Garden Spaghetti with Courgettes & Broad Beans

I absolutely love pesto, but I do find it a bit rich, so I created this when I was playing around trying to add to it. The buttery flavour of the courgette goes perfectly with the rich pesto, while the sharpness of the broad beans livens it all up a bit. In this case I used rocket pesto (my mum, knowing what a pesto fiend I am, is always buying me new and exciting flavours) but you could easily just use ordinary pesto if that’s what you’ve got.

Ingredients
About 8oz of spaghetti
2 medium-sized courgettes
A double handful of broad beans (fresh or frozen)
3-4 tablespoons of rocket pesto, or ordinary green pesto
Butter
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper
Parmesan and/or cheddar, to serve

Serves 2

First of all, get the broad beans boiling in a pan of salted water. Once they’ve come to the boil (this will take longer if they’re frozen), start boiling the pasta in a separate pan, according to the instructions on the packet. Coarsely grate the courgette – if you’ve got a food processor with a grater attachment then this will do the job very quickly, but otherwise you could just use a cheese-grater.   

Once the broad beans have boiled for about five minutes, no more, drain them and pop them back in the pan with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. Add the courgette and stir gently on a low heat.

When the pasta is ready, drain it and return it to the pan. Stir through the pesto with a quick splash of olive oil and a handful of grated Parmesan, and once the cheese has melted, add the vegetables and melted butter. To serve, sprinkle with black pepper and grated cheddar – delicious!