Pasta (gnocchetti sardi) with courgettes, cherry tomatoes and pine nuts

A very colourful pasta recipe for today, to welcome Summer and the hot season.
This pasta can be served warm, if you like, and, in this case, you can prepare it a little in advance. Great dish for vegetarians as well!

Choose your vegetables very well: for a brighter sauce, choose the dark small courgettes and the  cherry tomatoes should be ripe and smell fresh!

Ingredients for 4

350 gr. / 0.77 lb. gnocchetti sardi (this is the name of this pasta) (if you use a pasta with a hole such as half penne, may be a little less, because it grows more in boiling...)
3 small dark courgettes
15 cherry tomatoes
2 table spoons pine nuts
4 table spoons extra virgin olive oil (evoo)
1 clove of garlic, peeled
100 ml 1/4 pint vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
4 large leaves basil
Fresh basil sprouts (to decorate)

1) Wash all your vegetable very well.

2) Cut the courgettes into slices, put 3 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan with the garlic, let it cook until golden and add the courgettes. Cook for for few minutes until golden, add the vegetable stock, cover with a lid and let them cook until soft. Let them warm down and discard the garlic.




3) Cut your cherry tomatoes in 4 pieces, and slightly roast your pine nuts in a non stick pan or in the oven. (they burn VERY easily...)

4) Boil the pasta in abundant salted water and drain it in a colander.






5) Put the basil leaves, the courgettes and their liquid in a bowl and process them until they make a cream with a food processor. For extra creaminess you can add a table spoon of evoo.

6) Put the pasta in the pan you used to cook the courgettes, pour the courgette cream, the tomatoes, the pine nuts and over a medium heat, warm it up mixing well.




7) Serve the pasta with a nice glass of cold white wine....