Spaghetti is not date food what with all that sucking and slurping and potential to get bolognese all over your bonce. But you might not be left red-faced with this recipe if one of those slippery strands does whip around mid-suck to slap you in the chops, as its ‘sauce’ is clear. Or rather, just a bit herby.
In A Modern Way to Eat, Anna Jones does a similar thing but she adds other items such as capers (euw) and zest (aah) which I don’t. But you could if you like those things. Zest of half a lemon and a tablespoon of capers.
What to use – serves 2
200g wholemeal spaghetti
1 avocado
2 large free range eggs
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
handful of fresh basil
handful of fresh parsley
juice of half a lemon
clove of garlic – crushed
How to use it
Put your pasta into a large pan of boiling (salted if you wish – I didn’t) water, and cook for 10 minutes (well, check the packet instructions but that’s about average).
Put your olive oil into a large non-stick frying pan (you’re going to put the spaghetti in there later) and on to a medium heat.
Crush your garlic in there and gently cook it for a couple of minutes.
Chop your herbs and put those into the frying pan and cook gently for another minute or so. Turn off the heat before the garlic goes brown.
Halve, de-stone and cube your avocado, and add that to the pan.
Drain your pasta quickly and add that to the frying pan. Using big pasta tongues gently scoop up the spaghetti and mix it in with the herby oil and avocado. Squeeze over your lemon juice, and add salt and pepper to taste.
Eat.
As Anna suggested, I also added a poached egg on top which actually made a huge difference – I loved it. If you’re going to do that, put the egg in about half way through the spaghetti cooking time. To poach eggs, I just fill a small frying pan with boiling water. It should be flat – ie not at a rolling boil. Very gently crack the egg into the water and cover – leave it to poach for about 5 mins. The fresher the eggs the better the results will be.
Mmm rating: mm mm mm
Cost per person: £3.70
Calories: 650 (inc egg)
What to listen to while cooking: The genius that is Spaghetti Cat by Parry Gripp
What to watch while eating: Tomorrowland. You can’t watch the whole thing because it’s not out until May, but you can watch the trailer. George Clooney and an evil Hugh Laurie in a sci-fi wrapper. Dear god. I ate an entire bag of crisps while watching this without tasting a single one. It’s like Christmas has come three months late.
eatburpsleep 