Pasta Con Tenerumi

Pasta con Tenerumi is one of the simplest, inexpensive and most delicious pasta dishes. Tenerumi are the leaves from the "cucuzza" squash. Similar to a zucchini, the cucuzza has large flat green leaves however these leaves are very "tender" and tasty. Since each region in Sicily has their own twist on how to prepare certain meals, this version my dad prepared is a "Palermitano" style Pasta con Tenerumi. We started by going to the local market and my mom hand picked the "best looking" cucuzza and tenerumi. After he cleaned the leaves, he chopped them up. Then he sautéed a few tomatoes in a lot of garlic and oil which he boil the leaves and cut up squash for about 10 minutes. Nonna was assigned "pasta prep" as she broke up regular DECecco spaghetti into short 1.5 inch pieces. The pasta in then thrown into the pot with the tenerumi and cucuzza to cook for about another 10 minutes. Once the pasta is ready, you add in the garlic, oil and tomatoes and its ready to serve!

Nonna's Sundried Tomatoes

If you haven't tried Nonna's sun-dried tomatoes, you're basically missing out on life! Oddly enough, I actually don't like tomatoes raw, I only eat them cooked or sun-dried. The combination of Nonna's TLC and that Sicilian sun give these tomatotes a flavor you won't find anywhere else.

The process starts with Nonno's picking "only the good tomatoes" from the farm. After he brings them homes, Nonna cleans them, slices them in half, lays them out on a wooden board covered in tin foil and heavily sprinkles them with sea salt. Then every morning for about 3-4 days, Nonno will set them out on the terrace where they face the direct sunlight and he brings them in around lunch time because they're "in the way". Once the tomatoes are thoroughly dried, she stretches them out, which you can see her doing in the picture below, so that they stay nice and round and flat. But the real action takes place after they bring them back to the states where Nonna stuffs them with breadcrumbs and fries them. ahhh-mazing-ly delicious!