Commuter's lemon zucchini pasta with smoked salmon

I commute to work (and back, obviously) every day. One hour by train to the country's financial centre. A lot of people gasp when I tell them because this is a small country and people feel about distances accordingly. But I'm sure that many of my fellow bloggers can't see anything unusual about my one-hour journey to the office.

I have one rule (I have several, actually, but I won't go into them, I don't want you to think of me as a complete nutter) about commuting: I never eat on the road. I always keep to this, no matter how hungry I am in the evening. I don't want a soggy sandwich or a box of greasy mini springrolls, I want a proper, healthy dinner, prepared with care and I'm willing to wait for it. Besides, I know myself too well: I would end up eating on the train and then at home and then bye-bye skinny jeans.

While on the train tonight, I entertained myself by making some kind of mental mise en place for

Lemon zucchini pasta with smoked salmon (served the Boyfriend and myself, both reasonably hungry after a tedious monday)

- 350g small zucchini, chopped
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- zest and juice of one lemon
- 0.5 teaspoon thyme leaves (fresh, maybe a little less if you use the dried variety)
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- salt, pepper
- 100g smoked salmon, cut into strips
- 160g pasta

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onion and fry for a few minutes over a low heat until soft. Add the lemon zest and thyme and fry a little longer, then add the zucchini and fry for yet another minute. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat until the zucchini are soft. Place in a food processor and process until very smooth. You may have put your pasta water on by this time so you can add a little of the salted water to make the processing easier. Put the zucchini pulp back into the pan, add the lemon juice and sour cream and season with salt and pepper. Cook the pasta, drain and add to the zucchini sauce. The pasta doesn't need to be drained very thoroughly as the sauce is quite thick. You may even want to add a little reserved cooking water. Add half the salmon and mix everything carefully. Place the remaining salmon strips on top and serve.