Deborah Ryan’s Courgette pesto rice bowl

I walked into an old newsagent that sold school supplies the other day and was instantly met with back-to-school nostalgia.

Walking down an aisle adorned with brand new school bags and pencil cases, I was immediately reminded of late August days running around trying to find school supplies.

It was the smell of those school bags that brought me back, the clean new plastic smell you get when you crack open one of those bad boys to fill with all of your off-brand Twistables and Aisling copybooks.

I strolled into my first lecture in college with just my laptop, thinking classes were exactly like the movies, thinking that cool college kids didn’t need copies or pens but technology instead. Unfortunately I was the only one who didn’t get the memo that you still need the notebooks and pens.

Now I figured out the most important thing about lectures is that you partner up with someone who’ll poke you in the ribs when you doze off in class from lack of sleep. (Disclaimer: To my lecturers that read this column, I always get 8 hours of sleep and have never pulled an all nighter. Nope, never. Please don’t fail me.)

I was never organised in school. It just wasn’t my style. I was perpetually late, despite living a ten minutes walk from school. By the end of primary school, it was the norm for me to walk in 20 minutes late, gangster style aged 12, having woken up 13 minutes before.

I haven’t lost this habit in college ( Disclaimers to those lectures: I have ). Despite having a folder for printed handouts in school, they would all inevitably end up at the bottom of my school bag, stuffed in the minute I received them, only to be retrieved a week after they were due as homework.

That’s another habit that stuck ( Lecturers: it didn’t ). Now even in college, if my lecturer just hands me a pages of notes instead of emailing them to me, they’ll never be seen again.

I was always envious of those well-organised kids in school, the ones who’s jumpers were always the right way around and didn’t have nutella on their faces.

They always had their perfect lunches, made the night before, of course and arrived to school thirty minutes before roll-call.

In my house, our lunches were made in the space of 2 minutes, throwing together something that you could call a sandwich and a cereal bar, maybe some fruit that would sit in my lunchbox for the duration of the day.

I’ve improved my lunches in college. My lectures usually work out so that I’m home in time to make lunch.

That being said, I’m about to go into final year where I’m hoping to camp out at the library ( hear that lecturers? ), so I’m gonna need a lunchbox supply, so I don’t just go to that really good sandwich place around the corner everyday, draining my bank account.

An obvious solution for lunch is to make more dinner and pack some away in a lunch box for the next day. This recipe is something that I’ve been making over the summer for dinner that

I’ll also bring to work. I’ll usually add a fried egg on top for dinner and leave it as it is for lunch. It takes around 20 minutes start to finish to make and it’s not hard to make a large batch of.

If you’re new to the cooking for yourself game, pesto is a good friend. Don’t get the jar stuff, grab a tub of fresh pesto. It has much better flavour and there’s not really a difference in price.

The key for this recipe is to cook the courgettes on a high heat quickly. This way, they’ll still have a bite without being soggy.

Method

1. Rinse the rice under cold water and add to a small saucepan with 1 cup of cold water. The general rule is 2;1 water to rice.

2. Bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for 40 minutes. Test a grain at the end to see if it’s al dente. Remove from the heat and leave the rice to rest for a few minutes.

3. While the rice is cooking, slice the courgette diagonally, about ½ cm thick.

4. Heat a frying pan on high heat and add a tbsp of olive oil. Arrange the courgette slices in a single layer in the pan. Don’t stir, allow them to brown underneath.

5. Flip over and cook the other side until dark brown. Grate or chop the garlic and add to the courgettes, with the chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and stir together with a wooden spoon.

6. Add the pesto to the rice and check the seasoning. Mix in the courgettes and serve.