The pasta with tenerumi and long Sicilian zucchini is a summer Sicilian recipe: a delicate and light soup that tastes like home and tradition.
The long zucchini
The long zucchini, in Sicilian dialect cucuzza lonca or longa, is also known as the snake zucchini of Sicily or Sicilian squash.
It is light green in color and covered with fine hair.
It is available from May and is used for the preparation of the typical summer long zucchini soup or long zucchini soup.
When purchasing, make sure it is not too ripe or it will be full of seeds, spongy, and hard.
The leaves and shoots of the long zucchini plants are called tenerumi and are also harvested and consumed, either boiled or in soup.
What are tenerumi?
The tenerumi are the leaves and shoots of the long zucchini plants – snake squash or cucuzza longa – light green, soft, with a characteristic hairiness that makes them easily recognizable.
In Sicily, they are a real seasonal delight
They are available from June to October, with the season extending with greenhouse cultivation.
Widespread in Sicily, unfortunately almost impossible to find elsewhere, they are a true delicacy.
Someone spotted them in a market in Milan but know that they can be grown on a balcony.
Curiosities and local names
In Italian, tenerumi are “translated” as tendernesses.
Every area of Sicily has its name:
tenerumi, tennarume, tinniruma, tinnirumi in Palermo, Trapani, Ragusa;
taddi, talli, tanni di cucuzza in Messina, Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento, Enna, Caltanissetta;
cime di zucca in some areas.
The pasta with tenerumi and long zucchini is strictly prepared with broken spaghetti, as per Sicilian tradition: break the pasta by hand, as it was once done.
Simple but full of flavor, in our kitchen this recipe is a summer habit.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 2 People
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 4.2 oz spaghetti (broken)
- 1 bunch tenerumi
- zucchini (long Sicilian or snake zucchini)
- as needed water
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch baking soda
- 2 stems basil
- 200 ml water
- 1 bouillon cube (homemade vegetable)
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (homemade)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch ground mixed pepper (with grinder)
- 1 drizzle extra virgin olive oil (raw)
Suggested Tools
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- 1 Pot IMCO or regular
- 1 Pan with lid, preferably glass
Preparation
First, you need to select and wash the tenerumi thoroughly.
Sometimes, due to the wind, they are full of sand or soil, and this is retained by the hairiness of the leaves and stems, even after cooking.
Select:
– the tenderest parts of the leaves, discarding the hard and damaged ones;
– the tenderest parts of the stems, discarding the hard and woody ones;
remove the filaments.
Soak the selected leaves and stems in a basin with plenty of water for about half an hour, stirring gently from time to time.
Rinse the tenerumi thoroughly under running water.If the long zucchini is too long, you can divide it and cook a part while storing the remaining in the fridge with the ends wrapped in plastic wrap or inside a freezer bag.
Remove the ends of the long zucchini and divide it into several parts to ease the peeling operation.
Wash thoroughly.
Remove the peel with a peeler.
Rinse under running water.
Cut into thick slices and then dice each slice or if it is thin, into rounds.In a pot, bring the salted water needed to cook the zucchini and tenerumi to a boil.
Add the zucchini and tenerumi, a pinch of baking soda – to keep the vegetables bright green – and mix.
Cook for about 10 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the boiled zucchini and tenerumi to a deep plate.
Keep the cooking water from the zucchini and tenerumi for preparing the soup and cooking the pasta.In a pan add:
– a couple of stems of basil;
– 200 ml of water – from the zucchini and tenerumi cooking if you kept it aside;
– a vegetable bouillon cube;
– a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce or if you prefer a chopped tomato;
– a pinch of salt;
– a pinch of pepper;
and let it simmer.Add the finely chopped boiled tenerumi with a knife and the zucchini.
In the case of brothy first courses, to avoid glycemic spikes, it is advisable to cook the pasta separately and then rinse it and add it to the prepared brothy sauce; in this way, the starch released by the pasta in the cooking water is removed.
Cook the pasta in the zucchini and tenerumi cooking water if you kept it aside, rinse it under running water, and drain it.
Heat the sauce, then add the pasta to the pan and combine with tenerumi and zucchini.
Plate.
Grind a little more pepper and drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.The pasta with tenerumi and long Sicilian zucchini is ready.
Enjoy your meal!
If you are suffering from the heat, wait for it to be lukewarm to enjoy it.
Storage, Tips, and Variations
Depending on the availability of ingredients, you can prepare the pasta only with tenerumi or the pasta only with long zucchini, procedure unchanged.
Use wholemeal pasta to increase fiber content.
Cook the pasta very al dente if you prefer to wait for it to cool to enjoy it lukewarm.
Add some aged or semi-aged cheese cubes or dice [e.g., caciocavallo ragusano or provola ragusana] to the hot soup.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Know that tenerumi can be grown on a balcony
If you have a balcony or a small garden, you can try growing a long Sicilian zucchini plant: it grows well in a pot, needs sun and regular water, and in a few weeks, it will give you tender leaves and shoots ready to cook.
Here’s the link to buy the long Sicilian lagenaria squash seeds.Do tenerumi always need to be boiled first?
Yes, it is advisable to boil them first to remove the hairiness and make the leaves more digestible and soft, eliminating any sand or soil residues.
