This is one of the many recipes that I have devised to use up the massive glut of courgettes that you get in the summer time (if you grow them yourself or even if you have a veg box).
The inspiration came from the classic Italian pasta dish of broccoli and anchovies but I have added some dill to give it an additional dimension. In my mind there is no need to have any cheese with this dish but of course you can add it if you wish. At the weekend I will cook the onions for longer but during the week I don’t have over 30 minutes to wait for the onions to soften. To speed it up, I will cook them on a slightly higher heat and accept that they won’t have dissolved into a sweet puree and move on.
Recipe: Courgette Pasta
Ingredients
- 1/2 Tin of Anchovies
- 1 Medium Onion
- 3 Courgettes – Thinly Sliced
- 1 Clove of Garlic – Finely Chopped
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Dill – Roughly Chopped
- Dried Pasta – I like Orecchiette but any shape will do
Instructions
- Add the anchovies, with their oil, into a pan on a gentle heat.
- Soften the onions in the melting anchovies with a lid on for about 15 minutes.
- Add the sliced courgette and garlic, stir thoroughly and replace the lid. Cook for a further 15 minutes on a low heat.
- Put the pasta into plenty of rapidly boiling salted water; this should take about 10 minutes.
- Keep stirring the courgettes, after the pasta has been cooking for 5 minutes add a ladle of the pasta water to the courgette mixture. The pasta water helps to stop the courgettes drying out and also brings the flavours of the sauce together.
- When the pasta is cooked, strain it and drizzle with extra virgin oil in its colander. Make sure that you put colander over the cooking pan to catch any of the starchy oil.
- Tip the pasta into courgette mix, add the dill. If it’s a bit dry, add some of the starchy oil in the cooking pan and some additional olive oil.
Quick notes
You can speed this dish up by putting the heat up and stirring constantly. It won’t be as subtle as if you have cooked it slowly, but it will be lovely all the same. I use a mix of varieties of courgettes as that is what I grow. I do believe that they do have more flavour than the shop bought ones but they do work as well.
Variations
I sometimes add some other greens, like broccoli or kale, into this. It also works well if you add a little bit of chilli at the beginning, not to make it spicy but to give it a subtle kick.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 30 – 60 minute(s)
Diet type: Pescatarian
Number of servings (yield): 2
Culinary tradition: Italian