short pasta such as rotini, penne, or fusilli
- 2 medium zucchini halved lengthwise and cut into half-moons
- 5.2 oz Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs cheese one full round
- 2 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth plus more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Scatter the uncooked pasta evenly across the bottom of a 9x13-inch casserole dish.
- Arrange the zucchini half-moons evenly over the pasta.
- Place the whole round of Boursin cheese in the center of the dish.
- Pour the broth over everything, making sure most of the pasta is submerged.
- Press down any pasta sticking far above the liquid.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
- Carefully remove the foil and gently stir to begin mixing the softened Boursin into the broth.
- Return the dish to the oven, uncovered, and bake for 10–15 minutes more, stirring once halfway through, until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid has turned into sauce.
- If the pasta is still firm and the dish looks dry, add a splash of hot broth or water and bake for 5 more minutes.
- Stir vigorously until the melted Boursin forms a smooth, creamy sauce that coats the pasta and zucchini.
- Let the pasta rest for a few minutes before serving.