Conchiglie con Zucchine

A perfect way to eat plenty of vegetables

Put a large amount of water in a large pan and add a tablespoon of sea salt. Cover and bring to the boil.

Slice the courgettes in half and then half again lengthways. Then cut into fairly small pieces (about half a centimetre wide) - as long as the pieces are not too thin it doesn’t matter.

Chop the onion.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the chopped onions.  Cook until they are soft but not brown.

Add the courgettes into the onions.  Cook for a few minutes, season with salt and then cover. Cook the mixture for about 7 or 8 minutes or until the courgettes are well and truly soft, but not a mushy paste.

When the water boils add the conchiglie (shell shaped pasta). Stir well until the water has come back to the boil. Half way through the cooking of the pasta, spoon a couple of spoonfuls of the starchy pasta water into the pan with the courgettes. This will lengthen the sauce and help it to amalgamate with pasta.

Drain the pasta when it is ready and reserve some of the cooking liquid. I do this by filling a mug of the cooking water before I drain it.

Place the pasta in a serving dish and add the courgettes and all the juices. If it still looks a little dry, add a spoonful at a time of the reserved cooking water, stirring, until the pasta pieces are covered with some sauce.

Serve with plenty of grated parmesan cheese.

 Ingredients for 4 people

·       2 or 3 courgettes

·       olive oil

·       1 onion

·       Conchiglie pasta (about 100g per person)

·       grated parmesan

In a large serving bowl, roughly chop up the spinach and the sundried tomatoes, allowing some of the oil from the tomatoes to drizzle in to encourage the flavour.  You can add pieces of pomodorino tomatoes for added freshness if you want.

Add some more extra virgin olive oil that will eventually dress the pasta. Let it sit while the pasta is cooking to mingle the flavours a bit.

Toast the pine kernels under a grill or put them in a pan without oil and brown them.  Beware they will burn very quickly.

Add hot kernels to the spinach and tomato mixture, this again helps bring out the flavour.

When the pasta is ready, drain and add to the other ingredients in the serving bowl.  Mix thoroughly.

Ingredients

·       Baby leaf spinach 300g

·       Sundried tomatoes, 100g chopped

·       Pomodorino or cherry tomatoes optional

·       Olive oil - a generous amount 

·       Pine kernels - 50g

·       Pasta such as fusilli