A perfect match - zucchini and pasta

"Dishes that, when followed by a salad, piece of cheese and accompanied by a bottle of wine, can feel like an everyday feast."

I have now made Rachel Roddy's Linguine with seasonal courgettes, egg and Parmesan, otherwise referred to as Zucchine carbonara, a few times. I found it in her A-Z of Pasta, fell in love with it when I made it and so have repeated it a few times. I don't think David likes it as much as I, but he tolerates it. It sort of is a kind of zucchini carbonara really, but without the bacon, which is not to say that you couldn't actually add bacon. Not only was it a perfect dish - so simple and yet so creamily satisfying, with a touch of lemon too I seem to remember, but it was also the very first time I managed the carbonara technique without ending up with scrambled eggs. Which made me feel really, really good. Mostly because I reread and reread her instructions and followed them to the letter. Main tip - take the pan off the heat before adding your eggs.

However it wasn't the inspiration of this post. That was Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen who in her recipe for Corn cacio e pepe featured in this week's Smitten Kitchen newsletter referenced an earlier recipe of hers for Courgette butter spaghetti, which itself had been inspired by Julia Child's sautéed shredded zucchini on the Panning the Globe website.

All three of which made me think back to Rachel Roddy's dish, and also to think/recognize that with just one simple change to a recipe it becomes something else.

So I decided to see what other close copies I could find, wondering at what point almost the same thing becomes something really different. So different that it begins a whole new family of dishes. It's time that changes dishes isn't it, time, different cooks, different availability of ingredients and equipment? Even if it's the same cook cooking the same dish over and over again, I'm willing to bet that eventually it becomes something else:

"making something a thousand times, and how repetition turns recipes into conversations we have with ourselves, shaping both us and the recipe. Repetition teaches, maybe reassures, possibly bores – and is no guarantee against the unexpected." Rachel Roddy

I might have begun with Deb Perelman, but reading her zucchine and butter recipe reminded me so forcefully of that zucchini carbonara dish, that I decided to see what else Rachel had done with zucchini, which is where this post really turns into a homage to her. For she has five variations.

Pasta con le zucchine - simple title, simple dish, in which the zucchini are sliced and braised, and you get the bonus of advice on how to do similar things with virtually any vegetable you have floating around in your fridge:

"fry the vegetable first in oil (not to brown it, but to seal the surface), then add just enough water and salt that the vegetable bubbles and steams away in its own juices. The liquid reduces while the courgette softens and collapses enough to become a sauce." Rachel Roddy

Or in butter?

The difference between this and the first three recipes I featured are really the way the zucchini is sliced.

And her other four? Pasta alla nerone - zucchini with three cheeses from the Amalfi coast - this seems to be a well-known Italian dish rather than somebody messing about with zucchini, butter and pasta in the kitchen, so it might get a post of its own some day. Lots of people seem to have had a go at it and so doubtless there are variations. Pasta, sliced zucchini, basil, garlic and those three different cheeses and you end up with something that looks quite different.

Spaghetti with courgette, mint and pecorino This one is from Sicily with the unusual addition of mint, which the Sicilians seem to love. Courgettes with breadcrumbs and almonds - also from Sicily, and really, really simple, which traditionally uses a long kind of squash which is more like marrow in texture and finally from Umbria and Alice Adams Carosi, adapted by Rachel is Umbricelli con zucchine, pancetta e pecorino which might be for David because here is pancetta.

Rachel Roddy, of course, is not the only cook pushing zucchini and pasta, so here are some more. First the very similar: Pappardelle with feta and lemon - Ottolenghi - well the feta is not very Italian, but why not use feta?; Courgette linguine with trout lemon and dill - Rukmini Iyer, slightly different flavours again - light like our earlier dishes but with dill which is not very Italian and fish; Pasta with creamy zucchini sauce - Recipe Tin Eats - a kind of amalgamation of them all really, including Deb Perlman's corn and two from Jamie - Lemony courgette pasta and Slow-cooked courgette and pine nut pasta 

Then we start to move into tomatoes, and chilli - Meera Sodha's Creamy, spicy courgette and tomato pasta and Neil Perry's Courgette, chilli and anchovy pasta courtesy of the BBC

Neil Perry has moved away from a lot of sauce, and the tomatoes take us elsewhere because the zucchini is really no longer the star.

We tend to ignore zucchini. It's always available and it's bland, but soften it and pair it with butter and cheese, and the odd herb or two and then pair it with the equally bland and silky pasta and you have something approaching poetry I think.

"This is a vegetable we should be making the most of, whether we want its comfort in a cobbler or its lightness and, yes, beauty as ribbons tossed through a pasta or salad." Ottolenghi

So next time I see some bargain zucchini I'm making one of the above. So hard to choose which.

YEARS GONE BY

July 22

2024 - Peanuts

2023 - Biryani extremes

2022 - Precious - in what sense?

2021 - Magic custard cakes and Impossible pies

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Nothing

2018 - An omelette and a glass of wine - cleaning out the fridge - tonight's dinner too - without the wine

2017 - Acai berries

2016 - Ancient Roman food