Rigatoni with peppers, prawns and hazelnuts

Fusilli, butterflies pasta, spaghetti, mezze maniche, penne, linguine, rigatoni... The important thing is that there is vegetables. Many ideas to reduce the doses of pasta and feel full. "Life is a combination of pasta and magic." This phrase of the great Federico Fellini, says a lot about our love for pasta. Short, long, egg, whole meal, fresh, dry, as long as it is pasta and that it is not missing in the pantry. Our comfort food par excellence combines simplicity, freshness and taste, enveloping us in the scent of home forkful after forkful and giving us an unparalleled pleasure and satisfaction.

When we want to take few calories, however, we turn this food into a sort of gastronomic sin, to be reserved for who knows what occasions. But what if instead we decide to limit the doses and the seasoning? After all, a balanced diet defines a ration of about 80 g per diner that are not few and not even many. Of course this weight will not present us with a bowl full of maccaroni with tomato like the one that had provoked the greedy Alberto Sordi in An American in Rome, but some vegetables could increase the volume of our ration with cunning, giving us the sight of an abundant and rich dish.

To easily peel the roasted peppers, once cooked, let them cool tightly closed in a bag: the moisture inside will help to better separate the skin from the pulp. 

Ingredients

500 g dry pasta type giant rigatoni or paccheri

100 g grated pecorino cheese

100 g milk

50 g toasted hazelnuts

12 Shrimp tails

3 large red peppers

extra virgin olive oil

mint

salt

Procedure

Place the peppers on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake at 250°C for about 30 minutes. Take them out of the oven, let them cool, then peel them, remove the seeds and blend 2/3 with a little salt. Keep the cream warm. For the pecorino cream, bring the milk to a boil, remove from heat, add the pecorino cheese and mix well until it is perfectly dissolved; Finally blend obtaining a smooth cream. Keep warm. Shell the shrimp tails, remove the casing and cut them into chunks. Cut the rest of the peppers into small squares. For the pasta, boil the rigatoni in boiling salted water, drain and season with a drizzle of oil, the squares of pepper and the pieces of shrimp. Distribute the two creams on the plates, place the dough, mix gently, add the chopped hazelnuts and mint leaves.