Courgetti with scorched tomato sauce

Name: Courgetti with scorched tomato sauce
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: British recipes
Ingredients: 8 medium courgettes, trimmed; 700g cherry tomatoes; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 8 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and chopped (see tip); 50ml extra-virgin olive oil; 1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional); 4 fresh oregano sprigs, leaves roughly chopped; Handful fresh basil leaves, torn, small handful toasted pine nuts and grated parmesan to serve

Published: 2 Jul 15
Updated: 18 Mar 24

Test kitchen approved

Courgetti has been touted as the perfect low-cal, low-carb alternative to pasta. What is courgetti? It’s quite literally courgette cut into spaghetti-like strips. It’s great tossed in our smoky-savoury tomato sauce.

Serves 4
Hands on time 25 min, simmering time 10 min

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Ingredients

8 medium courgettes, trimmed
700g cherry tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, crushed
8 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and chopped (see tip)
50ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
4 fresh oregano sprigs, leaves roughly chopped
Handful fresh basil leaves, torn, small handful toasted pine nuts and grated parmesan to serve

Method

Cut the courgettes into spaghetti- like threads (see tips), put in a colander, toss with a good few pinches of salt, then leave to drain.
Heat a large non-stick sauté pan until very hot. Tip in the tomatoes and leave for 2 minutes or until scorched underneath. Shake the pan and repeat until about half the tomatoes’ surface is scorched. Turn the heat right down, add a splash of water and let it bubble fiercely until it subsides a bit. Roughly crush most of the tomatoes with a fork, then add the garlic, anchovies and olive oil.
Stir well to combine, then bubble gently for 5-8 minutes until the tomatoes have turned into a thick sauce. Add the chilli if using, taste and season (the courgettes can be a bit salty, so go easy). Stir through the oregano.
Squeeze the courgetti to remove excess liquid, then taste. If they’re very salty, rinse with cold water and repeat (but drain thoroughly). Toss through the hot sauce to coat. Divide among bowls, scatter over the basil and pine nuts, then top with the parmesan.

Recipe from June 2015 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 174kcals
Fat: 11.3g (1.8g saturated)
Protein: 7.7g
Carbohydrates: 10.2g (9.1g sugars)
Fibre: 5.5g
Salt: 0.3g

delicious. tips

We recommend using The Hemsley Spiralizer. Alternatively, use the julienne attachment on a food processor or cut by hand.

The anchovies aren’t overpowering – they just add a savoury note to the sauce. If you don’t like them, replace them with extra parmesan instead.
Make the sauce up to 2 days in advance and keep covered in the fridge. Add the basil and pine nuts at the last minute. You can keep the finished dish for up to 4 hours in the fridge. The sauce will become a little looser but it will still taste wonderful.

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