Gizzi's Chicken, courgette and lemon pasta bake recipe (with a few adaptions)

Serves 4
Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 35 minutes

Nutritional breakdown

Per serving
18.1g of fat
596 calories

Ingredients

• 4 large Portabella mushrooms (or regular mushrooms)
• 350g dried linguine (or spaghetti or any other pasta you fancy)
• 300g courgette, grated
• 300ml low fat crème fraiche
• 200ml low fat Greek yoghurt
• 1 large free-range egg yolk (hen or duck)
• 35g Parmesan cheese
• Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 250g cold roast chicken, shredded (I used left over homemade chicken kiev here and it worked fine - just broke it up into strips with my fingers)
• A small bunch of fresh chives, snipped (or any other appropriate fresh herbs you have to hand) or rocket

Method
 
1. Put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta
2. Fry off your chicken in a small separate frying pan and cook until golden as below (add a little garlic + salt + pepper for extra flavour too if you like) - obviously this is only if you need to cook the chicken from raw not if you're using left over chicken

2.Heat a pan and spritz in a few spritzes of olive oil. Fry the mushrooms then remove from the pan and set aside. Fry the grated courgette for a couple of minutes.

3. Meanwhile mix together the crème fraiche, yoghurt, egg yolk, Parmesan, lemon zest, salt and pepper.

4. Drain the cooked pasta, leaving a few tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan. Return the pan to a low heat and pour in the sauce.
5. Toss the pasta in the sauce, then add the roast chicken and chives, giving it all a good mix round until it’s evenly incorporated.

In the pan:

(used rocket instead of chives this time and it worked as a really good alternative)
On the plate:

(original link, including video version of recipe)

Cat's Smoked Bacon, Courgette and Sweet Pepper Risotto

This was sent to me by my lovely friend Cat, who is currently taking a year of being a governess for a rich Russian family and jet setting round the world as a result - lucky lady!

This is my first time of cooking this recipe, so I hope it goes to plan and does the original justice. I will upload the details and photos when I'm done...Here's the ingredients and method which I'm going to follow:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red pepper, seeded and finely chopped
175g (6oz) button mushrooms, sliced
250g (9oz) arborio or other risotto rice
900ml (30fl oz) chicken stock, home-made if possible, hot
salt and freshly ground black pepper
225g (8oz) smoked streaky bacon, cut into strips
275g (10oz) small courgettes, diced
25g (1oz) butter
50g (2oz) parmesan, grated, and a few shaved slices
chopped fresh parsley

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan on the Boiling Plate (I used my cast iron Le Creuset wok here), add the onion, garlic and red (green or yellow) pepper, and saute for a few minutes. Toss in the mushrooms and cook for a further minute.
2. Add the rice and stir for 2 minutes. Pour 750ml (25fl oz) of boiling stock and season.
3. Cover with the lid and transfer to the Simmering Oven for 25 minutes (here I left the mixture in the wok but got it to a simmer and put the lid on, I kept it simmering on the hob and that worked fine). Check and stir once during this time, bringing back to the boil on the Boiling Plate, and adding more stock if necessary.
4. Fry and brown bacon on the Boiling Plate in a large non-stick frying pan. Remove and put on to a plate.

Add the courgettes to the fat in the pan and fry until just tender. Put to one side with the bacon.
5. Test the rice: it should be soft on the outside but still have a little bite in the centre. Return to the Boiling Plate to reduce if there is excess liquid. Add the butter, grated parmesan, the bacon and courgettes.

Check the seasoning and serve sprinkled with chopped parsley (or any other fresh herb of choice) and shavings of fresh parmesan if liked. 

Conclusion - Yummy! - Thank you Cat! xx