Courgette and garlic pasta

I’m getting old in my old age, so this won’t be long. Apparently it isn’t really old age yet. Certainly not a bad sort of old age. A while ago I saw a graph suggesting that after 40, and definitely after 41, your happiness curve only goes up. The same graph showed it going steadily downhill until 38, so I’m hoping the best is yet to come 🙂

Now you know: this is, in a way, a birthday post. And that’s more or less what it’s going to be about, because something extraordinary happened to me today. I think it was the first time I’d celebrated my birthday before my birthday — not a schedule I’m particularly keen on. But for the first time since COVID-19, I visited my parents with Ninka. As we had to return to Warsaw on Sunday, yesterday, 17 May, they organised a surprise party for me the day before my birthday.

Ninka and Mum unexpectedly made a birthday brownie. Anyone following the new profile of Prymitywna Kuchnia on Instagram — whatever next — has seen it. There’s a quick version of this courgette pasta recipe there too :). It was simply lovely. What really took me by surprise, though, was the present from my daughter. Hard to believe, but this grown man burst into tears. Old age, didn’t I tell you? It really hits you.

Ninka loves those “guess what?” games. A week ago she’d already told me she had a present and suggested we play “guess what it is”. I didn’t want to. I don’t like spoiling surprises for myself. She respected that and didn’t pester me. She held out. She’s only 12, but she did something that completely flattened me emotionally. She handed me an envelope, and inside were printed sheets with a flower on them.

A very nice flower. Ninka gave me tickets to a September concert by Kwiat Jabłoni — “Apple Blossom”. Be gone, COVID-19; please let the concert happen.

Someone might say: so she gave you concert tickets. That’s normal. Except it isn’t. I’ve only been listening to Kwiat Jabłoni for perhaps two months. Quite often in the car. I’d even sent Ninka a few tracks, hoping she’d like them. But she’s currently into that melodic British rock — I don’t know much about it. I had absolutely no idea she’d do something like this. Perhaps I simply listen to those flowers too often.

Most importantly, though, the tickets are for me and her. We’re going together, just the two of us. That’s by far the most important part, and that’s what undid me. My darling daughter wants to go with her old man to a Kwiat Jabłoni concert. Can you imagine? A concert by a band he has recently taken a liking to. We’ve been to a few concerts together before: when she liked David Guetta, we went to Kraków; when she liked Margaret, we saw her in Warsaw, and there have been a few others. But not lately. Old age, then, but what a lovely way to enter it, with perhaps one of the most wonderful presents I’ve ever received 🙂 Thank you.

Afterwards, I made them this pasta, no longer the single-serving version I’d cooked a few days earlier. They liked it. Simple, meat-free, with courgette, garlic and cucumber that works surprisingly well here. And a creamy sauce to round off this lovely start to life at 41. Recommended.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Serves: the ingredients are for one; you can multiply them

Calories: 41 calorie-years

Ingredients for vegetarian courgette and garlic pasta:

• a 26 cm piece of courgette,
• 6 cloves of fresh Polish garlic,
• 1 small outdoor-grown cucumber,
• a few young beet leaves,
• 1 hen’s egg,
• 1 tablespoon of freshly grated Parmesan,
• salt,
• black pepper
• red peppercorns,
• olive oil,
• pasta of your choice (I used linguine).

How to make creamy courgette and garlic pasta:

This is one of the simpler recipes. You can start by cooking the pasta, or cook it while you’re frying the vegetables.

I cut the courgette into thin strips, the cucumber into small cubes and the beet leaves into roughly 3 cm strips. I crushed and finely chopped the garlic. In a frying pan, I heated a tablespoon of olive oil and fried the garlic for literally 2 minutes, then added the courgette. After frying it briefly, I added the beet leaves and cucumber. I seasoned it with red and black pepper and salt, then fried it for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

In a glass, I beat the egg and Parmesan together until well combined.

I transferred the pasta to a large pot, added a little olive oil, stirred and added the fried vegetables. I mixed everything thoroughly and warmed it gently. In went the egg and Parmesan, which I stirred in very thoroughly to make a smooth, creamy sauce, similar to carbonara. The dish was ready.

To serve, I gave it another light dusting of red pepper and a sprinkling of grated Parmesan. Enjoy 🙂