Chargrilled Chicken, Courgette & Tomato Pasta

Clearly chicken, courgette and tomatoes are used religiously in pasta, but bringing this simple dish together on the BBQ came to me after cooking a dish from Melissa Thompson's book, Fired Up - she uses grilled courgette & tomatoes as part of one of her dishes, and using them in a pasta dish felt... well... obvious!

If you're interested in seeing Melissa's recipe, you can watch us cook it here.

Pat your chicken breasts dry, oil them generously with a high smoke point oil - my strong preference is cold-pressed British rapeseed oil - and season with plenty of salt.

Grill them directly over hot charcoal until you get your desired colouring & char - don't be scared of this bit, chicken breasts can take more fire than most people think, as long as you don't overcook them!

When you're happy with the colour, move the chicken indirect so it's no longer over direct coals.

I personally cook my chicken breast until it's 65°C internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast, then rest them tented with foil for at least 3 minutes - carry over cooking will ensure they continue to rise in temperature, and they will be safe to eat due to pasteurisation.

With your chicken cooking indirect, you can now get a little oil on your courgette and cook them over the coals - remember to keep your lid down to create an oven environment that will finish off cooking your chicken.

Assuming your pasta takes around 10 minutes to cook, get it into boiling, heavily salted water at this point.

Your chicken should no longer be on the BBQ and your courgette should be lovely and charred, so move the courgette indirect and get your tomatoes directly over the coals - I suggest using a grilling tray to avoid losing any!

Turn the tomatoes regularly to char up on all sides - you want them nicely coloured and starting to shrivel so they sweeten up, but you don't want them so far cooked they start leaking their juices.

When your tomatoes are getting close to done, move them to a cooler spot of your BBQ and place one half of your lemon face down, directly over hot coals.

This will concentrate the natural sugars in the lemon - doing only one half makes some of your lemon juice sweeter while keeping the rest punchy and acidic.

Pull your tomatoes and courgettes off the BBQ, get them into a bowl and cover with a lid.

Your veggies will steam a little now and release some of their liquid, which is going to be the base for your sauce. 3 or 4 minutes with the lid on is enough here, while everything else comes together.

When your pasta is cooked, drain it - but hold back around 50ml of the pasta water and put that and the pasta back into the saucepan.

Add your grilled veggies, the juice from both halves of lemon, the leaves from your bunch of basil, 80g of finely grated parmesan, your chilli flakes and a good amount of freshly ground black pepper.