Inspired by Stanley Tucci’s delightful book “Taste” that I have finished reading last night. Swifly moved on to his “What I ate in one year”, which so far doesn’t contain any recipes, but is still a great read.

I’ve made the spaghetti for lunch today. Never had it before, so can’t compare it to anything, but I love the idea of its simplicity and I love courgettes, so I had a go. Without provolone, which I had none of, but will get a piece when I come across it next time, for science and research, of course.

I started by thinly slicing 4 small courgettes, Stanley reckons the smaller the better, on a mandoline, deep fried them in olive oil in batches, while the spaghetti was cooking for about half of the recommended time on the packet. One of the chefs on youtube suggested that if one had no provolone, one could just chuck a knob of butter onto the olive oil and don’t be shy on the parmiggiano, I did both. A chopped clove of garlic, a few chopped basil leaves onto the butter/olive oil mixture, then most of the deep fried courgettes, before the pasta goes in, straight from the water. I kept adding more and more of the pasta water to finish cooking the spaghetti, then a bit of salt, but not too much, as I salted the courgettes once I fried them. Parmiggiano in, quite a lot, black pepper. When on the plate, I added the remaining fried courgettes.

From what I understand the sauce could have been more creamy, if one had the provolone, but I was very tempted to add a sprinkling of chili flakes in there, I still might next time.

It was a nice plate of pasta, not a spectacular one, but will be made again.