Herby zucchini & peas with semolina porridge

 January 16, 2021

   

One of our green-thumbed pals offloaded some of her excess zucchinis on us and we went digging around for a new recipe to use them in. Of course Ottolenghi has a series of courgette-focussed columns. We picked this dish out of one of them and gave it a shot. It's a pretty simple recipe - once you've chopped up your zucchini and herbs it takes no time at all to cook. And it's wonderful! The zucchini dish is bursting with flavour from the basil and tarragon, with a hint of lemon sneaking through, while the semolina porridge is a slightly creamier base akin to polenta - hearty and delicious. It was so good that we made it again before I even got around to blogging it!

Herby zucchini & peas with semolina porridge

(from Ottolenghi's Guardian column)

50g butter

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1.2kg zucchini (about 6), sliced into half moons

200g frozen peas, defrosted

25g basil leaves, shredded

15g tarragon leaves

zest of 1 lemon

600ml milk

600ml water

180g semolina

100g parmesan, grated

50g pine nuts, lightly toasted

salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Once it has melted, fry the garlic for a couple of minutes until it just starts to go golden.

Add in the zucchini with a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until the zucchini starts to soften up. Reduce the heat and cover the pan and leave to cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the peas and - after a minute - kill the heat, stir through the herbs and lemon zest and set aside while you make the semolina.

Combine the milk and water in a medium saucepan with some salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then add in the semolina, whisking constantly to avoid lumps forming. In 3-4 minutes, it should have thickened up into a smooth porridge. Kill the heat and stir in most of the parmesan.

Serve the porridge, topped with the zucchini mix and sprinkled with pine nuts and the leftover parmesan.