Spaghetti with Leaves from Sicilian Squash

This dish is easy to make, it’s healthy and taste delicious. My friend and teacher Lucia make it like a minestrone or vegetable soup. You can make it as a pasta-dish, then you double the amount of pasta and add only 1/2 a cup with pasta water to the sauce. Tenerumi is leaves from a long Sicilian zucchini. If you don’t have tenerumi, you might use kale.

You need:

• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, with the skin on
• 1 x 400g tin of whole tomatoes
• 2 bunches of tenerumi / or 400g of kale, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 150g spaghetti, preferably thin type
• salt and freshly ground pepper

This is how you make spaghetti with tenerumi:

• Put the garlic cloves with the skin on in a large pan with 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Heat gently.
• Add the tin of whole tomatoes into the pan. Stir and turn down the heat. Continue to cook for 20 minutes.

• When the sauce is ready cooked, remove the garlic. Or, if you love garlic, leave them in, as garlic-heaven surprise.
• Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add 1-2 tablespoons of salt.
• Put in the leaves and let simmer for 5 minutes.

• Break the spaghetti into pieces and boil in the same pan as the leaves.
• Undercook the pasta with 2 minutes.
• Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water and add to the tomato sauce.
• Drain the leaves and pasta. Pour into the tomato sause. Stir gently.
• Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
• Leave to simmer on low heat for 2 minutes.
• Turn off the heat. Let rest for some more minutes.
• Serve with freshly ground pepper. Drizzle over  extra virgin olive oil.