Tagliatelle and Zucchini, or Taglietelle e Zucchine: If you're in the midst of zucchini season, here's a recipe for tagliatelle e zucchine. It has you make the pasta from scratch, which makes the recipe more involved than it might be; when Elisabetta and I do this we simply buy our pasta. Select small zucchine, because they're more delicately flavored. You'll need:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- A pound (500 g) of tagliatelle, or the pasta of your choice. Long-stranded in any case
- A pound (450 g) of Zucchine, preferably small ones
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 leaves basil, shredded
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (this is a Piemontese touch, which we generally omit)
- Freshly grated Parmigiano
- Salt & pepper to taste
Preparation:
Set pasta water to boil.Wash the zucchine, trim the ends, and cut them into thin rounds. Heat the oil in a broad pot, add the minced herbs and let cook them, being careful to keep the garlic from browning, and add the zucchine. Season to taste and sauté over a brisk flame.
As soon as the pasta water comes to a boil, salt it and cook the pasta. Drain it when it's just shy of being al dente, and transfer it to the zucchini pot before the colander stops dripping completely. Stir the pasta and the butter into the sauce, cook until the pasta is al dente, and serve, with grated cheese.
Timing is important here; if you are using pasta that takes a long time to cook, for example thick spaghetti, don't add the zucchine to the skillet until you've added the pasta, or the zucchine will overcook.
The wine? A rose' would be nice, for example a Bardolino Chiaretto.
