To pea or to leek...?

It’s a silly question really, as it’s both, plus a courgette in my three greens pasta. Another quickie, but a necessity for when we’ve both been working all day and we want a simple nutritious (three of our five a day!) and a delicious but satisfying dinner.

What you’ll need

1 courgette

1-1.5 leeks

2 handfuls of green peas

2 tablespoons Crème fraiche

White wine

1 tea spoon mustard

Nutmeg

Pasta

Slice the courgette in half lengthways and then slice to produce ½ cm wide half moons.  Slice the leek(s) and sauté both in a pan with some olive or rapeseed oil and salt. It should take 5-10 minutes for these to soften on a low heat, making sure they don’t burn, but that the leeks have softened. Add the green peas towards the end of this cooking time for a minute or two.

Then add a glass of white wine. Any will do, I added a cabernet sauvignon tonight, as Gipsy Spread is the white drinker and won’t drink chardonnay, so that's what we had. As to the amount, about a 125ml glass, aka the size of a glass of wine I would never order (there really is no point). Cook the alcohol off for a minute and then add two heaped table spoons of the crème fraiche (yes, mine is half fat) and heat through with a teaspoon of mustard, a grating of nutmeg and black pepper for another minute. I added thyme and chopped chives at the end.

Cook whatever shape of pasta you fancy (for 4 portions), we went for penne on this occasion, reserving 4-6 large tablespoons of the water (really, make it as saucy as you like).  Add the creamy three greens sauce to the pasta and water and heat through before serving with freshly grated parmesan. Enjoy.

 

 

Well, the Ocado shop arrived this week, so I have already thought about dinner tomorrow night. Watch this space for an update on my vegetable crumble recipe that we'll be having for dinner. Gipsy spread will be having his with Waitrose' finest venison sausages.


I'm also heading out for lunch with Alice and the Cat tomorrow(yay!). Yes indeed, to the best falafel stand in London Town and I hope to pick up some baby aubergines to start my recipes for my perfect Indian thali.