Spaghetti con Tenerumi Di Zucca Mentuccia Selvatica

Pumpkin Tenerumi, in English the shoots of the vegetable, can be a delicious way to prepare simple spaghetti and olive oil. A tradition in the south of Italy. 

Today we have a simple recipe with simple, natural and refreshing ingredients: Pumpkin Tenerumi, “Cocozza” Tenerumi. It’s a recipe with ingredients that we can find a low cost, but effective, and definitely gives a touch of traditional and culture to your meal.

Ingredients for 2 People:

220 gr Spaghetti 

15  Tenerumi stem

5 gr Sweet Garlic Cream

20 gr of Extra virgin Olive Oil

1 unpeeled garlic clove

3 gr of Red Crushed Pepper

8  leaves of Wild Mint                 

20 gr of Parmigiano  Reggiano aged 24 months

Directions:

The recipe has a process that will give more flavor notes to your spaghetti because you are going to cook together with the Tenerumi

Boil water

We send tenerumi, the outer filaments and try them, as we do for the celery.  (see picture at the end of the page)

 We cut the tenerumi in 4 vertical sections.   (see picture at the end of the page)

Meanwhile in a in medium size pan, we heat the olive oil and add the unpeeled clove of garlic, and when the temperature has dropped, add the chili, and take out the garlic clove.

When the water comes to a boil, add the spaghetti and the stems of green vegetables, and bring to boil. (This process will lead us to have a more pronounced flavor to our pasta and will not allow the nutritional properties of Tenerumi to go completely lost).

Drain the pasta and set aside a little of the cooking water that we help us to make softer our cream of garlic and we add the pasts in the pan.

Sautè the pasta in the pan to give harmony at all  the ingredients.

Chop the mint leaves well washed, strictly by hand, and add to the spaghetti. Remember to leave  some for decoration.

With the help of a spoon form small nests in the center of the plate. Drizzle with  virgin olive oil and freshly ground Black pepper.