Stanley Tucci's Spaghetti alla Nerano
Courgettes, pasta and cheese - Ecco!
If you search for Spaghetti alla Nerano in Google about a hundred recipes will pop up and many of them will reference Stanley Tucci, as he describes it as one of the best things he’s ever eaten, in his Searching for Italy TV series.
So you might wonder why I am posting it again here - because it really is that good, and one of the primary functions of my substack is to form a repository for all my favourite recipes, and this one is up there with the best.
Traditionally in Campania where this recipe was created, the cheese used for the dish is Provolone (or Provolone del Monaco), but in the UK Pecorino or Parmesan is easier to come by.
The real secret to the dish is the preparation of the courgettes, if you can prepare them in advance it will be worth the wait, but it won’t hurt to cook it all on the same day.
Ingredients - Serves 4
Sunflower oil, for frying the courgettes - approx 500ml
1 kg (6 medium courgettes) - sliced into rounds
400g linguini
1 clove of garlic, grated
200g Provolone cheese, grated
50g butter
Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan, or use a deep fat fryer if you have one. I have an electric stove top so I have to adjust my heat from time to time, but I start off getting the oil nice and hot, test with one of the courgette slices or some bread and ensure it sizzles as soon as it’s dropped into the oil.
Add your courgette in batches so as not to overload the pan, for 6 courgettes you will probably want to do 3 batches, deep fry until golden then remove with a slotted spoon to drain on kitchen paper.
Once all the courgettes have been cooked set them aside to cool, ideally leaving them in the fridge overnight.
Put the water on for the linguini, this you will cook until it is just about al dente, in the meantime you can get on with the re-heating the courgettes. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.
Heat a frying pan on medium heat and add in your courgettes with the garlic and butter, mash the courgettes up with a wooden spoon, if you need to loosen the mixture add a few spoons of the pasta water.
Add the pasta to the frying pan and then the cheese adding more pasta water to generate a smooth sauce.
Season to taste and serve with grated cheese, torn basil and black pepper.
P.S: If anyone knows if Stanley Tucci is considering recording audio books I need a list of every single one of them, I could pretty much listen to him talk about anything for hours.
July 24: Revisiting Spaghetti alla Nerano seemed like a great idea at the time to use up the glut of courgettes, but I didn't take into account the time spent frying them on one of the hottest days of the year. Next year I'm building a Jaime Oliver style outdoor kitchen first. It'll be worth the effort as these courgettes sure are.