Linguini with Lemon and Courgette

A simple and quick mid-week italian supper can still be tasty.  We also have a professional tip for preparing the courgette/zucchini.

The courgette is Julienned (matchsticks, as long as the courgette is straight) and lightly salted to remove moisture.  After 20 minutes, the courgette is almost rubbery, in a good way.  Then, when we cook it with linguini, both will wind around the fork happliy together (like they just got married).

Georgio Locatelli shared this preparation in a food magazine I bought, he served the courgette with tomato and anchovy.  Here, I just used the same method with a different sauce.

There are aromats, lemon and chilli, black pepper, white wine, crème fraiche and garlic. Let's not forget pecorino cheese for the Italian umami hit.

Tip: I like to use small to medium courgettes here, there's no spongy center to discard and more green from the skin (looks pretty on the plate).  

Ingredients (2):

Sauce base (A): 

1 or 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

1/2 tsp dried de arbol chilli flakes

1/2 TBSP olive oil

1/2 TBSP butter

Sauce ingredients (B):

2 smallish courgettes, julienned, salted and rinsed (after 20 minutes).  A sieve is handy here (tip courgette into the sieve, sprinkle with salt, toss, wait then tun under the cold water tap to rinse).

1/2 lemon, zest and juice

2 TBSP crème fraiche or sour cream

2 TBSP white wine

1/4 tsp black pepper

Pasta (C):

170-200g dried linguine, cooked in salted water for 2 minutes under packet instructions 

35g grated pecorino cheese

1/3 cup, 90 ml reserved pasta water

Method:

Saute the sauce base (A) in olve oil and butter for around 1 minute, gentle heat.

Add sauce ingredients (B), cook for 5 minutes.

Add cooked linguini and stir.  Once the heat is low, add half of the pasta water then cheese.  Do the 'emulsify' trick, stirring to incorporate cheese into the sauce.

Serve with freshly grated pecorino cheese.

Tip:

I like creme fraiche, in the US it's quite expensive, prohibitively so.  Sour cream is a good swap. 

More Italian Vegetarian Pasta:

Florentine Pasta Sauce

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe