- Serves4
- CourseMain meal
- Prepare15 mins
- Cook40 mins
- Total time55 mins
Ingredients
- 2 unwaxed lemons
- 25g pack basil
- 2 x 400g packs cherry vine tomatoes, off the vine
- 200ml olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 bulb/s b garlic, top 1cm sliced off horizontally
- ½ tsp caster sugar (optional)
- 1 tsp salt
For the spaghetti
- 500g courgettes, spiralised to make courgetti (or 350g spaghetti), to serve
- Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 200ºC, gas mark 6. Using a peeler, shave 8 short strips of zest from the lemons. Add the zest, all but 2 sprigs of the basil, the remaining sauce ingredients – except the garlic – and a good grind of black pepper to a large parchment-lined baking tray. Mix well to combine, sit the garlic cut-side up in the tray, then roast for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes and lemon zest start to caramelise.
Remove from the oven, lift out and discard the (now-frazzled) basil and, once cool enough to handle, squeeze out the cloves of garlic from their skins into the sauce. Discard the skins, then use a fork or masher to crush the tomatoes, garlic and lemon peel together to form a rough paste.
Steam the courgetti for 4 minutes or boil the spaghetti according to pack instructions. Serve the sauce on a bed of courgetti or spaghetti, with the remaining basil leaves, shredded, and a generous grating of cheese.
Cook’s tip
Double the batch for the tomato sauce, if you like. It keeps well in the fridge or freezer and it’s reassuring to know that supper is five minutes away.
Treat the sauce as a base to add all sorts of other things – black olives are lovely, as are cubes of feta. With these additions, it’s delicious as a side with grilled meat or fish.
When zesting the lemon, avoid the bitter white pith.
This can easily become a vegetarian and vegan dish – just omit the cheese or replace with a vegan alternative.
This feels like a lot of oil to use, but it’s needed here to almost confit the tomatoes and make the rich sauce.
Nutritional
Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe
Energy | 2,280kJ/ 553kcals |
|---|---|
Fat | 54.1g |
Saturated Fat | 9.1g |
Carbohydrates | 8.6g |
Sugars | 7.1g |
Fibre | 2.3g |
Protein | 6.6g |
Salt | 1.7g |