FETA, BACON, & COURGETTE PESTO PASTA

Arabella is on holiday and the house is so quiet without her constant singing…she is a die hard Frozen fan and she sings "Let it go" repeatedly….even Pascal knows every single word now! As you can see from all the recipes I cook, Arabella is a very good little eater however she does dislike a few things - duck, aubergine, mushrooms and courgettes…so I thought this is a perfect recipe for when she is not here.

This is another recipe from Fay Ripley's new cook book (although I have made a few alterations)….you will be seeing a lot of these as it is full of goodies!

Ingredients for 3 people:

2 courgettes (250g)
14 rashes of bacon
250g tagliatelle

For the pesto:

10 g bunch of fresh mint leaves
40g walnuts
75g baby leaf spinach
2 garlic cloves, peeled
150g feta, crumbled
85ml olive oil

First of all you need to make the pesto - this can actually done up to three days in advance. In a food processor, whizz the mint leaves, walnuts, spinach and garlic until chopped up finely.

 Then add in half the feta and all the oil and season.

Whizz again!

Now this is ready I would transfer it into a bowl until you need it.

You need to make "courgette ribbons" and to do this run a potato peeler down the length of the courgette and keep going all the way round until you reach the seeded bit (which goes in the bin).

Start boiling the kettle for the water for the pasta.

Dry fry the bacon in a non stick frying pan - Pascal added some butter in it towards the end to make it really crispy, it worked a treat - once cooked, set aside. I put it in the oven under a very low heat.

While the bacon is cooking, put the pasta in a large pan of boiling water and cook according to the packet's instructions.

Fry the courgette ribbons in the bacon fat for 3/4 minutes until they start to char - you may need to do this is batches but I just bunged it all in the pan.

Finally drain the pasta and then mix it with the pesto and courgette ribbons.

Finally serve with broken bits of crispy bacon on top and scatter over the rest of the feta.

Wow - this has to be one of my favourite pasta dishes now, it was delicious - so fresh and the flavours work in harmony. I would really recommend it and will definitely be doing this again very soon. We had a portion left over which I ate the next day cold like a pasta salad - it worked well like that too. I think I will try and see what Arabella thinks of it as the courgettes could easily pass as pasta and I can't see how anyone could not be a fan!