Pasta with courgettes and chilli

One of those days when it was late, I was tired, I had’t done any shopping. The weather didn’t seem summery enough to do my usual pasta and courgette dish, so I did a quick foodblogsearch and hit upon a blog I had not encountered before.

It looked promising, so I tried it and was pleased with the results — it’s one of those simple sauces that can be prepared in the time it takes the pasta to cook. So StuffyerBake is now in my feedreader and my blog roll.

I often cook courgettes like this as a side vegetable (though I hadn’t thought of adding chilli before, or indeed stirring them into pasta) — they are very nice with roast chicken or duck, or even a grilled steak. Usually I salt them after grating and leave in a colander with a weighted plate on top for half an hour before squeezing out the excess moisture, but this probably isn’t necessary unless the courgettes are really large. I didn’t salt them this time, but did raise the heat to boil off the water.

For 2:
pasta of your choice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red chilli, finely chopped (I didn’t have any, and used dried flakes, but fresh would have been better)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 medium courgettes, grated
2 tbsp creme fraiche
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
black pepper
parmesan, grated

Start the pasta cooking. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a low heat, add the chilli and garlic, and stir but don’t allow to brown. Turn up the heat, add the grated courgettes and stir for a few minutes to allow any excess water to evaporate. Stir in the creme fraiche and lemon zest and season well with pepper. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce, adding some grated parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to finish.