Sam Lomas' Slow Cooked Courgette Pasta
Pasta corbwmpenni Sam Lomas wedi'i goginio'n araf
We were delighted to welcome Great British Menu chef Sam Lomas to the Salty Isle a few summers back, cooking for a crowd of lucky diners under canvas and stars. He kindly shared this recipe which we enjoyed on the evening.
Ingredients
- 60g orecchiette
- 400g small courgettes
- 4 plum tomatoes
- 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 1 heaped tbsp tarragon, chopped
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 150g soft goats cheese
- Halen Môn Pure Sea Salt
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- Hard herbs, such as rosemary, sage, bay leaves and marjoram Flowering fennel and marjoram (optional)
Method
- Preheat oven to 160c.
- Quarter the tomatoes and arrange on a small baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, a good scattering of the hard herbs and plenty of sea salt and pepper.
- Roast in the oven for 1 hour until the tomatoes start to intensify in flavour and become crinkly at the edges.
- Slice the courgettes thinly into rounds.
- Set a wide heavy based frying pan on a medium heat. Add plenty of olive oil to the base of the pan, be generous here, the olive oil is a really crucial part of the sauce so you will need a good couple of tablespoons.
- Start sizzling the sliced garlic in the olive oil and when it starts to become slightly golden add the sliced courgettes and season well.
- Slowly cook down the courgettes in the olive oil, this will take a minimum of 15 minutes. You want the courgettes to soften and start to break down at the edges and the excess water evaporates.
- Bring a pan of heavily salted water to the boil and cook the orecchiette for 10 minutes, drain and reserve some of the pasta cooking water.
- Take the roasted tomatoes and add to the pan with the courgettes, ensuring you get any of the juices from the roasting tin.
- Add the al dente orecchiette to the pan of courgettes and tomatoes, stir in the chopped tarragon along with a good splash of the pasta water to create a creamy sauce. Season with more salt, pepper and olive oil to taste.
- Scatter over the soft goats cheese, fennel and oregano flowers and serve. RECIPE: Sam Lomas
