The humble marrow is a much-maligned vegetable. It is either cast as the slimy villain in the roast vegetable medley of seasonal holiday spreads or tortured into "zoodle" spirals with the suspect purpose of replacing pasta for the carb-conscious.
But if you treat baby marrow right, you can produce a pasta sauce that is creamy, rich, and earthy. When fried, zucchini becomes extremely absorbent and infused with the slightly spicy or floral notes of the olive oil it's cooked in.
Baby marrows seem to be perennially in stock at the farmer's market, so I always buy half a kilogram and leave them in the fridge until they're on the brink of moulding. Then, I panic and invent ingenious ways of preparing them so that we don't get bored. That is how this recipe came to be.
What you'll need from the shops to make marrow and olive oil pasta
Baby marrows, zucchini, courgette — whatever you call it, put 500g of it in your basket
Loads of fresh parsley (like, a whole punnet)
The best olive oil you can afford
Parmigiano reggiano cheese or similar, just nothing pre-grated
An onion
About four cloves of fresh garlic
Salt
Pasta of your choice
Reserved pasta water
How to make baby marrow and olive oil pasta
Step One: Prep your kak
First thing you gotta do is slice those marrows. Before you get started, reserve about a third of the fresh marrows and set them aside. Those will be cut and fried, but not blended into the sauce itself — these ones are for topping.
As for the remaining two-thirds, you can get to slicing those thinly and evenly before salting. Aesthetics aren't important here, but ensuring a relatively similar shape and thickness will help the medallions cook at the same rate.
For the marrow topping, you have the option of slicing on the bias to achieve a striking diagonal shape and tossing the uneven ends in with the sauce marrows. This is entirely unnecessary, but it is sometimes fun to play both with knives and your food.
During your chopping phase, you should also peel your garlic cloves (you can put them in whole) and chop an onion. I did not photograph this bit because I forgot the onion until later, which you can also do if you think you can handle that kind of stress.
Finally, during the prep phase, take a moment to blanch the punnet of parsley. For quick results, stuff the lot into a colander, pour over a bunch of boiling water, then rinse under the cold tap. This ensures that the resulting sauce is a bright appealing green rather than a muddy hue.
Step Two: Frying phase 1
Pour about half a centimetre of oil into a Dutch oven or skillet and bring it to temperature on medium-low heat. You should have enough oil to cover your marrow medallions, garlic, and onion, but you don't have to deep fry anything. In olive oil? In this economy?!
Cooking low and slow is ideal here. Otherwise, you'll risk burning the onion and garlic. Once the marrow is soft and somewhat browned (stir occasionally to ensure an even application of olive oil), you can remove the mixture with tongs and put them in the fridge to cool down before blending. Leave the oil in the skillet.
This is a really good time to get a pot of salted water on the boil and cook your pasta, as you'll need the pasta water to complete the sauce.
Step Three: Frying phase 2
Next, lightly salt and toss in your fancy marrow medallions in the still-warm olive oil on the stove. Cook until soft and brown.
Remove the cooked marrow toppers and set aside for garnishing later.
Step Four: Make the sauce
In a blender, combine the following:
The phase 1 fried marrow, garlic, and onion mixture
The blanched parsley
About a third of the parm triangle, cubed (use your discretion)
The cooled oil from the skillet
Some reserved pasta water (add in a little at a time and see how you go)
If you have a NutriBullet or similar, do not attempt to blend when the mixture is still hot. You can pop the blender body with all the ingredients (either without the lid or very loosely screwed on to let steam escape) in the fridge or freezer to cool things down.
Now, simply blend until you reach a saucy consistency. Slightly thicker than soup is my ballpark goal. Keep adding pasta water or plain water until it's the right consistency.
Behold!
Step Five: Plate and serve
Combine the cooked pasta and the blended sauce in the skillet you used to fry everything up. On low heat, bring everything up to temperature again. Garnish with the fancy fried marrow medallions, chopped fresh parsley, more parm, flakey salt — whatever makes your Fanta fizz.
This really is so good, what the heck. We're so good at cooking, you guys.
Lots of love,
The Life & Style team
Comments