Adventure Cook Series – Pasta Perfection for Summery Adventures
Rooted in Italian simplicity – made for carefree days and open skies
Table of Contents
- ✨ Before We Begin…
- The Cook’s Mind
- Ingredient Focus: Pasta Shells
- My Favourite Way To Eat
- Multi-Purpose Recipe
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- Handpicked to Go With This One
- Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
- 📝 Adventure Cook Series – Pasta Perfection for Summery Adventures Recipe
✨ Before We Begin…
There’s a special kind of hunger that comes after walking the fells – when your legs are tired, your cheeks are sun-kissed (or rained on), and the promise of something warm in a bowl feels just right. That’s where this dish comes in.
Part of the Adventure Cook Series, this pasta is made for camp stoves and quiet, open-air kitchens – a little table by a lake, a flat rock, or the back of the boot. The sauce is simple but generous: sweet cherry tomatoes and softened courgette, stirred through pasta that’s just tender. It comes together quickly, with minimal fuss, but still feels like a meal – a proper one.
Whether you’re cooking as the sun dips behind the fells or under a sky full of stars, this is nourishment for those who like their food with a view.
‘Must be best food offer, of any genre, in Kendal. Hugely accomplished cooking and very much recommended.’
Tony P, Kendal; Food Customer
The Cook’s Mind
This is a lesson in keeping things simple and satisfying. It invites you to trust good ingredients – juicy cherry tomatoes, soft courgette, sharp little finishing touches – and to cook with care, not complication. You’ll begin to sense how pasta sauces behave off the hob too – loosening as they rest, deepening as they mingle – and that’s something you carry with you, indoors or out.
Make-Ahead
Boil your pasta and prep your toppings or sauces ahead of time. Store everything in separate containers for easy packing and on-site assembly. A drizzle of oil keeps pasta from clumping while travelling.
Freezer-Friendly
- This recipe is built for portability, not freezing.
- Pasta sauces can be frozen ahead and defrosted before your trip.
- Avoid freezing cooked pasta – the texture suffers.
Key Substitution Ideas
- Cherry plum tomatoes could be subbed with any type of fresh tomato. Bear in mind you need small chunks to cook quickly and easily.
- Pomegranate molasses could be subbed with a touch of balsamic vinegar and a tiny touch of sugar or agave.
- Spring onions could be subbed with chives, wild garlic or finely shredded leeks.
- Thyme could be subbed with oregano.
Ingredient Focus: Pasta Shells
Pasta shells are the foragers of the noodle world – scooping up sauce, cradling beans, hugging little puddles of garlic oil. In adventure cooking, they travel well and cook quickly, making them ideal for camp-stove suppers. Their playful shape adds texture and joy to simple meals.
Do you know how to choose an appropriate pasta shape for your sauce? If not, then perhaps this article is for you. I used shells to hold the courgette and tomatoes ‘to’ the pasta – I think it makes for a better dining experience. Otherwise, everything would fall apart.
✨ Little boats for carrying comfort.
My Favourite Way To Eat
If I could wish upon a star, I’d take my camp stove and the ingredients to Rydal Water, where my precious dog Georgia could swim while I cooked. I’d sit on a rock and just ‘be’. The food would be simple, the view spectacular – and for a while, that would be more than enough.
Multi-Purpose Recipe
This recipe has more than one life. Learn to use its elements across different dishes – and start thinking like a cook, not just a recipe follower.
This summery sauce doesn’t stop at pasta. Use it as a layer in lasagne or bakes, perhaps with a swirl of passata to stretch it further. Leftovers, loosened with olive oil and scattered with nutritious yeast or chilli flakes, make a lovely cold pasta salad – served over greens, or just as it is.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s been designed for the outdoors, making it perfect for summery adventures.
- It is very easy and simple
- Fewer ingredients
- Moreish and creamy
- Nourishing whole food! 😋
What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- How to balance freshness with richness using only a few ingredients
- How to gently cook courgette for soft texture without wateriness
- How to finish pasta with body and gloss using tahini and molasses
- How to cook confidently outdoors with minimal fuss
- How a short ingredient list can still deliver real flavour complexity
Handpicked to Go With This One
A few recipes that play well together — flavour friends, not just neighbours.
Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
Got something spare – a handful, a spoonful, or the end of a packet? These tags help you find other ways to use it. It’s a small step toward cooking intuitively and wasting less ❣️
baby plum tomatoes, courgette, dried thyme, ground black pepper, nutritious yeast, pasta shells, pomegranate molasses, spring onion, tahini, tomato
📝 Adventure Cook Series – Pasta Perfection for Summery Adventures Recipe
Adventure Cook Series – Pasta Perfection for Summery Adventures
Cherry tomatoes and creamy courgette chunks cook down gently into a soft, rich sauce made for the outdoors. A drizzle of tahini and pomegranate molasses brings depth and a little sweetness. This is clean, moreish camp cooking – simple ingredients, beautifully balanced.
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Ingredients
Pasta
- 160 g dried pasta shells | you can use any shape, but shells are preferred!
- 1 litre boiling water | to cook the pasta
- 1 pinch salt | for the pasta water
Sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 300 g courgette | cut into quarters lengthways, then diagonal cut 15mm interval, into chunks
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 200 g baby plum tomatoes
Pasta dressing
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp nutritious yeast
- 1 pinch salt | or more to taste
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
Finishing the dish
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp spring onion | diagonally slice
- 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
Instructions
Cook the pasta
- Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil, with a good pinch of salt. When it's boiling, add the pasta and proceed to cook, with the lid off.160 g dried pasta shells, 1 litre boiling water, 1 pinch salt
- When the pasta is cooked to 'al dente', drain thoroughly and then put it back in the warm pan, adding the extra virgin olive oil, nutritious yeast and salt and pepper. Mix it around and keep covered.1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp nutritious yeast, 1 pinch salt, 1 pinch ground black pepper
Cook the sauce
- Prepare the courgette and cut each plum tomato into half lengthways. Heat the oil in a large fry pan on a low heat, and when it's warm, add the courgette and salt, and cook for 8-10 minutes, to soften the courgette (it goes creamier when its cooked slowly).1 tbsp olive oil, 300 g courgette, 1 pinch salt
- Bearing in mind that the pasta should basically be done now, you need to add the tomatoes and thyme to the courgette pan, and carry on cooking.1 tsp dried thyme, 200 g baby plum tomatoes
- The tomatoes and courgettes will be soften and be careful that the tomatoes are only softened. Around 5 minutes max.
Finish
- Tip the dressed pasta into a large bowl, put the courgette/tomato mix on top, then drizzle over the tahini, spring onions and pomagranate molasses.1 tbsp tahini, 2 tbsp spring onion, 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
Nutrition
Calories: 244kcalCarbohydrates: 37gProtein: 8gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gSodium: 45mgPotassium: 461mgFiber: 3gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 437IUVitamin C: 26mgCalcium: 39mgIron: 2mg
Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on specific ingredients used. Nutrition is per serving. Information is for the main recipe, not optional accompaniments.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
COPYRIGHT
© The Golden Polar Bear, 2025. Recipes and photography by Julia Savory. If you share this, please pass it along with kindness and if possible share a link back to this site. #ForTheAnimals
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Next Steps?
You’ve got the full recipe — now take it further. Inside Black Labrador, you’ll find structured video courses and an ever-growing cookbook designed to help you cook with understanding, not guesswork. Learn, revisit, and deepen your skills at your own pace.
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