Linguini with Courgettes, Hazelnuts and Edible Flowers

My local farmers market does lovely edible flowers in the summer months and they just add a bit of colour and peppery taste.  But they are optional.  You can also use any herb or fresh fennel seeds (which you can pick in loads of places and are very easy to grow).

Ingredients:

500g linguini

Butter or olive oil

4 small/2 large courgettes, chopped into two pound coin size pieces (about as big as your top thumb bit)

Handful of hazelnuts, chopped roughly

1-2 cloves of garlic (optional)

Edible flowers and/or herbs (whichever you want – thyme, fennel or oregano go well)

Salt & Pepper

Parmesan cheese

Cooking Method:

If using the very dark green courgettes, I sometimes just remove about half of the peel which gives it a slightly sweeter taste.   In a nice big shallow non-stick pan, gently fry the chopped hazelnuts and garlic if using any.  Then add the courgettes for about 25 minutes in butter or oil.  The heat shouldn’t be so high that the courgettes burn but low enough that they cook themselves until soft and translucent.

At the same time, boil a big pan of water for the linguini and cook that as the instructions tell you to.

Once the pasta is done, rinse it quickly (quickly enough that you end up with some of the cooking water in the sieve still or just lift the pasta from the water into the shallow pan) and stir it into the shallow pan.

Stir everything together and at the last minute stir in the flowers and/or herbs.

Season and serve with the parmesan if you want.