Creamy Greek cheese and courgette pasta
This classic combination of Greek cheese and courgettes crops up again in a simple pasta dish that is perfect for lunch all year round. Eat cold in the summer, or warmed through in the winter to melt the cheese into a soft, delicious sauce.
Serves 2
1 courgette
a fistful of fresh mint, plus extra to garnish
a fistful of fresh parsley
1 tablespoon oil
zest and juice of 1⁄2 a lemon or 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled
50g Greek cheese (goat’s cheese or feta)
100ml natural yoghurt, plus a little extra to taste
70g fresh or frozen green beans, trimmed
160g pasta
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Chop off the stalk and end from the courgette. Dice and toss into a shallow roasting tin.
Pop the mint and parsley into a teacup and chop finely with kitchen scissors. Pour the oil over the herbs, add the grated lemon zest, squeeze in the juice and press in the garlic. Stir well and pour over the courgette in the roasting tin, shaking to coat it in the mixture. Pop the dish into the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes to roast.
When the courgette is cooked, tip out into a bowl, pouring in all of the juices from the roasting tin. Crumble the cheese over the roasted courgette, and mash roughly with a fork. Stir in the yoghurt, and set to one side.
Bring a pot of water to the boil and put in the spaghetti. Cook according to the packet instructions – usually simmering for around 8 to 10 minutes. After about 4 or 5 minutes, add the green beans to the pot, crank the heat up and cook them in with the pasta until soft but still a vibrant green.
Drain the spaghetti and green beans, and tip the cheesy courgette sauce in. Mix well to coat, adding extra yoghurt if you want a runnier sauce. Serve in deep comforting bowls, with additional mint leaves to garnish.
Tip: If you are short of time or don’t want to use the electricity/gas for roasting, simply grate the courgette instead of dicing it, mix with the rest of the roasting marinade ingredients and let them sit together whilst the pasta cooks. The flavour will be less intense but still utterly delicious – and super quick!
‘Creamy Greek Cheese And Courgette Pasta’ from A Girl Called Jack by Jack Monroe.
Twitter: @MsJackMonroe Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/agirlcalledjack
Categories: PASTA, Recipes & Food, VEGETARIAN
Except courgette’s provide no taste themselves. At least I know nobody who can describe the taste of a courgette apart from “tasteless unless combined with something”. I grow them mainly because they’re easy and provide bulk and fibre to a cheap meal and do a good chutney
My dear boy take back your courgette slurs! Courgettes slow roasted or sautéed with a teeny bit o salt are divine. x
Jack, I love your blog and recipes, but there’s no way on earth I could eat only 50g of pasta for my main meal and not still be hungry. I see from photos you are quite a petite lady, so possibly 50g is what you have grown accustomed to eating, but even the packet suggests 75g and I confess we are piggies who eat 100g!
Unless this is intended as a side dish, I would encourage you to rethink portion sizes for your book.
Hi Megan –
I must confess, when I make this for me and kiddo, I make 100g – and I eat more than he does! But portion sizes will be different for my book to take into account that not everyone eats little Jack portions 🙂
That’s good to know. I would’ve hated for anyone to say your meals weren’t properly budget just because they were too small. Luckily it’s very cheap to scale up the cheap carbs like pasta, rice and potatoes! 🙂 look forward to trying this one, looks really yummy!
It’s no surprise that I loved this! It was so lovely – and really fresh. Definitely a favourite here
Cooked this for the family for lunch – 5 of us – 2 teens. I upped the pasta a little (gluten free pasta for me). Didn’t change anything else as wanted to see how far it would go. Just added in a little extra yogurt as suggested. We all enjoyed it a lot and one serving left over for a lunch tomorrow. Thanks for a great recipe!
Thanks for a great recipe!
I just made this for my 19 month old for dinner, the raw zucchini version with basil instead of mint and parsley as it is what I had and it is going down very nicely, thank you, I will be trying more recipes.
Looks great. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this for the first time this week – I would say it’s my favourite but yr recipes are all so gorgeous they’re all kind of neck and neck in that department
very tasty, I used rosemary instead of parsley and went a bit overboard on the lemon and garlic, can’t wait to try it chilled for lunch tomorrow, that is if it lasts until then! A welcome reward for after the job applications are completed..
I would easily use 100gm pasta per person. We have big appetites but I don’t think we are especially greedy
Reblogged this on alittle1atswat.