Spaghetti alla Nerano
God bless Southern Italy
This pasta dish hails from a small town on the Amalfi coast called Nerano. It has been recently popularised by none other than Stanley Tucci himself who has called it his “favourite” pasta dish.
The Amalfi coast is famous for a lot of things and in my opinion I think their pasta dishes get overlooked. With a long standing history between the northern and southern parts of Italy, the differences in their pasta dishes are vast and for good reason.
The southern part of Italy historically was a lot poorer and needed to rely on whatever the land could provide them with for their food. So a lot of their dishes were very simple, humble and were comprised with minimal ingredients. Encompassing for me what I believe Italian food does best. Keeping things minimal and allowing the best, freshest produce to do the talking.
Courgettes are bang in season and this is certainly a dish perfect for hot summery days. So here is how to make it.
Full video is on my Instagram for reference:
Ingredients:
1 green courgette
1 yellow courgette
Spaghetti/Linguine
Pecorino
EVOO
Fresh basil
Salt
Method:
Courgettes
Thinly slice your courgettes. I like to use a mandolin to get the same, perfect size on each slice. However, if you aren’t comfortable or have never used one before, please just chop them! They get crisped up when fried anyway, so they will change shape regardless. A perfectly thin slice isn’t necessary.
Leave out to dry for 5 minutes so any excess moisture can escape. Grab a frying pan and fill with olive oil about 3-4cm deep. You want it deep enough to coat the slices but not too deep that the oil gets wasted.
Increase the temp and test by dropping one slice in, if it bubbles up straight away then you’re good to go. Drop the rest of the slices in and fry until golden brown. Don’t do them all at once as you don’t want to overcrowd the pan. So fry them in batches.
When frying, make sure the temperature is gradual and consistent. You don’t want it too hot or too cold. Just gently fry until golden brown before removing and placing on a paper towel.
When remove season with salt, generously. Save some of the oil for later.
Pasta
Get a pot of water and put it on the boil. When it’s a rolling boil add a good few pinches of salt. Then cook your pasta for 5-6 minutes just about al dente.
Emulsification
Take the same frying pan used earlier but empty the oil. Add a handful or two of the courgettes with a ladle of pasta water and a ladle of the oil used earlier. Gently stir to emulsify over a low heat.
Then drop in your pasta with some more pasta water. Grate in a load of pecorino and then stir. Keep stirring and tossing whilst adding more pecorino and pasta water. Do this until a sauce is forming with all the ingredients emulsifying.
Serve
To finish, use a pair of tweezers and a ladle to nicely serve onto a plate, cover with a few spoonfuls of sauce, some courgettes that weren’t used in frying and loads of pecorino. Crack some black pepper and place some fresh basil on top.
Voila! My favourite summer pasta dish.
Enjoy :)
can’t wait to make this🍝