What am I supposed to do with a courgette? (or zucchini if you're from across the pond)

Okay, leave the rude answers at the door folks!

Seriously though, this is a recipe stolen from my Dad, who in turn probably read it in a Nigel Slater book (so please Nigel, don't sue me for copyright infringement or anything like that) after he'd grown far too many courgettes in his garden and got fed up with eating them boiled or roasted. I must confess I was more than a little skeptical when he served this up, but it's become a firm family favourite ever since.

Okay, so courgettes, not the first vegetable that most of us have in the fridge/cupboard, but surprisingly pretty cheap and easy to get hold of. Mixed in with pasta, some bacon (if you like that sort of thing, personally I do), garlic and soft cheese it makes a great mid-week dinner. It's also pretty easy on the pocket too.

So, what do you need - this will comfortably feed 3-4 people:

• 2-3 courgettes (about 10-12 inches long)
• 6-8 rashers of thick-cut smoked back bacon cut into thin strips
• 250g of pasta (tagliatelle or spirali work well, but spaghetti works just as well)
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of garlic puree
• black pepper (lots)
• soft cheese (think Philadelphia, although other brands are available, and there are some great lactose free and vegan alternatives if cheese is an issue for you)

If you're reading my recipes because I cut out processed sugar, then as with all of my recipes, before you embark on gathering all of this together make sure you check a few of your ingredients as some purees can contain processed sugar. It's usually pretty cheap and easy to grab ones without sugar from the fresh vegetable aisle in your supermarket (easy sugar-free cooking is all about checking the labels on your produce).

Preparation:

Boil up a pan of water, with a pinch of salt & a splash of olive oil added, for the pasta.

Roughly grate your courgettes and leave them to one side on a chopping board.

Finally, (I use scissors for this), trim the fat from your bacon and cut it into strips across the width of the rasher, so that they're about a couple of inches in length.

Prep DONE!

Cooking:

1. Add your pasta to that pan of boiling water. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't boil dry.
2. Put your strips of bacon into a hot pan and dry fry, until the bacon is cooked through and starting to go a bit crispy. Once cooked remove from the pan and put it to one side on some kitchen paper/towel.
3. Drop your butter and garlic into the same pan until it melts. Then add all of the grated courgettes to the pan with lots of cracked black pepper (trust me, you need a lot, we're not talking a pinch here).
4. The courgette will start to absorb the butter and go soft. At this stage you need to add the soft cheese and stir it through. If it's looking a bit thick, then add 2-3 serving spoons of the pasta water to your pan.
5. Once all of the liquids have combined to form the sauce, put the bacon back in the pan for a minute or two.
6. Your pasta should be cooked by now (15-20 minutes), drain it into the sink and pour the drained pasta into the pan with the courgette/bacon sauce and combine.
7. Once the pasta is well coated, serve into warm bowls (and add more pepper to taste).

I also find it really nice with some crushed walnuts added as I serve, as it gives a nice texture against the softness of the pasta and courgette. I really hope you enjoy this recipe and can feel guilt-free about eating my homemade food (well, apart from the butter anyway)! I do a lot of my cooking off the cuff, and always adjust the amounts of certain ingredients to suit my own tastes, so the quantities here might need a bit of tweaking to suit yours, but I find they're great for most palates.