[recipe] Courgette, Mushroom and Bacon pasta
Note to veggies: I think the bacon is one of the least important bits of this recipe, I think it would probably work without, or by substituting further veg. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
I haven't done a recipe post in an age. Mainly because I've been using Jamie's Kitchen and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat a lot more than I ever used to use recipe books. Quite aside from the ethical stance of Hugh's regarding meat that I particularly admire and agree with (basically that animals should live a humanely treated life until the point of humane slaughter), one thing that came into my kitchen after reading Meat was a grill pan.
Now, I had mostly considered a grill pan to be what I cook toast on, under a grill. However, as we all know, grills can heat from below (e.g. barbecue, steak grill), and a grill pan can be what I used to consider a griddle. I'm not too clear on the exact distinction, to be honest, but we did acquire a Le Creuset grill pan as a result of our reading. And we've tried it out on a few things, including sausages, asparagus, pork, to name a few. Today I decided to reinvent one of my older recipes using it.
Courgette, mushroom and bacon pasta was an occasional meal of mine before I met nisaba, but she's not really a big fan of courgettes, so I'd pretty much forgotten about it until for some reason I remembered it today. As she's out tonight, I decided to give it a go. It's one of the few pasta dishes I like that doesn't really have a separate sauce.
Ingredients (serves 1):
I put the pasta on the boil - this should be as good quality as you can get - it doesn't have to be fresh, but it probably wouldn't work with some of the cheaper brands on the shelves. I particularly like Waitrose's own brand, as well as the kind you might pick up at the local deli. I leave it to cook according to the packet instructions.
At the same time, I put a couple of rashers of bacon on the oiled grill pan, turning often, keeping up a medium heat and turning regularly to prevent sticking. As the bacon was finishing cooking, I started to put as many of the courgette slices in the grill pan until the pan was full (I got almost all in). Again, the key was to turn these regularly and keep up the heat. Once the bacon was cooked, I removed it to a chopping board and replaced it with the mushrooms. Cook until all the courgettes are going nicely black along the raised grill bits and browning in the middle. Cut up the bacon into small strips now. Grilling mushrooms is interesting, as they burn so quick, I might have been tempted to fry them off elsewhere, but I'm washing up. Drain the pasta when cooked, empty it into a bowl. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil (check its one you like the taste of!) over the pasta, you don't need to go mad, just enough to thinly coat all of the pasta. I then put the parmesan on top of this, then just put the bacon, mushrooms and courgette on top of that. Eat.
If anyone particularly likes the sound of this recipe, or wants more detail, let me know, I am probably at home alone again on Thursday so will probably cook it again and could even take photos if particularly desired.
I haven't done a recipe post in an age. Mainly because I've been using Jamie's Kitchen and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat a lot more than I ever used to use recipe books. Quite aside from the ethical stance of Hugh's regarding meat that I particularly admire and agree with (basically that animals should live a humanely treated life until the point of humane slaughter), one thing that came into my kitchen after reading Meat was a grill pan.
Now, I had mostly considered a grill pan to be what I cook toast on, under a grill. However, as we all know, grills can heat from below (e.g. barbecue, steak grill), and a grill pan can be what I used to consider a griddle. I'm not too clear on the exact distinction, to be honest, but we did acquire a Le Creuset grill pan as a result of our reading. And we've tried it out on a few things, including sausages, asparagus, pork, to name a few. Today I decided to reinvent one of my older recipes using it.
Courgette, mushroom and bacon pasta was an occasional meal of mine before I met nisaba, but she's not really a big fan of courgettes, so I'd pretty much forgotten about it until for some reason I remembered it today. As she's out tonight, I decided to give it a go. It's one of the few pasta dishes I like that doesn't really have a separate sauce.
Ingredients (serves 1):
- 80g fusilli
- 2 rashers bacon
- 1 courgette, sliced diagonally
- 2 large mushrooms, sliced vertically
- freshly shaved parmesan
- black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
I put the pasta on the boil - this should be as good quality as you can get - it doesn't have to be fresh, but it probably wouldn't work with some of the cheaper brands on the shelves. I particularly like Waitrose's own brand, as well as the kind you might pick up at the local deli. I leave it to cook according to the packet instructions.
At the same time, I put a couple of rashers of bacon on the oiled grill pan, turning often, keeping up a medium heat and turning regularly to prevent sticking. As the bacon was finishing cooking, I started to put as many of the courgette slices in the grill pan until the pan was full (I got almost all in). Again, the key was to turn these regularly and keep up the heat. Once the bacon was cooked, I removed it to a chopping board and replaced it with the mushrooms. Cook until all the courgettes are going nicely black along the raised grill bits and browning in the middle. Cut up the bacon into small strips now. Grilling mushrooms is interesting, as they burn so quick, I might have been tempted to fry them off elsewhere, but I'm washing up. Drain the pasta when cooked, empty it into a bowl. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil (check its one you like the taste of!) over the pasta, you don't need to go mad, just enough to thinly coat all of the pasta. I then put the parmesan on top of this, then just put the bacon, mushrooms and courgette on top of that. Eat.
If anyone particularly likes the sound of this recipe, or wants more detail, let me know, I am probably at home alone again on Thursday so will probably cook it again and could even take photos if particularly desired.