Welcome back. Today I present a fresh, rich, complete, and very tasty first course. It’s a cold pasta with zucchini and hard-boiled eggs, very easy, delicious, perfect for lunchboxes and more. It’s a recipe that can be enriched and customized as we like and based on what we already have in the fridge.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer, Spring, Summer
Ingredients
- 2 Zucchini
- 2 hard-boiled eggs
- 7 oz Short pasta (also gluten-free)
- to taste Coarse salt (for cooking the pasta)
- to taste Fine salt (for seasoning)
- to taste Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Salad tomatoes (large)
- to taste Pitted olives
- to taste Fresh spring onion stalk
Steps
Boil the eggs and let them cool in cold water. Once they are cold, you can peel them. This can be done the day or night before.
Let’s take care of the zucchini. Bring a pot of water with a pinch of fine salt to a boil.
In the meantime, wash the zucchini, remove any waste parts, and cut them into cubes.
When the pot of water boils, add the zucchini cubes, cover and cook for only 4 minutes (if the zucchini are very fresh; otherwise, a couple of minutes will suffice).
Prepare a bowl with water, ice, and a pinch of fine salt.
After the time has passed, drain them immediately and transfer them to the bowl with water and ice (for 30 seconds) to stop the cooking. This way, the zucchini will retain their color and remain firm and crunchy; finally, drain them very well and put them in a soup tureen.
Cook the pasta al dente in plenty of salted water, drain it perfectly and add it to the zucchini cubes.
Wash the salad tomatoes and also cut them into cubes.
Pit the olives and add them to our salad.
Finely chop the stalk of a fresh spring onion and add it to the rest of the ingredients. Finally, season the pasta with extra virgin olive oil, mix very well and keep it for an hour in the fridge or at room temperature, depending on your needs.
Extra idea. If the cold pasta will be eaten a long time after preparation, I recommend cooking the pasta for half the cooking time indicated on the package. In my case, for example, my pasta has a cooking time between 10 and 12 minutes, where 10 minutes are for al dente cooking. I cooked the pasta for only 6 minutes, counting from the moment the water resumed boiling after adding the pasta. Then I stirred, covered, and waited for the water to boil again not just to count the minutes but also to salt it.
Bon appetit
