This is one of my simple go to pastas that you don’t need a whole lot of ingredients or time to make. I make it almost every week at the moment, or whenever I have zucchini that needs using up. It’s simple, tasty and quick – everything I want in a mid week pasta dish.

I think I’m posting one zucchini recipe a week at the moment which might be getting a little boring for you all! I can’t help it though, they’re just so plentiful right now and cheap – thanks summer. I love zucchini with lemon as it brings out the flavour and he chilli and garlic in this recipe mean you get a whole lot of extra flavour going on too. This is similar to my broad beam and zucchini cassarecce recipe but even simpler.

When a recipe is this simple you need to make sure the ingredients are amazing so use fresh good quality produce, the best olive oil you can afford and good quality pasta. You could use a gluten free brand or spelt if your sensitive to wheat. Or try a lentil based pasta instead for extra protein.

You can throw this together in the time it takes to cook the pasta so it’s a great weeknight meal when you’re time and energy poor!

Serves 2

Ingredients

240g linguini (approx is fine)

3 tsp olive oil

300g grated zucchini (about 2)

1-2 tsp finely chopped red chilli (less or more depending on how much heat you want and how hot the chilli is)

1 clove garlic

1 Tbs finely chopped parsley stalks

1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

2 tsp lemon zest

1 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs Roasted almonds, roughly chopped

Directions

Bring a pot of well salted water to the boil. Add linguini and cook for recommended time.

Heat a medium heavy based fry pan on medium high heat and add 1 tsp of olive oil to lightly coat the base. Once hot add the zucchini, chilli, garlic and parsley stalks, turn the heat down a little and gently sautee until starting to caramelise a little. If it starts to stick and 1/4 cup of the pasta water at a time to loosen. Season with salt and black pepper and turn off the heat.

By now your pasta should be cooked, drain, reserving 1/2 a cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta to your zucchini along with a a few tablespoons of the cooking water, 3/4 of  parsley, parmesan, 2tsp olive oil, 1 tsp lemon zest and the lemon juice. Toss to coat the pasta. If it seems dry and a bit more pasta water.

Serve with extra parmesan, the remaining parsley, almonds and lemon zest sprinkled over the top.

HH. x