Tagliatelle with fennel and zucchini
There is a myth that pasta makes you fat. Every time I go to Italy, I remember that it isn’t the pasta that makes us fat, but what we dress it with. Nonna believed in everything in moderation; she was a tall slender woman who ate pasta every day. These days I make more homemade pasta dough, but dress it with healthier sauces. Tagliatelle with Fennel and Zucchini makes me think of nonna’s cooking.
When I made pasta with nonna, we hung a broom pole right across the kitchen to dry the noodles. She would let me hang them as she rolled and cut by hand. I carried them over to the pole on a wooden spoon. It was so much fun. We seasoned life with laughter mixing fun and making memories.
My nonna and mom encouraged us all to cook; they believed that no one was born a great cook, but we learn by doing. The person doing the cooking brings soul and love to the recipe. For them food was medicine and when you eat well you feel well. Isn’t that some of the advice we hear today? With more and more people getting sick, we need to get back to basics; therefore, ditch the packaged stuff and spend a little more time in the kitchen.
Today’s sauce contains olive oil, garlic, pepperoncino, and zucchini. It does not get simpler or healthier than this. We eat pasta twice a week and for me it’s as easy as opening the refrigerator and choosing some fresh ingredients.
For a simple pasta, don’t forget this easy recipe: https://recipesatmytable.com/old-time-pasta-dough/
I can’t take enough pictures of the flour and eggs; so simple, but good.
The dough comes together with a little water.
Wrapped in plastic and ready for resting.
A Modern machine makes my life easy in the kitchen.
After I cut all the sheets, I use the tagliatelle attachment.
I dust the noodles with semolina. It keeps it from sticking and doesn’t clump like flour.
I make little nests and they go into the refrigerator.
Fennel is one of my favourite vegetables. I eat it raw, but today it will make the sauce for these noodles.
Sliced thinly it hits the frying pan.
It is soft and ready to come out of the pan and into the blender.
I chop the zucchini and onion.
Use the same frying pan to sautee them.
Then I pour the pureed fennel into the zucchini.
The noodles don’t take long to cook.
I dress the pasta with the sauce and add the fennel fronds.
All plated and I use one of the garlic cloves that I pulled out earlier.
Tagliatelle with fennel and zucchini
An easy healthy pasta sauce.
Ingredients
The tagliatelle
- 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- 5-6 tbs cold water
The Sauce
- 1 bulb fennel remove outer layers, wash
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp olive oil reserve 1 tbsp for zucchini
- 1/2 tsp pepperoncino
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 small zucchini
- salt and pepper
- grated parmesan to dress pasta
- 1 cup water reserve 1/2
Instructions
The Pasta
-
Place flour and eggs in a food processor.
Pulse on high.
Add water one tbsp at a time until dough forms a ball.
Remove and knead for a minute.
Wrap in Plastic and put in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
The Sauce
-
Wash the fennel and remove the outer leaves.
Thinly slice include the fronds. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of the fronds for dressing the pasta.
In a large sauce pan place the 2 tbsp of olive oil and the garlic. Let the garlic infuse the oil. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
Remove the garlic and add the pepperoncino.
Add the thinly sliced fennel and sauté.
Add the vegetable broth and cook to soften the fennel.
Remove add the other 1/2 cup water and puree.
To the same pan add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the diced small onion.
Cut the zucchini into small bite size pieces and sauté.
Introduce the pureed fennel sauce to the pan.
Stir and remove from the heat.
The Pasta
-
Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
Roll it out and make the tagliatelle.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the pasta. Salt the water generously after you put in the pasta.
The pasta will cook quickly.
Remove with tongs and place in the pan with the sauce. At this point turn the heat on to medium for your pan.
Toss. This is where you might need a bit of the pasta water to thicken the sauce.
Remove from heat. Add the cheese and a little more olive oil.
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