Tag: Stracciatella

EGG PASTA WITH ZUCCHINI FLOWERS, ZUCCHINI, PINE NUTS and STRACCIATELLA (egg drop)

Zucchini are coming to the end of the season but in home gardens there still seem to be flowers.

A friend gave me some zucchini flowers; they are delicate and fragile and always a pleasure to receive.

The flowers have to be used quickly.

As you can see from the photo above I decided to make a quick pasta dish using zucchini and pine nuts. I have plenty of young rosemary twigs that are soft enough to chop finely.

If I had some stracciatella (a soft, fresh cheese) at home I would have added it after incorporating  the pasta with the zucchini. I  improvised and stirred 2 eggs with a fork and used this instead,  after all , the word means little, torn rags or shreds and  ‘Italian egg drop soup,’  is also called stracciatella. In this Roman soup , egg is stirred into the hot broth forming strands.

The  free range eggs were very fresh and yellow.

I used butter for the cooking, because butter would brown the zucchini more effectively. I also like the taste of butter in cooking.

I used egg ribbon pasta and because the pasta cooks quickly I put on the pasta to cook while I finished the zucchini component.

Once the zucchini slices were coloured I added the pine nuts to toast.

I quickly added the zucchini flowers; they soon softened in the heat and did not need any further cooking.

I also added the stirred eggs  and a ladle of  the cooking water from the pasta. The heat, plus the water will cook the eggs and make them creamy.

Drain the pasta and incorporate the two together.  I always add a blob of butter or a good drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil to any pasta I make.

The fresh taste of the ingredients is what I wanted and it was not necessary to add  parmesan cheese, however, each to their taste!

See:

STUFFED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS

PASTA CON ZUCCHINE FRITTE (Pasta and fried zucchini)

 

BURRATA, MOZARELLA, STRACCIATELLA

The simplest of ingredients can give so much pleasure.

I have always liked Italian fresh cheeses and while in Venice and Trieste I ate as much fresh mozzarella, burrata and stracciatella as I could. The tomatoes have been excellent also.

Fresh mozzarella whether made from cow or buffalo milk (di bufala) is fairly easy to find in other countries apart from Italy, burrata is more difficult to

find but it is very speedily finding fame and fortune in other countries and replacing the very popular Caprese salad that had dominated menus for places where tourists gather.

Stracciatella is a soft cream almost runny cheese, a combination of shredded fresh mozzarella curd and cream. Straccia (“rag” or “shred) from the verb stracciare“- to tear.

Burrata, like mozzarella can be made from cow or buffalo milk. The outer layer is made of fresh mozzarella – a pulled or stretched cheese – but the centre is filled with oozing, creamy and delicate tasting stracciatella. Cut it open, and wow… you get that double whammy!

Because I love the Italian language I want to tell you that burrata (buttered) is derived from burro – butter. Burrata hails from southern Italy, from the Puglia region where orecchiette come from. Rather than being filled with stracciatella it can also be filled with heavy cream – this of course is what becomes butter.

In the photos there are two types of burrate (plural of burrata), the rounded shape or sealed sphere, and the one tied together with vegetal string. Both burrate delicious and both enveloping a creamy filling.

Burrata is eaten as fresh as possible – ideally within 24 hours of being made and is usually sold in its water like whey.

So when you find heirloom tomatoes and very tasty ordinary or cherry tomatoes and burrata you get a triple+++ whammy…. mild acidity of tomatoes, basil super-duper good quality extra virgin olive oil and you have pretty much ecstasy.

I actually made this tomato and  salad in Paris… from Italian ingredients (apart from tomatoes and basil and a little red onion from the countries around the Mediterranean.

Trieste:

Venice:

Paris: