Cucuzza e Tenerumi 

Tenerumi are a classic ingredient of the Palermo summer. The term tenerumi in Palermo refers to the green and wide leaves of the Sicilian zucchini. These leaves are used to prepare one of the soups of the Sicilian summer: Pasta with Tenerumi, a dish that derives from the peasant tradition where nothing is wasted. It is disarmingly simple, unbelievably sweet, and debunks all the idioms, allusive and denigrating of this all-Italian vegetable that does not disdain climbing and the momentum of its fruit: the zucchini. This is the long courgette, "a cucuzza longa", the one with leathery skin and a tender heart that pours everything into its soup.

Pasta with tenerumi is a Sicilian summer soup, very good! It is prepared by cooking the tender leaves of long zucchini, called snake or trumpet zucchini because of the shape that these cucurbits take when they vainly show themselves in our gardens. Together with the naturally tender leaves, in the soup, chunks of the same zucchini should be used. It is a soup with an ancient but nostalgic flavor; It brings to mind steaming dishes, the smiles of rosy-cheeked children and white-haired grandmothers gathered on the nape of their necks!

INGREDIENTS

  

A bunch of tenerumi

Half a long zucchini

6 ripe tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

300 g spaghetti chopped

Extra virgin olive oil to taste

Salt, pepper and basil to taste

GUIDELINES

 

Wash the zucchini leaves, the most tender ones. Peel the half zucchini and cut it into chunks, also shred the leaves. Perform the same operation with the tomatoes and pour them into a pan where you have sautéed a clove of garlic. Season with salt and pepper. While the cherry tomatoes are cooking, boil water and salt in a high pan in which, having reached the boiling point, pour the tenerumi and the zucchini. Meanwhile, chop the spaghetti coarsely. Pour the tomatoes from the pan into the pan and add the pasta. Turn everything over and taste to adjust with salt and cooking. It only takes a few minutes and the soup is ready. Let it cool down and serve. It's delicious. If you then follow the habit of putting leftover and well-cleaned cheese crusts in the soup, it is transformed, from being good that it already is, into a dish fit for kings. A delicacy!