This salty-fishy dish of dubious origins has been a firm favourite since my university days, however I had never tried it raw until my recent raw degustation at CNR. It was so delicious and true to taste that I vowed to recreate it at home, which I did a few days ago — with the help of a willing partner, who performed most of the grunt work.

The noodles in this recipe are made from spiralised zucchinis (courgettes), which are technically just out of season in Perth, however I was still able to source decent local zucchinis from an organic grower at yesterday’s markets. That said, you can substitute carrot or butternut pumpkin for the zucchini in this recipe.

Recipe #131: Pasta puttanesca. Serves 2. You will need a spiraliser or peeler to make this recipe, and a mortar & pestle would also come in handy.

You will need:
► 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
► a small chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
► a few good lugs of olive oil
► 2 tomatoes, seeds & skin removed then diced [optional: and bashed with a mortar & pestle]
► 1 large handful of kalamata olives, pitted and cut into 1/8 pieces [optional: and bashed a little with a mortar & pestle]
► 1 small handful of capers, drained [optional: and bashed a little with a mortar & pestle]
► 2 heaped tbsp of oregano, finely chopped
► 2 heaped tbsp of flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
► a good pinch of salt
► optional: 1 tsp of lemon zest
► 2 zucchinis

For the sauce, combine the garlic, chilli and olive oil together and let stand while preparing the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients, except for the zucchinis, together. That’s your sauce made.

The bashing with the mortar & pestle releases the flavours of the ingredients and makes the final consistency of the dish a little more saucy, but it really is optional.

Prepare the pasta just before serving, by either spiralising (for thin noodles) or peeling (for pappardelle style noodles) the zucchinis into strips.

Combine the noodles and sauce, adding extra olive oil if it lacks a glossy sheen. Serve into flat bowls, top with raw parmesan and devour. Yummy.

What is raw parmesan? I hear you ask. It’s a very simple blend of ingredients and, while it is not made from cheese per se, it does taste remarkably cheesy when sprinkled over raw pasta.

Recipe #132: Raw parmesan. A food processor, Vitamix or Thermomix would come in really handy for this recipe.

You will need:
► 100g freshly shelled walnuts
► 50g sunflower seeds
► 35g nutritional yeast
► 1½ tsp Himalayan salt, finely ground
► 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
► 1/8 tsp chilli powder
► a good grinding of black pepper

Start by grinding the walnuts and sunflower seeds by pulsing with your food processor/TM until you reach a crumb-like consistency [as you can see in the images above; you can grind the ingredients more or less, depending on your preference]. Mix in the other yeast, spices and salt until well combined. Taste; add more salt/pepper as needed, or a little more yeast if it doesn’t taste cheesy enough. Now it’s fabulous and ready to be used immediately, or to be stored in the fridge for later use.

Wishing you a fabulous week,

H 🙂