Mum Recipes: Comforting Courgette Penne

On Tuesday, after a late-ish night at work and faced with an empty flat, I wimped out of going home to my boarded-up street and went round to my friends' house instead. It was lovely. We drank wine, stayed glued to Sky News, while my friend Jess's boyfriend made us mouthwatering lemon courgette pasta.

Courgettes and pasta are a really underrated combination, particularly if you bring in some mushrooms, creme fraiche and grated cheese. Mmmm.... This is a different recipe to Alex's (you can find that one here) and one of my absolute favourites. If you're not hot on courgettes, leeks do just as well, and the bacon - delicious - is completely optional. Thanks, as ever, to my mum who teaches me all the best emergency recipes.

Comforting Courgette Penne - serves 2

Two large courgettes (or leeks)
Two large handfuls of mushrooms
Six rashers of bacon
Small pot reduced fat creme fraiche
Black pepper
Freshly grated cheese to taste

Put a little oil in a pan and chop in the bacon. Fry over a low heat until the water starts coming out. Turn up to a high heat and crisp it up!

Pic by @mintowczyz

Add in your sliced veg (I like courgette batons) with lots of black pepper and cook over a low to medium heat with the pan's lid on to keep in the moisture while you cook your pasta. When that's all done, add a couple of dollops of creme fraiche. If it gets too gloopy, add a bit of pasta water. The liquid from the mushrooms mix beautifully with the creme fraiche, but don't put too much in as it can taste a bit sharp.

Serve with more pepper and lots of parmesan or Grana Padano. Delicious!

Apologies for the lack of picture for this dish, but I always absent-mindedly eat it before thinking to snap a picture. Thanks to Wikipedia for the general courgettes pic


*UPDATE* Not one, but TWO people made this dish on the evening I posted it. Thanks to @mintowtczyz and @GinBroguesHats for the pictures! GBH's is the one with all the bacon. I entirely approve of such a bacony dish.