Fusilli with zucchini recipe

This recipe reminds me of when Rose (Gray, my River Café co-founder) and I were starting the restaurant. It was just the two of us. We wanted to cook the food that people ate in Italy. I remember being in Amalfi in southern Italy and I called her. The pasta you always think of with the Amalfi coast is zucchini (courgette) pasta. I told her this was what I’d just eaten and I described the way they cook the zucchini for such a long time that it almost becomes a sauce. When I came back to London it was on the menu.

Timings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves

Four

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

• 500g zucchini (courgettes), cut into 1cm-thick discs

• 1 garlic clove, very finely sliced

• 150g butter

• Small bunch of basil or parsley, stalks removed and leaves roughly chopped

• 320g fusilli

• 50g freshly grated parmesan

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan large enough to hold the courgettes in one layer. Add the courgettes and season well with salt and pepper.

2. Fry over a medium heat for 7-10 minutes until just beginning to brown.

3. Add the garlic and half the butter. Lower the heat. Cook for 10 minutes until the courgettes have become soft and creamy.

4. Add the chopped basil or parsley. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining butter.

5. Meanwhile bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.

6. Add the fusilli to the pan and cook according to the packet instructions, until cooked but still firm.

7. Drain, reserving 120ml of the cooking water. Stir the cooking water into the courgettes to loosen the sauce.

8. Add the fusilli to the sauce and mix very well with a spoon. Serve with the grated parmesan.

Recipe from ‘The River Cafe Look Book’ by Ruth Rogers, Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli (Phaidon, £24.95)