Spaghetti with Broad Beans & Courgettes

I got stuck in rotten traffic on the way home from work the other night, bored and hungry, for almost an hour and a half (I only live 4 miles from my office!). My lovely hubby asked me if there was anything he could do to get dinner underway and I jokingly replied "make the pasta!". I was pleasantly surprised when he said "ok... how?" and so promptly referred him to my Pastalicious blog post.

What a hero! By the time I got in the door, the pasta dough was resting in the fridge and he was busy clearing up the work surface. He'd never made pasta dough before and it was delicious, which goes to show that it is worth giving it a go! He made 300g flour / 3 eggs which, with other ingredients, will easily feed four.

I rolled the dough out and turned half of it into spaghetti for dinner, and half into tagliatelle to store for later in the week. The tagliatelli just had to be hung out to dry for a few hours and then stored flat on a tray with semolina.

The sauce was an easy one. Firstly, we boiled the broad beans, shelled them and set them to one side. Then we pan fried a couple of thinly sliced purple onions, three smashed cloves of garlic and one deseeded red chilli until they went soft. Then I melted a big knob of butter into the mix and added a couple of sliced courgettes and cooked them until almost done. 



Finally, a glug of single cream, a handful of freshly grated parmesan, the broad beans, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped parsley. The spaghetti cooked through in about 3 minutes and I just lifted the pasta straight out of the water and into the sauce, ready to be served. Yum, yum, yum!

Baked Lentil Stuffed Peppers (serve with wine)

I had some really gorgeous looking romano peppers in the fridge and, as I also had an overwhelming craving for lentils plus a veggie coming for dinner, I thought I'd try putting peppers and lentils together. There is precedent! I found inspiration on The Vegan Foodie's blog, and although, as always, I need to work with what I have rather than to someone elses recipe, I think this turned out pretty well.

I fried up some garlic, celery and onions, with cumin, ground coriander, dried chilli, sliced spring greens, cubed carrot and courgette until sort of half cooked. Then I added a load of green lentils (about 2 cups), a tin of tomatoes, a few bay leaves and about a pint of vegetable stock. Brought it up to a bubble and eft it be with a lid on for about 20 minutes. Reduced it down a bit towards the end and added salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

After cutting the peppers in half lengthways and scooping out the seeds, I laid them on an oiled baking tray and spooned the lentil mix in, topping it with a mixture of bread crumbs, parsley and grated pecorino and drizzled a bit of olive oil over the top.

Popped it in the oven for about half an hour at 180 degrees. Served with green beans and a nice bottle of wine (or three).