Creamy saffron and basil pasta with zucchini

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 02:54:42 GMT

Step 1

We are going to start with the courgettes, or zucchini. Depending on the size of the courgettes you have obviously, but 1 and a half courgette would probably do. Wash and slice finely.

Step 2

Place a wide frying pan, or pehaps two wider frying pans on a medium heat and add a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in both. Crush the cloves of garlic, remove the skin and add to the pan(s) to flavor the oil that you will use to fry the courgettes.

Step 3

Add the courgettes and sprinkle with some salt. Fry the courgette slices on both sides, approximately 5 minutes on one side and just 2 minutes or so on the other.

Step 4

The reason you could use two pans here is to make sure that you can fry every slice of courgette, instead of adding them all together at once, which wouldn't result in the same here. Alternatively, you can do a first batch and after the second.

Step 5

When the courgettes are done, nicely browned on both sides, transfer to a bowl and add a fresh grind of black pepper. Add half of the basil leaves and stir these in well. Leave the courgettes in the bowl and set aside for later. The basil leaves will release their flavor, and this will have a fantastic and flavorfull effect.

Step 6

Time to place a pot with plenty of water on the stove for the pasta. Season when boiling and add in the pasta to cook nicely 'al dente'.

Step 7

In the meantime that the pasta is cooking, grab a small bowl and crack in the egg with the yolks.

Step 8

Add to this the grated parmesan (and perhaps pecorino) cheese, grind in some black pepper and some of the saffron, if you are using powdered saffron. In case you are using the whole threads of safforn, these need to be soaked in warm water for at least 30 minutes or so in advance, so take that into account. When using the whole threads of saffron you want to cook the pasta very much 'al dente' and finish cooking in a suitable wider (frying) pan with a ladle of the pasta water. This is called 'saltare in padella' in Italian, which is kind of necessary to loads of various pasta dishes for the perfect and almost creamy effect.

Step 9

In the case of using the powdered saffron, I do the same trick as mentioned in step 8. Reason for this is simply coloring the pasta with the intense yellow color.

Step 10

When finishing cooking the pasta in the wider pan, add in the courgettes that you have set aside, but make sure to take out the whole cloves of garlic that were among them. Make sure to keep some of the pasta water aside when taking out the pasta and transferring to the wide pan.

Step 11

Shake and stir well and turn off the heat once done.

Step 12

Add in your egg mixture and a little bit of starchy pasta water. Stir as well as you can and toss to incorporate air into the cream that is forming. When you see that it is all mixed well and you see a good creamy consistency, it's done.

Step 13

Serve immediately and garnish with a few drops of optional basil pesto and some fresh basil leaves with a grind of black pepper.

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