Pasta with Zucchini and Peas with Egg

La storia di questo piatto

This is a dish born in an Italian home kitchen, where summer vegetables meet the quiet richness of egg in a bowl of short pasta. No ancient legend here — just the honest, everyday poetry of zucchini and peas finding harmony with a golden, silken thread of egg.

Ingredienti

• 80 g short pasta (penne or fusilli)
• 120 g medium zucchini
• 50 g fresh or frozen peas
• 6 g fresh basil
• 25 g salted ricotta
• 1 unit whole egg
• 15 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1000 ml water for pasta
• 5 g fine sea salt for water
• 1 g fine sea salt for zucchini
• 0.5 g freshly ground black pepper
• 100 ml reserved pasta cooking water

Preparazione

1. Bring 1 liter of water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Meanwhile, rinse the zucchini, trim the ends, and cut them into ½-inch dice.
2. Whisk the egg in a bowl with black pepper. Set aside the whole salted ricotta and basil for finishing.
3. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, salt it with 5 g and add the pasta: cook for 8-9 minutes, until one minute before the package time. If using fresh peas, add them to the pot with the pasta so they cook for 6-7 minutes.
4. After 2 minutes of pasta cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the zucchini with 1 g salt: cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring, until golden at the edges. If using frozen peas, add them to the zucchini in the last 3 minutes. This step happens parallel to the pasta cooking.
5. One minute before the pasta finishes, reserve about 3½ fl oz of pasta cooking water and use 1 tablespoon of it to temper the beaten egg. Drain the pasta (and fresh peas) and transfer it to the skillet with the vegetables, off the heat. Toss for 30 seconds with a splash of the reserved cooking water to emulsify the starch.
6. With the skillet off the heat, pour in the egg and stir vigorously for about 1 minute: the residual heat transforms it into a cream. If it remains too liquid, return the skillet to the burner at minimum heat for 10 seconds while stirring constantly, then remove again. Thin with reserved cooking water if needed.
7. Plate the pasta, tear the basil by hand and shave the salted ricotta in large flakes over the top. Finish with a drizzle of raw oil, taste and adjust salt only if needed. Serve immediately, creamy and fragrant.