Courgette tagliatelle
with cherry tomatoes & basil
25 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 2
About the recipe
Beautiful baby courgettes are a source of the mineral potassium, which helps to keep your muscles working properly, as well as folic acid and vitamin C, both of which help you to think properly. With pops of sweet cherry tomatoes, crunchy pine nuts and plenty of fresh basil, this pasta dish is a great celebration of summer.
Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic
1 fresh red chilli
200g baby courgettes
100g ripe cherry tomatoes
olive oil
10g pine nuts
200g fresh spinach tagliatelle
1 bunch of fresh basil (15g)
100g baby spinach
20g Parmesan cheese
Method
- Fill a large pan with salted water, place on a high heat and bring to the boil.
- Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the garlic, then halve, deseed and chop the chilli (use a little less if you can’t handle the heat!). Halve the courgettes lengthways and thinly slice, then halve the tomatoes.
- Put a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil, the garlic and chilli. Fry for 2 minutes, or until the garlic is lightly golden.
- Add the courgettes and tomatoes, and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened.
- Add the pine nuts and 3 tablespoons of boiling water from the pot. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently while you cook the pasta.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until al dente – this means it’s cooked, but still has a bit of bite.
- Meanwhile, pick the basil leaves, reserving the small, pretty ones for serving.
- Reserving a cupful of the cooking water, drain the pasta, then return to the pan, off the heat. Add the sauce and spinach leaves, then stir until the spinach is wilted and the pasta is nicely coated, adding a splash of the cooking water to loosen, if needed.
- Finely grate in most of the cheese and fold in the big basil leaves. Serve immediately with a final grating of cheese and the reserved basil leaves sprinkled on top.
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