Courgette Noodles with Walnut Pesto
Raw courgette ribbons salted to draw out water, tossed with a pesto made from walnuts. Fifteen minutes, no stove for the noodles.
Nutrition Info (per serving)
- 480
- Calories
- 12g
- Protein
- 42g
- Fat
- 14g
- Carbs
Ingredients
- 3 courgettes
- 50 g walnuts
- 50 g basil
- 30 g Parmigiano Reggiano
- 1 clove garlic
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon
- 150 g cherry tomatoes
- Salt and black pepper
Instructions
- 1Spiralise the courgettes, or make ribbons with a vegetable peeler and slice them into strips. Leave the seedy cores out — they are the wettest part and will make the dish soupy.
- 2Put the noodles in a colander, toss with 1 tsp salt, and leave over a bowl for 15 minutes.
- 3Meanwhile toast the walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until they smell nutty. Let them cool — hot nuts blitzed into basil will cook it and turn the pesto khaki.
- 4Blitz the cooled walnuts, basil, garlic, Parmigiano and the juice of half the lemon in a food processor to a coarse paste, then pour in the olive oil with the motor running.
- 5Halve the cherry tomatoes.
- 6Squeeze the courgette noodles firmly in a clean tea towel. A surprising amount of water comes out, and this is the whole reason the dish works — unsalted courgette noodles release that water onto the plate and dilute everything.
- 7Toss the drained noodles with the pesto and the tomatoes.
- 8Taste, add the remaining lemon juice and black pepper, and serve straight away. They soften the longer they sit dressed.
Courgette noodles have a bad reputation, and it is deserved for the version most people make: watery, bland, sitting in a green puddle. One step fixes almost all of it.
Salt and squeeze
Courgettes are about 95 percent water. Cut into thin strands, that water has an enormous surface area to escape from, and it will escape — onto your plate, ten seconds after you serve.
Salting draws it out by osmosis before it can ruin anything. Fifteen minutes in a colander, then a firm squeeze in a tea towel, removes a startling volume of liquid. The noodles shrink, firm up, and taste more like courgette because what is left is concentrated.
Do not rinse afterwards. The residual salt is your seasoning.
Leave them raw
Cooking courgette noodles is almost always a mistake. They go from firm to limp in about ninety seconds, and there is no middle setting.
Salted and squeezed, they have enough bite to work raw, and the residual warmth of a room-temperature pesto is all the heat they need.
Walnuts instead of pine nuts
Pine nuts are expensive and, for some people, cause a lingering metallic aftertaste that can last for days. Walnuts are cheaper, more assertive and slightly bitter, which suits the sweetness of raw courgette.
Toasting them first matters. Raw walnuts taste faintly of cardboard; four minutes in a dry pan changes them completely. Let them cool before blitzing — hot nuts wilt the basil and turn a bright green pesto dull.
Keeping pesto green
Basil browns through oxidation and heat. Three things help: cool ingredients, a squeeze of lemon, and not over-processing. A coarse pesto with visible texture also tastes better than a smooth purée.
If you are making it ahead, press cling film onto the surface or float a layer of olive oil on top.
Nutrition
Around 480 calories a serving, most of it from walnuts and olive oil — largely unsaturated. It is very low in carbohydrate, around 14 grams, which is why this dish gets recommended so often for low-carb eating.
Courgettes bring vitamin C and potassium; walnuts are one of the better plant sources of omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid.
For a more substantial meal, add a tin of drained cannellini beans or serve half courgette noodles and half real spaghetti, which is a good compromise nobody talks about.
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