Katwijk-aan-zee is a very pleasant little seaside town in the Netherlands, but apart from chips with mayonnaise, there is not much choice of vegetarian food in the local restaurants. That means the vegetarians have to get cooking. We stayed in a flat when we visited, so we had some basic cooking utensils and there was a reasonable choice of fresh vegetables in the local shops. The avocados were particularly good.
This is a simple enough recipe which doesn't take long at all; however, it's success does rather hinge on you having both an avocado at the correct stage of ripeness and enough skill to deal with peeling and chopping it in a reasonably swift manner. An avocado of suitable ripeness should be quite firm but should also give a little when you press it with your thumb. It's best to do this discreetly when you're trying to choose one from the pile in the fruit shop. What little known-fact links the hill town of Kodaikanal in south India with Cardiff, the capital of Wales? Answer: they're both towns where I put my thumb through an overripe avocado in the market... and the fact is little-known precisely because I was being discreet on both occasions.
As for the skill required to peel an avocado? Well..don't be scared, just be prepared.
Here's the basic blue-print. The quantities given are enough for two people. Scale up accordingly if you're feeding more.
Ingredients
230-250g of pasta
A small bunch of spinach
2-3 coloves of garlic
1 large tomato
Half of a red onion
1 large firm avocado
A pinch of ground nutmeg
A pinch of black pepper
100-150g of cream
Olive oil
Salt
Put the pasta in some boiling salted water and you can prepare most of the veg while the pasta is cooking. Wash and chop the spinach, onion, garlic and tomato, but keep them separate from each other. It's best to keep the avocado whole until the last minute, as avocados go brown quickly when exposed to air.
Drain the pasta when it is ready. Fry the onion gently in olive oil until it softens and becomes transparent, then add the garlic. Fry for just a minute or so before adding the chopped tomato and spinach. Give it all a little stir then set about your avocado. Cut through the skin from end to end in four places and you should be able to easily peel the skin off the fruit in four strips. Make a deeper end-to-end cut all the way to the stone and follow it round the fruit so that it is cut into halves. Twist the halves in opposite directions and one should come away from the stone. Dig the stone out of the other with a knife or a teaspoon, then cut the halves into fairly big chunks. Add the pieces to the mixture in the pan and stir very gently. Cook for about 30 seconds or so - just to heat the avocado through - then add the pasta and cream with a pinch of pepper. Stir once more and serve.
We also enjoyed a tasty avocado and pasta salad in Katwijk. It's also easy to do, especially if you have left-over pasta from this recipe like we had.