- Serves 4 - Ready in 1 hour and 20 minutes -
*uses up 3 medium courgettes* or *1 whole medium marrow*
1 tbsp olive oil / rapeseed oil.
1 onion, thinly sliced and diced (to save time day-to-day, I keep a big box of onions I've chopped ahead-of-time, in the freezer, so I throw in 2 handfuls of those) - or blitz it in a food processor.
2 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped - or blitz in a food processor with the onion, or use 4 tsp lazy garlic.
1 carrot, quartered lengthways and chopped into small (triangular) pieces - or blitz in a food processor.
4 sticks of celery, sliced finely - or blitz in a food processor (chop and freeze any leftover stalks for use in a future recipe).
400g mushrooms (approx. 20 medium mushrooms) finely chopped into tiny pieces - - or blitz in a food processor.
Pinch of ground pepper.
3 medium courgettes / 1 medium marrow (to be made into courgetti, with a peeler, during the recipe).
500g Quorn mince (frozen).
1/2 stock cube or 2tsp 'Marigold Less Salt Swiss Vegetable Bouillon powder' (available in bulk 1kg tubs).
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce.
600g bottle of passata.
1 tsp dried Rosemary (I usually use fresh herbs in recipes, but I find Rosemary too fiddly to chop up finely).
Serve with…
Finely grated cheese.
Get cooking…
1(a). Either, if you are lucky enough to have a food processor, chop the raw vegetables into pieces manageable-to-your-machine and then in stages blitz the 1 onion, the 2 peeled garlic cloves, the 1 carrot, the 4 sticks of celery and the 400g of mushrooms (not the courgettes) in the food processor - but KEEP the mushrooms separate.
1(b). Or, chop the vegetables (not the courgettes) very finely -and KEEP the mushrooms separate.
2. On the hob over a medium-low heat, add the 1 tbsp of olive oil and begin to soften the finely chopped / blitzed onion, garlic, carrot and celery (NOT the mushrooms yet as they'll turn the mixture watery) in a large, lidded oven-proof pan. Season with ground pepper.
3. Cook GENTLY on the hob, with the lid on, for 10 - 15 minutes until the ingredients are starting to soften. Stir every few minutes, or the onion will burn
4. Meanwhile, use a potato peeler to cut the 3 un-peeled courgettes (or the marrow) into spaghetti-like ‘courgetti’ - stop just before you reach the seeds in the middle. Use these seeded middle sections in the dish - quarter them lengthways and chop finely before adding these middle sections to the pan. DON'T add the courgetti ribbon-strips yet, put them aside, raw, for later.
5. Once the chopped vegetables are softened, add the finely chopped / blitzed mushrooms to the pan and soften them with the lid on for 3 minutes (lots of liquid will be released, but this is fine as the Quorn will need rehydrating shortly).
6. Then turn the hob heat off (temporarily).
7. To the softened-vegetable pan, add the 500g of Quorn mince, sieve in the 2 tsp of dry stock powder (to avoid lumps), then add the 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, the 600g of passata and the 1 tsp of dried Rosemary. Stir really well.
8. Put the LOW hob heat back on and heat through for 10 - 15 minutes (or until gently bubbling), stirring a few times.
9. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan) or Gas 4.
10. Lay the spaghetti-like ‘courgetti’ / marrow (raw) ON TOP of the mince mixture in the pan. Put the lid ON.
11. Put the pan into oven, with the lid on, for 45 minutes.
12. Once the cooking time is up, lift the courgette strips off the mince mixture with tongs and share between the plates. Put the Quorn mince mixture on top. Grate some cheese over to serve.
Adapted from a recipe by Michael Underwood (2012 Celebrity MasterChef finalist). I changed the main hob-cooking for oven-cooking, so the dish is less likely to burn if left unattended. Also I cook the courgetti in the same pan as the Quorn mince - to save on washing up. I added finely chopped/blitzed mushrooms to the Quorn mince to get a 'meaty' flavour and texture - I got this idea from Jamie Oliver's Mushroom Bolognaise recipe.