Summertime courgette pesto pasta

Summertime … of course just at the very word THIS is draping it’s sumptuousness into your mind right now …

You know those days when it’s so hot, so still, so languid …. that you really absolutely cannot bear the thought of the oven being on for even a second?

Today was one of those.

I did brave the hob though - just for five quick minutes mind you, to boil the fresh penne pasta.

But the delicious courgette pesto is all raw so no unnecessary over-heating going on over here at all.

This is pretty much exactly as one of my very favourite food writers, Diana Henry, shared it, but I made a couple of tiny changes to it.

Her original recipe is HERE.

And I’m also putting the link to her books HERE too as I’m a huge fan so why not share the love?

I used her recipe as a starting point but didn’t really measure what I was using, so here’s kind of what I used to make a very lovely simple summer evening dinner for two …

1 courgette, peeled (mostly) and grated using a box grater

1 small garlic clove, peeled, squashed and roughly chopped

small handful of pine nuts, perhaps around 20-30g

handful of basil leaves, torn

small green chilli, chopped (optional, totally optional, I just like a bit of chilli in things)

salt and pepper

a little slosh of olive oil

Put everything into a blender or food processor and whizz up to a lovely soft paste. I like this to be quite soupy so added a little water too.. Basically, just make it perfect for you and exactly as you like it. You might need to stop a couple of times to push the mixture down the sides and get it all mixed up together.

Pour into a shallow dish and scrape all the mixture from the sides of the food processor or blender.

Add a good handful of freshly grated parmesan and some salt and freshly ground black pepepr.

Stir this lovely fragrant mixture together.

The sauce is now there, happy waiting for the pasta - so time to make the pasta!

Fresh I think is best for this dish and mainly because it’s super-quick and won’t make us too hot on this of hottest of days.

My fresh penne needed just five minutes on a low boil, then drained it was ready to put straight into the bowl of delicious courgette pesto sauce.

I just mixed it all in together, tasted - seasoned a little more - and it was ready.

I added a little more grated parmesan, a little more black pepper, and a few basil leaves to garnish and that was it.

So simple.

So delicious.

So good for these sweltering evenings when you really want to limit having the oven or hob on!

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Lemon garlic breadcrumb spaghetti

It’s all about the simplest, most delicious, spaghetti for me this year.

In all the craziness there’s something just very grounding and nurturing about it.

I just want easy. I want simplicity. I don’t want to faff around with a million ingredients.

Yes, I still love cooking, I just want it to be simple and kind of meditative. There’s something about the simplest spaghettis that provide this for me.

I hope you love making and eating this too.

For one big portion I used:

olive oil

1/2 lemon zest, just peeled off and chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled, squashed and minced

a big handful of breadcrumbs (I just blitzed a slice or two in the food processor - by the way you can do this and keep bags of breadcrumbs in the freezer and no need to defrost before using)

a small handful of fresh chopped parsley leaves

spaghetti cooked to your liking (around 75 - 100g for one)

a little of the pasta cooking water

juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon

a pinch of dried chilli flakes

salt and pepper

grated parmesan to serve, if liked

Put a slug of olive oil into a non-stick pan and then add the lemon zest and garlic.

Stir and after a few seconds - maybe 30 - when it smells incredible, tip in the breadcrumbs.

Keep stirring and cooking until the breadcrumbs are gorgeous and toasty and crisp - and then remove from the heat.

Add the chopped parsley and stir to make a lovely garlicky, lemony, toasted breadcrumb mixture - and set to one side.

Cook your spaghetti in boiling salted water but drain it a minute or two before it’s perfect and make sure to retain half a cup or so of the water it was cooking in.

Return the pasta to the pan along with a good slosh of its cooking water, a little drizzle of olive oil, the juice of 1/2-1 lemon (to your taste and also depending on how juicy your lemon is of course) and a good pinch of dried chilli flakes.

Stir it all together over a low heat for a minute and then turn the heat off.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tip in most of the breadcrumb mixture and combine.

Pour into a bowl and top with the remaining breadcrumb mixture and some grated parmesan, if you choose (to be honest it doesn’t really need it but sometimes you do).

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Beautiful Asian-inspired spaghetti

I’m currently, unashamedly, singularly, OBSESSED with the simplest pastas.

Which means yet again it’s pretty impossible to show in a picture just how good this is.

I’d actually wanted noodles but didn’t have any (I KNOW - outrageous, right?).

So I cooked some beautiful spaghetti. And this turned out so gorgeous I’m GLAD I was out of noodles.

I warmed oil in a pan and added garlic and spring onions and chilli and after 30 seconds or so when it smelt really good, I added a big ladle of the pasta cooking water and crumbled in 1/3 of a chicken Knorr stock cube and a slosh of light soy sauce.

Next time I make this i might add a little grated fresh ginger too at the start along with the garlic, onions and chilli.

Cooked for three minutes, simmering. Added the spaghetti that was deliberately a little under cooked and cooked for two more minutes.

Added a teaspoon or so toasted sesame oil and let it simmer for another minute. And then added just a little salt and a sprinkling of dried chilli flakes for seasoning.

Here’s the reminder of what you’ll need to make this:

Spaghetti

Olive oil

Garlic

Spring onions

One fresh red or green hot chilli

Pasta cooking water

A little Knorr chicken stock cube

Light soy sauce

Toasted sesame oil

Salt

Dried chilli flakes

This was so satisfying and so quick.

I really, really liked this.

It has so much of everything I love about it - it’s simple, classic, easy and has some of my favourite flavours.

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