Sunday is for pasta and spring is for fava beans and zucchini. This recipe rounds out all three with leeks for a primavera-esque dish perfect for Sunday lunch.
This recipe calls for pasta made just from egg yolks, which maximizes the richness of the pasta dough. If you don’t feel like making it from scratch, just buy ready-made tagliolini – preferably fresh.
Tagliolini with Fava Beans, Leeks, and Zucchini
Photo: Riccardo Lettieri, Styling: Beatrice Prada
Recipe: Giovanni Rota
Time: 50 minutes +1 hour of rest
*Save 30 minutes: Buy ready-made fresh taglioni
Ingredients for 4
2 cups/250 g. ‘00’ or all-purpose flour
1 large leek
1 medium-sized zucchini, peeled
10 oz//150 g. shelled fresh broad beans
10 large egg yolks
mint
marjoram
extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Make the pasta
Mix the flour with the egg yolks until firm paste forms. Cover in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Roll out the dough into 3 mm thick sheets and cut out the tagliolini.
Make the sauce
Cut the leeks into thin sticks and the zucchini into chunks. Sauté them in separate pans with a drizzle of oil for a maximum of 2-3 minutes, then combine them in the same pan.
Blanch then peel the fava beans. To blanch, cook for 30 seconds in boiling salted water then drain and plunge into cold ice water until they're cool enough to handle, then peel them.
Cook the tagliolini in boiling salted water and drain once al dente in the pan with the zucchini and leeks. Add the fava beans and sauté everything over a high flame with a drizzle of oil for 1-2 minutes.
Serve immediately, completing with ground pepper and mint, and marjoram leaves.