One of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen is the courgette. You can use it in starters, side dishes, pasta, main courses… wherever you put it, it will make you look good with family and friends at the table!
And since we know you're here precisely to earn fame and glory at the stove, here are five courgette recipe ideas with real character.
Courgette pesto
One of the tastiest courgette recipes for a pasta dish is courgette pesto.
You can use it on pasta, toast (toast and pesto… ahhh!), prawns, salmon and much more. One reason to prefer it to Genoese pesto is the fresh, creamy note the courgette leaves on the palate. Highly recommended for showing off at summer picnics.
Cook it in our Incanto frying pan.
The recipe: pasta with courgette pesto
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 320 g short pasta
- 500 g courgettes (about 3 medium)
- 30 g pine nuts
- 40 g grated Parmesan
- 10 basil leaves
- 1 garlic clove
- 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
- Wash the courgettes, trim the ends and slice them into rounds.
- Heat a drizzle of oil with the garlic in a nonstick frying pan, add the courgettes and cook for 8–10 minutes over medium heat until soft. Remove the garlic and let cool slightly.
- Toast the pine nuts in the pan for a couple of minutes without letting them darken.
- Blend the courgettes with the pine nuts, Parmesan, basil, remaining oil, salt and pepper until smooth.
- Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water and drain it al dente, keeping some of the cooking water.
- Toss the pasta with the courgette pesto, adding cooking water if needed to make it creamy, and serve with fresh basil.
Courgette quiche
You know quiche Lorraine, the one made with cream, eggs and cheese? Well, have you ever thought of adding courgettes? There, we can picture your eyes lighting up right now.
You can swap the savoury shortcrust for brisée pastry and, if you really want to treat yourself, replace or add to the cream. If you leave out the pancetta from the original recipe, it's a dish vegetarians can enjoy too.
You can make it with our Gioia MC-ML 34 pan.
Courgette fritters
Okay, this is where things heat up. Deep-frying hot.
If you've never tasted or made courgette fritters, well, you're missing a medal before you can call yourself a true foodie. What beats biting into a morsel that's crispy outside and meltingly soft inside?
Maybe we got a little carried away, but that's the only way to describe how good courgette fritters are. Highly recommended as a starter or for a buffet.
For this recipe you need a good fryer.
Courgette and ricotta muffins
We all love muffins (right? Right??). Not everyone loves savoury muffins, though… unless the batter is made with courgettes and the heart is ricotta. Now we're talking.
Here too we're in starter territory, the kind to bring out when there's a suspicious palate to win over. It'll be love at first bite, we promise.
For the courgettes in this recipe, you might want La Nouvelle Cuisine frying pan.
Linguine with courgettes and prawns
If you're looking for a pasta idea instead, you can't go wrong with linguine with courgettes and prawns.
A guaranteed explosion of flavour: pasta is the foundation of the Italian Republic (or was it work?) and if you want to give the recipe a personal touch, try adding some saffron. It adds extra flavour and colour to the dish, and that never hurts!
Do you already have our Janet frying pan to cook it?
Alternatively, you can use a shallow casserole.
Bonus recipe: spaghetti alla Nerano
Straight from the Neapolitan tradition, here is spaghetti alla Nerano: simple to make and delicious to eat.
Nobody knows exactly who invented it (certainly in the village it's named after), but it's considered one of the “youngest” traditional recipes, arriving in Neapolitan kitchens only in the 1950s thanks to the intuition of a local restaurant owner. She had the idea of binding pasta and courgettes with Provolone del Monaco. The creaminess that came out of it made history.
Highly recommended to impress absolutely anyone.
For the courgettes, you can use our Gioia frying pan.
Do you like vegetable-based recipes? Here are five aubergine recipe ideas for you!
