Zucchini Pasta with Preserved Lemon and Basil with Rocket Pesto Dressing

"Pasta is such a comforting family food. This recipe is full of flavour – a beautiful garlicky pesto combined with a preserved lemon dressing makes a very satisfying, fresh-flavoured dish. There are a few components to this recipe, but don’t be put off as they are all simple to put together," says Megan May of Auckland's Little Bird Cafe's.

Pasta

4-5 small to medium zucchini, ends trimmed

Tomato Broth – optional

2 large ripe tomatoes

pinch salt

Vegetables

1¼ cups of broccolini florets, broken up into small pieces

¾ cup cherry tomatoes, halved

handful of fresh basil, torn

handful of fresh parsley, torn

handful of fresh rocket or baby spinach

Bail and Rocket Pesto

1 clove of garlic, chopped

sea salt 

3 good handfuls of fresh rocket and basil, leaves picked and chopped (or use parsley instead)

½ cup of pine nuts

lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil

nutritional yeast or Parmesan, optional

Dressing

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, very finely chopped

¼ cup olive oil

5 tablespoons lemon juice

½ clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped

¼ preserved lemon, crushed and finely chopped (if you don’t have preserved lemon, use lemon zest and a few pinches of salt)

Pasta: Start by spiralising the zucchini to make zucchini noodles. To do this, you will need a vegetable slicer that can cut food into spirals. (We use the Japanese benriner horizontal slicer.)  If you don't have a vegetable spiraliser, use a peeler to cut the courgette into wide strips then julienne with a knife. Set aside.

Tomato broth: Roughly chop the tomatoes and place in a blender with salt until pureed. Strain through a sieve with the back of a spoon.

Vegetables: Lightly season the broccolini with salt, pepper and olive oil and dehydrate at 46⁰C for 3-4 hours. If you don’t have a dehydrator, very lightly blanch the broccolini in boiling water. Set aside.

Pesto: Pound the garlic with a little pinch of salt and the rocket and parsley leaves in a pestle and mortar, or pulse in a food processor. Add the pine nuts to the mixture and pound or pulse again. Turn out into a bowl and slowly add olive oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and to reach an oozy consistency.

Season to taste, pour in some more oil if needed and add a bit of nutritional yeast or Parmesan if desired. You can also add a squeeze of lemon juice for a little zing if desired.

Dressing: Place all of the ingredients in a jar and shake until well combined. Or blend in a high-speed blender until well combined.

To assemble: Mix ½ cup of pesto with the dressing, adding a few tablespoons of the tomato broth to make it more fluid. If you haven’t made the tomato broth just add a little water.

In a bowl, coat the zucchini pasta with the dressing and pesto mix. It should be reasonably easy to coat and not form clumps but if it does, add a little more tomato broth or water to get things moving.

Gently fold through the herbs and vegetables.

Divide the pasta between 4 plates and top each with 2 tablespoons of tomato broth, pine nuts, pepper, and micro greens, and a drizzle of olive or basil oil if you have it. Serves 4

For more about Little Bird Unbakery visit www.littlebirdorganics.co.nz