Pasta with Artichokes and Courgettes

The good thing about being an Italian is that pasta runs though our blood. Therefore cooking pasta is something completely normal in our everyday life, but as you can imagine always making the same pasta can turn out boring. Therefore I am always trying out new recipes in order to make my lunches slightly more interesting.

This recipe I made up yesterday because I spent my weekend in Rome and coming back to Madrid I decided to take away half of Rome’s supermarket with me. This included things such as avocados, artichokes, peppers, courgettes and many more things that of course you can find in Madrid too but nevermind. So now my fridge is filled with random vegetables and as you know vegetables do not last forever so I am creating dishes hoping to use up all my things. I must admit, pasta with artichokes and courgettes actually tasted awesome if you like your vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 80g Pasta
• Half an onion (I use red onions because I prefer the slightly sweeter taste)
• 2 Small Courgettes
• 1 Artichoke
• 1 Garlic clove
• 20g of Raisins
• Some Parmesan

Method:

Cooking the Artichoke:

1. Cooking the artichoke is probably the most complicated step because it is always quite difficult to know how many leaves of the vegetable you have to remove before you literally end up with none. But removing the outer leaves is important unless you want to remain with hard – wood like pieces in your meal. So run the artichoke under water and then start peeling off the outer leaves. Cut off three quarters of the stalk and then start slicing the artichoke in large-ish pieces.
2. In the frying pan add some olive oil and a piece of garlic. Make sure the oil is well infused with the garlic before adding the vegetable.
3. When you think that the oil is hot enough lower the temperature to just under half and add the artichoke. Cover this with a lid and let it cook until you realize it is soft.

Cooking the Courgette:

1. Cooking the courgettes is a lot easier. All you need to do is wash the courgettes and slice them in any way you like. I usually like them about 3-4 mm wide.
2. Slice your onion.
3. Add some olive oil to the frying pan and when this is hot enough add the onion.
4. Once the onion is soft enough add the courgettes and cook them at a lowish temperature, making sure they do not burn!

Assembling Everything:

1. Whilst your vegetables are cooking grab a saucepan, fill it with water and wait for the water to boil on the highest heat.
2. When the water is boiling add a sprinkle of salt and add your pasta.
3. Make sure you time well the cooking time because overcooked pasta is never a good thing.
4. When the pasta is ready then drain the water and put the pasta in with the artichokes. Add in the Courgettes and let them amalgamate a bit by stirring around and adding a splash of olive oil.
5. Add in some raisins.
6. Grate some Parmesan over the top with some pepper and dish it up.

*For Vegan just eliminate the cheese.

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