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Spaghetti alla Nerano Ingredients for 4 portions • Garlic 1 clove • Zucchini 700g • Provola cheese 150g • Basil • Salt & pepper • Spaghetti 320g • Extra-virgin olive oil
For our first course, primo, we propose you Spaghetti alla Nerano, a delicious first course, relatively easy to cook, which has also the perk of being a tasty vegetarian dish. It is part of the Neapolitan tradition, and we believe it to be perfect for the today’s event. Of course, you are free to cook it also by yourself in your house, due to the simplicity of the recipe. When all the main ingredients are ready, you can start with boiling water in a pan. After that, pour extra virgin oil into another pan and lit it with a low flame, in order to later bring it to slight-frying capacity. Take the zucchini and start cutting them in a round shape, after chopping off the top. Make sure to cut it safely and nicely, at about 4 millimeters of wideness, in order to guarantee faster even cooking. After the oil starts boiling, place the zucchini gently inside the pan. You will know when it is cooked once the zucchini are golden-colored. Place a sheet of paper on a plate, with torn basil in it, in order to let the fried zucchini rest on it and absorb its flavor. Now it’s the turn of cooking pasta. In Italy, pasta is usually prepared ‘al dente’, preserving the ‘crunchiness’ of pasta. On the side of the pasta box, you will find the required cooking time, and in order to make our pasta al dente, the cooking time should be reduced by 30 seconds. Pour a palm of salt into the pan, and as soon as the water boils, pour the pasta. Pour some of the oil you just used inside another pan. Then take one cloth of garlic and place it inside the pan (decide if you just want the flavor, by crushing it, or to eat it, by cutting it finely). Tear some more basil and place it in the pan with garlic. Then grate some provola cheese inside a plate. Creaminess is an essential feature of a pasta dish. Italians do not use cream in order to achieve creaminess (which is kind of funny to say). Italian chefs use the pasta’s starch in order to add this special flavor. Pour some water used to cook pasta in the pan with garlic and oil. Pour pasta inside the garlic and basil pan, and start mixing it. Keep sautee the pasta and after some time add some water from the pan where we cooked pasta. Lastly, turn off the stove, and pour the provola cheese inside the pan, and continue to sautee the pasta. Finally, by using fork and spoon, roll it and serve it on a plate! -- 12 --
