Spaghetti Alla Nerano Recipe: Pasta with Zucchini and Provolone

This authentic Spaghetti alla Nerano recipe is from Nerano near Naples! This famous Italian pasta recipe features provolone cheese and a secret ingredient: fried zucchini! It’s a cheesy pasta with an unforgettable umami flavor.

Spaghetti alla Nerano with fried zucchini and provolone cheese

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In Italian? Discover Spaghetti Alla Nerano, Ricetta Originale!


How to Make Spaghetti Alla Nerano: Recipe

Prepare the Zucchini

The secret ingredient that makes the traditional Spaghetti alla Nerano recipe so unique is fried zucchini! By frying the zucchini slices, the resulting zucchini chips have a concentrated flavor. Then, we use those zucchini chips to infuse the water where we finish cooking the spaghetti. Ideally, you should slice the fresh zucchini with a mandolin.

Slicing zucchini with a mandolin

Make it Faster: Buy Zucchini Chips

You can prepare this dish more quickly by purchasing fried zucchini chips that are unseasoned or seasoned only with salt. If the chips have salt, be sure not to over salt the dish. Obviously, the traditional way to prepare Spaghetti alla Nerano is to fry the zucchini yourself.

Prepare the Cheeses

Grate the provolone cheese. Monaco provolone is the traditional cheese for this dish. It is a cheese from Naples, similar to caciocavallo. It has a slight peppery flavor and melts wonderfully! Substitute a smoked provolone if you can’t find this cheese at a specialty cheese shop.

You’ll also want to finely grate the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese at this time.

Fry the Zucchini

Fry the zucchini in batches at 350°F / 180°C until golden. Set them aside on an absorbent towel and lightly salt them. Deep fryers are cheap and ideal for this job!

Frying zucchini will release a lot of water!

Zucchini is watery and will quickly drop the oil temperature when they are added. If you are frying the zucchini in a pan (instead of a temperature-controlled deep fryer), you’ll want to monitor the temperature and raise the heat again before each new batch is added. 

Flip them if you are frying them in a pan.
The fried zucchini chips transferred to an absorbent towel

Make the Sauce

Cover the bottom of a large pan with olive oil and sauté a clove of garlic over low heat. You can leave the ‘sweater on’ the garlic, as they say in Italian, which just means leaving the skin on the garlic clove! This ensures that the garlic flavor is mild. Infuse the oil with the garlic for a couple of minutes.

Sauté (soffritto) with garlic and oil.

Set aside a handful of the fried zucchini for garnish. Add the rest of the fried zucchini to the pan with the garlic and oil. Toss briefly and cook them over low heat with 2 ladles of the hot pasta water. In the meantime…

Infusing the water with the zucchini flavor.

Cook the Pasta

Cook the spaghetti for 3/4 of the time required for ‘al dente’ pasta. This time will be on the package instructions.

Partially cook the spaghetti in a pot.

Transfer the partially cooked spaghetti to the pan with the zucchini along with two more ladles of pasta water. Finish cooking the pasta in the pan, adding more water as needed.

Transfer the partially cooked spaghetti to the pan and finish cooking it to al dente!
As the spaghetti cooks, it becomes infused with the zucchini flavor and will thicken due to the starchy pasta water you’ve added.

Add the Cheeses

Remove the pasta from the heat and add the provolone and parmigiano cheeses along with another ladle or two of hot pasta water.

Adding the provolone
Adding the Parmigiano Reggiano

Mix the cheese with the pasta until it has melted and you’ve got a creamy pasta sauce!

A bit more hot pasta water to help melt the cheeses.

Top the plated dish with the fried zucchini that you set aside. You can also top with some leaves of fresh basil (optional). Buon appetito!

Cheesy and delicious!
Buon appetito!

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Spaghetti Alla Nerano Recipe: Pasta with Zucchini and Provolone

This authentic Spaghetti alla Nerano recipe is from Nerano near Naples! This famous Italian pasta recipe features provolone cheese and a secret ingredient: fried zucchini! It's a cheesy pasta with an unforgettable umami flavor.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Diet Vegetarian
Keyword cheesy, pasta
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • 1 Large Skillet
  • 1 Large Pot

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lb zucchini thinly sliced
  • 5 oz provolone cheese traditionally, 'provolone del Monaco'; shredded
  • 1 oz Parmigiano Reggiano cheese finely grated
  • 1 clove fresh garlic
  • 4 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
  • 11 oz spaghetti
  • 1 pinch fine salt or to taste
  • frying oil an oil with a high smoke point like safflower or sunflower

Instructions

Fry the Zucchini

  • Slice the zucchini very thin, like potato chips.
    1 ½ lb zucchini, 1 pinch fine salt
  • Fry the zucchini in batches at 350°F / 180°C until golden.
    Transfer the fried zucchini to absorbent towels and lightly salt. Don’t rest them on top of each other. Set aside.
    frying oil

Grate the Cheeses

  • Shred the provolone and finely grate the Parmigiano cheese. Set the cheeses aside.
    5 oz provolone cheese, 1 oz Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Partially Cook the Pasta

  • Cook the pasta ¾ of the time recommended for ‘al dente’ on the package instructions. In the meantime…
    11 oz spaghetti

Sauté the Garlic and Zucchini

  • Cover the bottom of a large pan with olive oil. Over low heat, sauté a clove of garlic ‘sweater on’ as they they in Italian! This just means leaving the skin on the garlic clove.
    1 clove fresh garlic, 4 tbsp olive oil
  • After the garlic has infused the oil with flavor (a couple of minutes), add all but a handful of the fried zucchini to the pan.
    Keep the heat low to avoid burning the zucchini. Immediately add 2 ladles of the hot pasta water to the zucchini and oil. Cook for a couple of minutes to infuse the water with the zucchini flavor.

Finish Cooking the Pasta in the Pan

  • Transfer the spaghetti (cooked ¾ of the way) to the pan with the zucchini.
  • Add 2 more ladles of hot pasta water to the pan. Finish cooking the pasta until the spaghetti is cooked to ‘al dente.’

Finish the Pasta with Cheese

  • Remove the spaghetti from the heat.
    Add the provolone and Parmigiano cheeses along with another ladle or two of hot pasta water.
  • Mix the cheese with the pasta until it has melted and you’ve got a creamy pasta sauce!
  • Top with the fried zucchini that you previously set aside and some leaves of fresh basil (optional). Buon appetito!

Video

Notes

Selecting the Right Provolone
Monaco provolone is a Naples cheese, similar to caciocavallo. It has a slight peppery flavor and melts wonderfully! Substitute a smoked provolone if you can’t find this at a specialty cheese shop.
Deep Fryers Work Great!
Deep fryers are cheap. They really do the job for tasks like frying zucchini because the unit will maintain a steady temperature.
Deep frying in a pan? Zucchini is watery and will quickly drop the oil temperature when they are added. You’ll need to monitor the temperature to raise the heat before each batch is added.
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