Cooking Recipes

Lo Scoglio’s Spaghetti alla Zucchine Recipe

Straight from the Amalfi Coast and into your pie hole

Neil Patrick Harris is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Wondercade. In his spare time he also acts — fairly well, too, as his Tony and Emmy Awards can attest.

June 1, 2023 12:31 pm

After a trip to the Amalfi Coast, I just had to share the experience I had eating lunch like a true Italian at Lo Scoglio da Tommaso, a restaurant with incredibly welcoming hospitality, unbeatable views and impeccable food. And who am I to gatekeep their Spaghetti alla Zucchine, one of their signature dishes? Lo Scoglio’s very own Antonia shares the recipe with you below. Enjoy! – NPH

Lo Scoglio's Spaghetti alla Zucchine

Servings: 3

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Ingredients

9 oz spaghetti
6 medium-sized zucchini (Ideally 4 green and 2 yellow if you can find them. Yellow zucchini, which we have in abundance from June through September, give an especially creamy texture in this dish. If you can’t find yellow zucchini, using just green ones will be fine. Just add a knob of butter to the sauce as it cooks.)
4 big spoons of grated Parmesan, aged at least two years
Basil (You’ll want a big bunch with the leaves separated. The basil we grow on our farm has a different flavor depending on which variety we use — purple basil, dark basil, small leaves, big leaves. This means that this dish always tastes different, depending on the mix of zucchini and basil that we put into it.)
Salt
Optional: Ground pepper, grated Pecorino cheese, grated dried Caciotta cheese

Directions

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1. Slice the zucchini into thin rounds and fry in a generous quantity of oil. Drain them on paper towels and let them rest for about two hours.
2. Put the fried zucchini in a large saute pan. Add two ladles of the boiled water from the pasta pot, a pinch of salt, the basil leaves and, if you want to add it, ground pepper to your taste.
3. Separately, cook the spaghetti in lightly salted water.
4. Drain the pasta and add it to the zucchini mix. To finish the cooking, turn off the flame and mix — with gusto! — the pasta and zucchini together. Add Parmesan and butter (if you didn’t use yellow zucchini) and any mix of other grated cheeses that you like, again to your taste. We’ve recently stopped adding extra cheeses to make the dish lighter, especially in the summer.

NOTE: Our grandparents used to add to this dish the traditional cheeses that they ate every day. They would grate any pieces left over from meals and add them to the pasta (nothing was ever wasted!). This dish is made with the ingredients that are most characteristic of our produce: the zucchini, which thrive in this environment, and the basil, with its heavenly aroma.