A slight variation on my courgette balls with tomato sauce made with roasted fresh tomato sauce.
Here is a picture guide
Fry
Drain
Place in a dish
Roast
Whiz
Smother
Then whack it in the oven while you cook the spaghetti
Courgette Balls Revisited
16 09 2010Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: courgette, sauce, spaghetti, tomato
Categories : General
Spaghetti with Garlic and Chili
4 07 2009One of my favourite meals. So simple, yet so delicious. I didn’t eat till late last night hence the dark photo.
Enough Spaghetti for the number of people you are serving
Lashings of olive oil – about 3 tablespoons per person
1 dried red chili per person
1 clove garlic per person
salt
black pepper
bunch of parsley
parmesan
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the pack
Meanwhile take a small frying pan. Add the oil, crushed chilis, finely chopped garlic, salt and black pepper.
When the spaghetti is done, turn the heat on under the frying pan. Drain the pasta and return to the warm pan. When the garlic and chili start to sizzle in the frying pan, remove from heat and add to the spaghetti. Stir in chopped parsley and serve with grated cheese
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: chili, garlic, parmesan, spaghetti
Categories : General
Spaghetti with Peas, Asparagus and Mushrooms
21 05 2009
Simple, quick and summery, but probably didn’t really need the mushrooms as they made it a little heavy.
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
250g asparagus – chopped into chunks
about a teacup full of frozen peas
8 mushrooms – chopped
1 dried red chili – crushed
1 clove garlic – finely chopped
Parmesan cheese
Spaghetti
Bring a pan of water to the boil then throw in the peas and asparagus and boill briefly until just tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to prevent them overcooking.
Cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the pack. I haven’t put the quantity here as it depends how many you are cooking for and how hungry they are!
While the spaghetti it cooking, heat a large frying pan. Add the oil, garlic, chili and mushrooms. Fry until mushrooms tender, then add the peas and asparagus. Fry on a high heat for a couple of minutes.
Drain the spaghetti, return to the warm pan then add the vegetables from the frying pan. Stir and serve with grated Parmesan.
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Tags: asparagus, mushroom, pasta, peas, spaghetti
Categories : General
Courgette Balls with Tomato Sauce and Spaghetti
8 04 2009I had more courgettes than I knew what to do with last summer so tried inventing a few new recipes. This one went down well with the whole family, even the meat eater. Probably due to the deep deep frying element of the recipe. I based this on a courgette kofta Indian recipe, putting an Italian slant on things by replacing the Indian herbs and spices with something a little more Mediterranean.
Start by making the tomato sauce
2x400g tins chopped tomatoes
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
Heat 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan. Add the chopped garlic. As soon as the garlic sizzles add the tomatoes, bring to the boil and simmer with the lid off for 20 minutes until nice and thick. Remove from heat.
Now for the balls
3 courgettes – grated and squeezed through muslin or a tea towel to get as much water out as possible
1 small onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 egg – beaten
Salt and pepper
50-100g grated cheddar
Plain flour
Sunflower oil for deep frying
In a small frying pan heat a little more olive oil and fry the onion with the dried herbs until soft. Add this to the grated courgettes, grated cheese and mix. Add the egg, mix again then add plain flour to dry it out a little. Season with salt and black pepper. Mix well then divide the mixture into small balls – each slightly smaller than a golf ball.
Heat the sunflower oil in a deep pan and fry the balls in the hot oil until golden and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper to remove some of the excess oil.
Transfer the fried balls to an ovenproof dish, cover with the tomato sauce and bake at 180C for 20 minutes. While the balls are baking, cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the packet.
Serve the balls on a bed of spaghetti topped with shavings of fresh parmesan cheese.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: courgettes, pasta, spaghetti
Categories : General
