Pasta e Zucchine

The name "Napoletana" or "Neapolitana", pops up quite often in the menus of Italian restaurants abroad, usually associated with dishes based on tomato sauce. Now, it is certainly true that Neapolitans love their spaghetti con la pummarola, but reducing everything to that is a bit depressing. Before pasta became so popular in Naples, the locals were famous for their vegetable eating habits. The consumption of salad, cabbages and similar was so high that Neapolitans were called mangia foglie, leaf-eaters. The love for vegetables remains. If you open any well researched Neapolitan cookbook you'll find many ingenious ways to prepare vegetable dishes. A whole bunch of them are devoted to pasta and vegetables. Recipes vary a lot, from incredibly simple, pasta with onions and not much else, to longer preparations. One of my favourite recipes is the relatively simple pasta with zucchini.

Pasta e zucchine was probably created by the chef of a restaurant in Nerano, on the Sorrento coast. It has become so popular that I have come across many recipes claiming to be the real deal. I don't really care what the original one is, though I wouldn't mind having a look at it. I've had enough time to try the recipe out: pasta e zucchini is one of the first recipes I cooked myself from scratch. I have a tried and tasted recipe and I'm happy with it.

The secret with making any pasta with vegetables is the obvious and by now boring "use only the best and freshest ingredients available". I must have repeated this plenty of times but I just can't help it. When you're lucky enough to have lived in a part of Italy which the Romans called with reason Campania Felix, happy farmland, you're inevitably spoiled. Here I can't get the tiny zucchini, as big as my ring finger with the flower still attached, I would use in Italy but I can always choose the smallest I can find. Unless you want to stuff zucchini it really pays to choose the small ones: they're less watery, tastier and sweeter. I never understood those who looked for gigantic zucchini in stores. Better that way, more of the small ones for me.

Pasta e zucchini
serves 6

1 kg small zucchini, topped and sliced in 2-3mm slices
olive oil
100g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
50g Pecorino Romano, grated
a little butter
a bug handful of basil, chopped or chiffonade cut
salt and pepper
500 g pasta, spaghetti and vermicelli are traditional but I prefer penne and similar

Fry the zucchini in olive oil. You'll probably need to work in batches since you won't be able to fit all the zucchini in the pan at once. The olive oil should be about 2 cm deep so the slices float in the oil. Using a different oil would be cheaper but you'd never get the same taste. You're not only frying the zucchini but also flavouring them with the olive oil. Fry the zucchini until they start to brown slightly. remove the done slices to a bowl, arranging them in a layer and sprinkle with the chopped basil, a little salt and pepper. Fry the next one batch of zucchini and repeat the layering procedure till all the slices are fried. Cook the pasta al dente, drain and pour in the cooking pot again. Add the zucchini and the grated cheeses. Warm very gently on a low flame till the cheese has melted. Serve straight away.

Comments

[Dave]

Hey Alberto,
Here, it's the height of the season for good locally grown vegetables and this recipe (ours doesn't have the Pecorino in it) is our favorite. Our daughter loves the sauteed zucchini as much as the pasta.

I just wish we had good produce for more than 3 months a year.

[Alberto]

Must be a children's favourite, my son loves it too. He's going trough an "on the side" phase though so the pasta gets dressed with a little zucchini cooking oil, basil and cheese, and the zucchini rounds come on the side... kids!

[tiberio]

FANTASTICO