From Garden to Table

I’ve never been a major, or even minor, courgette fan (that’s zucchini to the North Americans among you).  But they are relatively easy to grow and, certainly in our garden this year, prolific; we needed to change our attitude pronto! This week Stephen perfected his courgette, chive and mozzarella omlette, which certainly began to move me into a happier and more accepting courgette mindset.

So I decided to get on board the green squash culinary express and do something yummy for our weekly menu.  With the help of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (he is as a god to our people), I made a creamy courgette and Parmesan sauce with penne pasta. Here are the steps.  First slow cook the courgettes in olive oil and garlic until mushy.

Then mash and add in cream and Parmesan cheese.

Add penne pasta,

Then put in a bowl and eat!

Although this recipe has a creamy, cheesy loveliness to it, there was also a freshness that was perfect for a warm summer evening.  It was delicious but not heavy.  For anyone wanting to make this I got the recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s first cookbook, one of many wonderfully successful recipes that we have used from this book.

It was the River Cottage series on TV that encouraged Stephen and I to become more involved in what we eat and, ultimately, this led to us wanting to grow some of our own food.  In many ways that is what also led us to move to Canadaland in the first place.  Who would have thought that a cookbook could have such a profound affect on our lives?

So thank you Hugh, for the inspiration to grow the courgette and for the recipe that told me how to cook it.  Jolly well done indeed.