How to make the famous Amalfi Zucchini dough love Stanley Tucci

Positano's past, Sorrento's past, all the other rude of the Amalfi coast in Italy, Nerano, a small fishing village. While the kitchen is known to celebrate local seafood, the name car, the spaghetti Alla Nerano, the dough and the zucchini are a simple combination of land. Its unique sauce is made from zucchini, which is fried, cooled, then silky sauce, which coats the fibers of each pasta. And if you are curious – really the creamy zucchini spaghetti that Stanley Tucci loves is famously.

The textures of the dough food are unforgettable and relatively easy to access: it starts with the best summer pumpkin – the kind that is fresh enough to pearl with water drops while slice into the solid body. It is then sliced ​​and fried until lightly softened on the outside, brown and crisp. After spent in the deep oven, it is placed in a pan – when it hit the pan and meets the wooden spoon, turns into a paste that turns into a creamy sauce while emulsion with cheese – Caciocavallo or Pecorino Romano in this recipe – and some Starchy Pasta cooking water. It's simple, seasonal Italian cooking. In the recipe below, I use my professional dough -making experience, as well as my time and cooking in Italy, to create the best possible version.

To improve fried zucchini texture

Often when we bake deeply we try to maximize crunch on anything else (think of crunchy fried chicken or slightly crunchy french fries). So when I started testing zucchini baking, I followed this logic. I started slicing the zucchini in the mandolin They made ultra -thin coins as thin, until they had a beautiful golden brown color with crisp texture. They were great to have snack but they were too Crispy, and missed the creamy interior, which is essential to make the sauce in this given food. Thicker cutting of zucchini. A quarter inches of thick vegetable slices have placed a light camel brown-not dark caramel brown while maintaining a soft, buttery interior that massaged to the creamy paste of the sauce.

I suggest that you use a smaller zucchini (up to two inches in diameter), as a smaller zucchini usually has smaller and less seeds and more bodies than the larger. This helps to ensure smoother, less lonely sauce. But every fresh zucchini will work here, so if you have plenty of freshly fresh zucchini, you need to use it (I know I do often!), This is the perfect recipe. Just get ready for a slightly less smooth (though still delicious) sauce.

The best combination of fats should be used in Spagetti Alla Nerano

During my spaghetti Alla Nerano research, I encountered a number of recipes published that used three different cooking fats: a neutral oil with a high smoke for deep baking, extra virgin olive oil to the taste of the sauce, and butter to the end, adding wealth to the final sauce. But I questioned you really need this food three fats. So I tested it.

I started with oil because this is the main ingredient in this food. At first I only tested it with rapeseed oil, but zucchini is a thirsty sponge that sucks any flavors it cooks. When I roasted in straight rapeseed oil, it tasted like … rapeseed oil. Not a huge surprise there, but not delicious.

So I tried to add a little olive oil just to increase the taste of baking oil as it was observed in the delicious fried zucchini. I found that a cup of olive oil (no, no need to be extra virgins-just a good quality, tasteful olive oil), three cups of neutral oil (I use rapeseed oil) to give a rich, slightly fruity flavor for zucchini. In addition, I didn't feel like wasting cups, good quality olive oil. (As written by Daniel Gritzer, the editorial director of serious Eats, Perfectly safe and delicious to bake in olive oilSo if you don't mind the costs go on and use all the olive oil if you want.)

When I made the dish with butter, I disappeared from most of the recipes published. I am all generous when I give fat to an otherwise lean food, such as zucchini and spaghetti, but I found that when I tried butter-equipped zucchini on top of zucchini on top of zucchini and the added cheese, the result is bordered on oleagous. So I soaked the butter.

Seasoning spaghetti alla nerano

For seasoning, I stay loyal to the simple, classic taste profile of the spaghetti Alla Nerano and use a pinch of garlic, salt and pepper – and that's it. This dish is a celebration of simplicity and in order for the zucchini to shine with a slight, earthy taste, the other sauce must be held back. You may be tempted to finish food with acid, such as lemon juice or good white wine vinegar, but it would compete with the slight zucchini. (You can definitely finish lemon pressing if you really I would like to, but I encourage you to at least try the dough before you do it.)

While you need salt to bring out the zucchini abuse taste, you really need less than you think. Use a heavy hand with seasoning and zucchini will only have a salty taste – delicious nuts, flowering, leafy notes are called, but they are also quickly hidden with salt. So, after transferring each item of fried zucchini wheels to a paper towel, sprinkle them evenly but gently with salt. Remember that in the end it can always be tasteful.

To select the right cheese

If you were to make Spaghetti Alla Nerano in Nerano, you use Provolone del Monaco, the Sorrento Peninsula DOP cheese to finish the dish. However, this is very difficult to obtain in the United States where I live. To repeat Provolone del Monaco's spicy, walnut taste profile, I tried some other cheeses in this dish, including Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano and Caciocavallo. While the latter was my favorite substitute for Provolone del Monaco, Pecorino Romano was also very good and much easier to find. Walnut and robust Parmigiano-Reggiano, though delicious, just didn't have the spicy taste I wanted in this recipe.

Once the cheese has been added, the key to the silky and well combination of this sauce lies in the quick throw and all the merger while adding the starchy dough cooking water to the zucchini base. Be sure to add the cooking water to the pan to the frying pan while constantly mixing the sauce to emulsify it well. The garnish of fine basil leaves is not only a nice echo of the green zucchini, but also creates a seductive garden-refresal aroma.

Cooking method
(Keep on the screen awake)

• 2 1/2 pound zucchini (1.15 kg; about 5 medium), sliced ​​on a 1/4 inch thick circle at room temperature

• 3 cup (720 ml) neutral oil such as rapeseed oil

• 1 cup plus 3 tablespoon (285 ml) olive oilshared

• 1 1/2 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoon Diamond crystal kosher saltShared, plus more taste; For table salt use half with so much volume

• 1 pound dried spaghetti

• 3 clove garlicgently minced or grated

• 3 ounce Caciocavallo or pecorino romano cheese, gently grated

• Soil black pepper tasted

• 1/4 cup small fresh basil leaves the garnish

1. Remove a rim baking sheet with a triple layer of paper towels and set aside. Pour neutral oil and 1 cup of olive oil into a large Dutch oven or a large, heavy bottom (the oil should be measured to about 1 inch). Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 ° F (175 ° C). Carefully put the zucchini circles 1/3 in the oil and bake until light golden brown, 6-8 minutes, often mixed to avoid gluing or pan. Use a spider -kimer or slot spoon to relocate the fried zucchini to the prepared lined baking sheet. Return the oil to 350 ° F (175 ° C) and repeat the remaining 2 items zucchini. Sprinkle the fried zucchini evenly with 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt (not too salt at this point). Allow cooking oil to cool completely before disposal or storage. At this point, you can continue with step 2 or cool and cool the zucchini for up to 1 day before continuing the recipe.

2. Bring a large pot of water to boil high heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of salt, add back to boiling, then add spaghetti and cook until the dough is softened on the outside, but shy from Al Dente and still in the center (about 3 minutes less than the packaging direction). Book 2 cups of cooking water and drain the dough into a filter pot.

3. Heated in a large, large side pan, heated the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until it glitter. Add the garlic and cook, often while stirring until fragrant, but does not start tan, approx. For 1 minute. Add half of the fried zucchini and use a wooden spoon to make it a paste with garlic. Add a parking lot of dough and 1 1/4 cups of maintained cooking water and cook the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and cook, mixed forcefully until the sauce is emulsified and spaghetti al dente for 3-5 minutes. If the sauce has reduced too much before the dough has finished cooking, add additional dough water to the pan in 1/4 cup steps.

4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the grated cheese and mix quickly to connect. Adjust the consistency of the sauce with more dough water as you want. The sauce should be liquid and spaghetti should be easily covered, but do not run out. Season the tasting with salt and pepper. Put it into a serving bowl and arrange the remaining fried zucchini circles and basil on top. Serves.

Special equipment

Large Dutch oven or large, heavy bottom dish, spider -kimmer or large slotted spoon, large, large -sided pan, wooden spoon

Make-Head and Storage

The zucchini can be baked (step 1), cooled and cooled in airtight container for up to 1 day before continuing the recipe. Briefly heat the zucchini in a large pan with 1 tablespoon of oil high until it heats up, approx. 2 minutes before you get into the recipe.

The residue can be cooled in an airtight container for up to 5 days.