Wednesday 31 July 2013

Courgetti - a low carb dinner idea from Nigel Slater

Last night I tried out a lovely simple new recipe idea for a healthy & low carb dinner - another one from the wonderful Nigel Slater (one of my food heroes!) 

The idea is simple...instead of using carb-filled pasta, you use wafter thin ribbons of courgette - genius! It worked so well and was super-tasty and filling. I used Nigel's recipe for fresh pesto, and added some baby plum tomatoes, and some smoked sausage to the original recipe to 'meat it up' a little.

Courgetti - Courgette "pasta"
Wafer-thin ribbons of courgette fried with homemade pesto. Simple and delicious.

Ingredients

For the pesto
For the courgettes
  • courgettes, cut into ribbons with a peeler
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

    Lucy's Extras...

    4 large smoked Herta frankfurter sausages (serves 2-3)

    half a punnet of baby plum tomatoes

Preparation

  1. For the pesto, crush the garlic with a pinch of salt in a pestle and mortar. Add the basil and bash the leaves to a rough pulp. Pour in the olive oil and the pine nuts. Mix together, but leave the majority of the pine nuts intact. Add the grated pecorino and mix again. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir once more.
  2. For the courgettes, use a peeler to slice thin ribbons down the entire length of the courgettes.
  3. Add the olive oil to a large, heavy-based frying pan over a medium-low heat. Carefully place the sliced sausages and baby plum tomatoes into the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes, then add the courgette ribbons and cook until they just begin to soften
  4. Add the pesto to the courgette pan, using a spatula to ensure you don't leave any behind in the mortar.
  5. Cook for a further minute to warm the pesto through but avoid overcooking the courgettes, then serve immediately.

    T'ah Dah! Yummy filling dinner full of fresh ingredients and low on carbs! 

    I couldn't resist tweeting the picture of my finished dinner to lovely Nigel Slater (@NigelSlater on Twitter), and thanking him for his simple but effective recipe idea... and ever the gentleman, he replied to my tweet saying that it "looks amazing lucy!" how lovely :-)


My tweet from lovely Nigel! 

Have you tried any healthy and simple recipes recently?

Mrs B

xxx