Fusilloni all’Ortolana

280gr of Fusilloni 28 Pastai
1 Small Eggplant
1 Small Red Bell Pepper
1 Small Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Small Zucchini
4 Taccole or Green Beans
2 Cardoncelli Mushrooms
8 Yellow Dates
4 Ripe Ramato Tomatoes
1 Fresh Spring Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
Fresh Thyme, Fresh Rosemary, Fresh Basil
Oregano
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Prepare a classic tomato salad using, as in this case, ripe ramati. Cut the tomatoes into four, season with salt pepper and oil, add half a clove of garlic, oregano, coarsely chopped spring onion, and plenty of basil. Mash lightly with your hands and let macerate for about half an hour. After the time has elapsed, with the help of a vegetable mash, extract as much juice as you can: you have obtained the tomato drippings. Prepare the rest of the vegetables in different cookings so as to create an interplay of textures within the dish.

Cut the zucchini into rounds about half a centimeter thick, blanch them in a nonstick pan with very little oil, garlic, thyme and salt, while the peppers, both yellow and red, with the help of a peeler will be stripped of their skins so as to make them more digestible, then cut them partly into julienne strips and seasoned raw with salt, pepper and oil and partly cut into rectangular shapes and grilled. Also grill the cardoncelli mushrooms and season them with a little garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.

In a saucepan with boiling and already salted water, immerse the yellow dates cut on the skin and cook for 20 seconds and cool immediately, remove them from the skin and divide them into two halves, in the same water cook for about 10 minutes the jackdaws seasoned later with oil salt and a few slices of garlic, remove all the skin from the eggplant, cut it into small strips and blanch it in a pan with a little garlic and very little extra virgin olive oil. Once the eggplant has wilted completely, let it dry on paper towels so as to remove all the cooking water and get a well-dried puree, chop the eggplant with the help of a knife and season the puree with salt and rosemary, also finely chopped, and with the help of two spoons form small quenelles (a kind of oval patty that you make with two spoons).

Now that you have prepared all the vegetables for the recipe lower the Fusilloni 28 Pastai into boiling and previously salted water, cook a few minutes less and drain the pasta by letting it dry on a dish towel so that it will be deprived of the moisture from cooking. At this point with the help of a well pre-heated frying pan go to toast the Fusilloni 28 Pastai in the pan, this second cooking will give the Pasta a chromatic characteristic but most of all you will enjoy savoring it with these toasted flavor notes.

Assemble. In a soup plate arrange the tomato drippings, add the pasta still red-hot and place each of the previously prepared vegetables to your liking, starting first with the raw julienne of peppers and following with the rest of the different vegetables, so zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, jackdaws, eggplant, yellow dates. Top it all off with a few leaves of fresh basil.