How I Eat Pasta with Zucchini at Home Food That Looks After You Series

Ciao and welcome. Today I'm cooking a very simple pasta with zucchini but it's done in a slightly different way as I'm cooking everything in one pot and it comes together gently and it is surprisingly aromatic and creamy and it consists only of a few ingredients. I'm slicing the zucchini right now. I will also be using some herbs. I've got here some basil, some mint and some parsley which at the moment is in the freezer. Rigatoni is my pasta. I've got a little olive oil with a clove of garlic which I crushed earlier so that it releases flavor. It has been in there for about 20 minutes. And some parmigiano. I'm using grana padano. Very similar. Or you can use pecorino. And of course salt and pepper. And that is pretty much it. You can also make this a vegan version if you wish by replacing the cheese with a vegan type cheese. I'm using a couple of zucchini. I tend to do one per person. I've sliced them in half and I'm now making some half moons here. You can see in the camera. They are about anything between half a centimeter to a centimeter thick. And the different thing about this recipe is that the zucchini will be cooking alongside the pasta. I'll show you. The only planning required in this recipe is to ensure that the pot you're using is big enough to hold your zucchini and the pasta. So here they are inside my pot. I've got some salt. I'll add some now. I'm not topping up my zucchini with water and I'm going to add enough to cook the zucchini and the pasta. So about half the capacity of my pot. I'll turn my hob on maximum. I'll place my pot on and I'll wait until they reach the boil. In the meantime I'll work on my marinade which will bond my pasta together. So the garlic has done its job. The purpose was to relieve some flavor and I'm not going to be using it today. Let's move to the herbs. This is my parsley which I mentioned is frozen as I keep it in the freezer. I don't have a fresh plant at the moment. And this will add freshness to my pasta. So in it goes. A little mint. Not a lot as can be a little bit overpowering and this will give a sense of coolness to the palate. So in it can go with the parsley. And the basil brings softness. Something round. Almost sweet. So make sure that you chop it in with the rest of the herbs. Just like this. Apologies as I think I forgot to introduce turmeric and smoked paprika at the beginning. So I will start with some turmeric first. Just a little pinch. No more than that. Just a little. You can see the handle of my little teaspoon. The turmeric by the way is not there just for spice. It's for warmth and a beautiful golden color. Whereas the smoked paprika is more about the smokiness that you get. Almost like if it's something that's been smoked in the background. What I mean by smoked in the background. Cooked slowly. So I'm going to be putting about three quarters of a teaspoon. These are very very small. You saw me adding salt in the water so I'm not going to bother with salt here And I'll mix it so that it binds together. And you should get that beautiful terracotta color which is a blend between the turmeric and the paprika of course. And the smell is good. The garlic smell is there but not overpowering. And that is just what you're looking for. Something like this. And having dealt with easy part number one, I can now deal with easy part number two. Cooking the pasta. As soon as the water starts boiling that's when you add your pasta. And I'll take this all the way until it's totally cooked or al dente depending on your preferences. And the zucchini will finish cooking when the pasta is cooked. I'm using rigatoni because it's my favorite pasta as you might know but you can use any pasta you like. Long pasta, short pasta entirely up to you. It doesn't really make any difference. The pasta has been cooking for a good five minutes so I'm going to pinch a couple of spoons of my starchy water and I'll mix my all and everything together so that that will start giving me the creaminess I want from this dish. A little tip as you might need it later, add a little bit more water in a mug for when the pasta is cooked. A Sicilian summer. That is the smell you should expect from boiling zucchini. The smell is unique I think. You can see what I mean by the one pot approach. So pasta and zucchini are drained. I'm adding all of my oil next and I'll mix it together first. Oh the smell is really really good. This is when you might want to add a little bit of your reserved water. I'm going to add some. Here let me show you this is how much water I've added so that it will continue Cheese moment. Here's my grana padano. You can of course use any cheese you like but I would definitely stick to Italian cheese or as I said earlier use some vegan cheese if you're vegan and a couple of teaspoons is plenty. One final mix to ensure that the cheese is amalgamated with everything and this is ready. Some people add cheese once you've served it. Personal choices. I prefer to do it like this as I think it bonds better but you can do either way. Time to eat and of course do not forget to go and dish some of that sauce at the bottom which is even creamier now so that gives that beautiful creaminess I was talking about. Let's have a look. So the first thing that hits you is the sweetness of the zucchini followed by the freshness of the herbs and the warmth from the spices and of course the creaminess that has been naturally created without adding any cream. It's the sort of dish that if you make it with care you take a little time although it didn't take very long at all. Actually it does look after you. It's nutritious and incredibly cheap especially this time of the year when we are going towards the summer and zucchinis are very very cheap and available for the rest of the summer. Enjoy. I hope you make it and let me know if you do and maybe you can post a picture on the community page on on YouTube. Buon appetito. Ciao ciao.