Pesto. Fresh Pasta. Courghetti.

Still:

Northwesterly backing southwesterly 5 or 6.

Slight or moderate. Showers. Good.

They lie. It did not rain.

Pesto.

I am not that fond of pasta. I have nothing against it, but if you, like I did, ate out a lot in the 80s, you had enough pasta for a lifetime.

But Pesto is a thing of beauty, as long as you make it yourself. The shop bought varieties are horrid. They use the cheaper cashew nuts instead of pine nuts, inferior oil and bulk it often up with potato flakes.

However it is dead easy to make yourself and, if you have basil in the garden or on the windowsill, cheaper than buying it. Despite the fact that pine nuts are blooming expensive.

Again, use your pestle and mortar. I don’t have anything against food processors, but first of all I like the Zen like pounding of food; and second good quality olive oil can acquire a funny taste in a food processor.

By all means use a food processor if you have arthritis in your hands, but use the interval chopping method.

Fresh Pasta.

The word pasta is great. It encapsulates all kind of noodle shapes and you don’t need to discuss if you had spaghetti or fettuccine or linguine. I had pasta. Fresh pasta. Dont worry, I am not buying a pasta machine for the 5 times per year I eat it. But I cut it myself, hence the generic term pasta. You can buy fresh pasta (lasagne) sheets. Ocado sells the Natoora Fresh Egg Lasagne Sheets. Yes, they are expensive but it is a lot for one person. And they freeze well. Take a sheet, cut it in half and cut then pasta shapes (a pizza cutter is great for it). Very thin, wide, in between, or crooked. Keep a quarter of a sheet for open ravioli, put each pile of shapes into a freezer bag and up into the freezer. Cook from frozen. Fresh pasta everytime you want it. Today I use the crooked shape.

Most days I use the crooked shapes. I was never very good in manual labour which requires patience and attention to detail. Someone who can knit or crochet is my hero.

Courghetti.

Unless you live under a rock, you have heard that some people have an irrational fear of carbohydrates. Or are on a diet and hope it helps them to cut the carbs. You might even have heard the word “paleo” (don’t get me started; it’s one of my pet hates)

And green is anyway the new black (I promise you I never provide you with recipes for green smoothies, some things are just abominable).

Enter the spiralizer. I don’t have one but I have a julienne peeler. 

That will do.

Now, the reason I try this out is plain curiosity. How will it compare to the pasta with my awesome pesto? Could that be a summer dish (you don’t really cook the courgette, you just toss it in oil or eat them raw)? Is it just a fad and not worth doing?

Pesto:

about 10-15 basil leaves (depending on size), picked from the stem

2 teaspoons of pine nuts

1 small garlic, peeled

a tiny sprinkle of salt

about 4 tablespoon of good olive oil

about 1 teaspoon of coarsely grated Parmesan (or Vegetarian Parmesan)

Heat a pan without oil and put one teaspoon of the pine nuts in and let them take on a nice brown colour. As always with nuts it seems nothing happens for quite a while, then they turn brown very quickly. Let them cool.

While they cool down add the garlic and the salt to your pestle and mortar. Pound into a paste. Add basil leaves and the other pine nuts and continue pounding until it is smooth. Add roasted pine nuts and pound a teeny weeny bit until they are still a bit coarse. Add slowly olive oil and mix, add grated parmesan cheese.

Pasta:

Since fresh pasta cooks quickly and you had them frozen, you need a big pot which doesn’t cool down. Bring slightly salted water to the boil, you need to be able to surf on it. Add frozen pasta, turn up the heat and cook until they are done (about 5 minutes). Drain, but retain a bit of the pasta water.

Put two tablespoon of pesto into a bowl, add two tablespoons of the water and the drained pasta. Mix. Add black pepper and/or parmesan to taste.

Courghetti:

Peel courgette and with a julienne knife (or a spiralizer), make lovely short spaghetti like shapes.

Add to draining bowl, sprinkle with salt and let the water drain a bit from them. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan and add the Courghetti. Let them dry out and get a bit of colour. Add to a bowl, put two tablespoons of pesto on it and mix very carefully with two forks.

Verdict:

I ate the courghetti first to see how filling they are.

The pesto was gorgeous, albeit a bit too smooth. Maybe next time I will toast all the pine nuts.

The courghetti were actually quite nice and quite filling. While I was glad that I had the pasta on top of it, this might have something to do with portion size. One courgette is hardly a main dish for a grown woman, diet or not. But if you are not that hungry, a dish like this, with maybe a handful of cherry tomatoes and a few slices of mozzarella will give you a nearly carb free lunch for the summer. However I had the feeling it would benefit from a squeeze of lemon.

Well, most dishes benefit from a bit of lemon. Do try it out. You might be surprised what a difference it makes to all your dishes.