Pasta with Tenerumi

La storia di questo piatto

This is Sicily's quiet soul made edible — a peasant poem born from the tangled vines of cucuzza squash, where the island's sun-scorched earth whispers its most tender secret through leaves that nobody elsewhere would think to eat. It is the food of grandmothers who knew that abundance hides in what others discard, a green inheritance passed down in silence and steam.

Ingredienti

• 500 g Tenerumi (leaves and shoots of Sicilian long squash)
• 320 g Pasta (linguine or spaghetti)
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 80 ml Extra virgin olive oil
• 300 g Ripe tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon Sea salt
• 1 pinch Red chilli pepper (optional)
• 1500 ml Water

Preparazione

1. Take the tenerumi in your hands and remove the hardest parts—those fibrous sections near the stem—and the stems themselves: only the leaves and tender shoots should remain. Rinse them under a gentle stream of cold water with a delicate touch, the same way you would handle fresh basil leaves, then pat them dry with paper towels without squeezing them. Finally, cut them roughly into pieces about 5 to 6 centimeters, just small enough that they fit comfortably on a spoon.
2. Pour water into a large pot, salt it generously the way you would for pasta, and bring it to a vigorous rolling boil. Add the tenerumi and let them cook until they become tender to the touch of a fork: do not discard the cooking water, because it is precious—you will use it for the pasta and it will carry with it all the fragrance of the garden.
3. In a wide skillet, pour the olive oil and warm it gently together with garlic sliced into thin slivers: as soon as you smell the aroma rising up, before it darkens (which would turn it bitter), add the tomatoes and the chili pepper. Let it simmer gently over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the sauce thickens slightly and all the flavors bind together beautifully.
4. Pour the drained tenerumi into the skillet and stir gently, without breaking them apart, just enough to let them embrace the sauce. Keep everything on low heat while in another pot you cook the pasta in that precious tenerumi cooking water, which is already flavorful: taste a strand just before it reaches al dente, because it will continue to cook for another minute more once it finishes in the sauce.
5. Drain the pasta a moment before it is fully cooked and pour it directly into the skillet with the sauce, adding a ladle of its cooking water. Stir with energy for a couple of minutes until everything comes together and becomes creamy, then bring it immediately to the table on warm plates: the fragrance of the tenerumi should be savored while it still steams.