Pasta with Pancetta, Zucchini and Parmesan
Ingredients
2 servings
- Short tubular pasta 200 g
- Water for boiling the pasta 2 l
- Salt for boiling the pasta 14 g (7 g per 1 l of water)
- Zucchini 1
- Pancetta 100 g
- Chili 1
- Garlic 2-3 cloves
- Grated Parmesan 2 tbsp (14 g)
Step-by-step recipe
Pancetta and zucchini
Pasta with pancetta and zucchini is easy to make, a quick and simple dish that suits breakfast well. Use dark green zucchini, which have firmer flesh, and if they are young you can leave the seeds in. The pancetta can be raw or smoked, and you can replace it with bacon or fatty brisket. That changes the taste, but the dish will still be very good. If you like, you can make the sauce hot and spicy by keeping the fried chili and garlic in it.
Prepare the ingredients: remove any spices from the piece of pancetta and cut it into cubes. Wash the zucchini, dry it well and cut it into cubes. Peel the garlic and chili, crush the garlic with the flat of a knife, and cut the chili into strips.
Render the fat from the pancetta. Heat a frying pan without oil and lower the heat to medium. Stirring constantly, fry the pancetta pieces until the fat renders out and they turn golden. Transfer the fried pork to a plate and leave the fat in the pan.
Fry the garlic and chili in the fat for 1–2 mins, until fragrant, then discard them or keep them for the sauce.
Fry the zucchini: add the cubes to the hot fat and fry over medium heat until soft and lightly golden. To make the zucchini softer, you can lower the heat and keep the pieces under a lid.
Sauce and pasta
Make the sauce: set aside a third of the zucchini pieces to add to the pasta and puree the rest with a blender. You can add the fried chili and garlic as well.
Cook the pasta: bring 2 l of water to a boil, add salt (14 g), add the pasta and cook until al dente, following the time on the package. Save a little of the cooking water, as you may need it.
Mix the cooked pasta with the fried zucchini pieces and pancetta and add the zucchini sauce. If needed, add a little of the pasta cooking water. The sauce should be smooth and not too thick, so that the pasta fills up with sauce.
Serving
Add finely grated Parmesan or a similar cheese, such as Pecorino or Grana Padano. Toss the pasta and divide it among plates. If you like, sprinkle a little more cheese on top before serving, either grated or in shavings. Serve the pasta while it is hot.
To my taste, no garnish or herbs are needed. As an option, you can sprinkle a few toasted nuts over the dish.
You can make this dish with another pasta, such as fusilli. In that case, make a thinner sauce so that it coats the ridged surface of the pasta. If your zucchini are less firm, do not overcook them, so the pieces keep their shape.
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Calories and macros
625 kcal
Serving ≈ 370 g
- Protein24 g16% of kcal
- Fat22 g33% of kcal
- Carbs77 g51% of kcal
100 g169 kcalProtein 6.6 gFat 6 gCarbs 20.7 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.