988 votesThe beautiful colors of this pasta dish give immediate pleasure to the eyes, whetting your appetite long before you taste its delicately diverse flavors. Farfalle with gambas and zucchinis makes a light and healthy meal packed with nutrients and varied textures. An exciting pasta dish that is a little bit more than the usual seafood pasta, this recipe by world-renowned Italian Chef Giusepina Beglia makes use of spinach-flavored Farfalle, which is a type of Italian pasta that when literally translated to English means “butterfly.”
Commonly known in the U.S. as “bow-tie pasta,” Farfalle is shaped like a ribbon or bow-tie, or as its name suggests, like a little butterfly, with a pair of wings and ruffled edges. Because of their distinctive shape and broad surface area, they hold sauces better than other types of pastas. Tomato and cheese sauces cling well to the surface of Farfelle, so you can really taste the flavor when you bite into it. Because of this very same reason, light oil sauces such as the one used in this recipe are also well suited for this kind of pasta.
You can buy commercial or industrial Farfelle which comes in many varieties, three of the most popular are plain, tomato, and spinach. With the help of a pasta maker, you can also make Farfelle from scratch for a more flavorful and hearty pasta meal.
Making this dish is pretty easy. You simply saute all the ingredients together in a certain order. Prawns, also called gambero, gambretto, or gamberoni in Italian are shelled and sauted in the olive oil until they change color. They are cooked together with the zucchini (or courgettes in French) and the zucchini flowers for a fresh flavor. Onions and tomatoes add acidity and zest for a seriously delicious pasta dish.
Dice the vegetables and chop the onions finely.
In a frying pan, heat extra virgin olive oil and sauté chopped onions. Cook the diced zucchinis for one or two minutes. Add zucchini flowers, chopped tomatoes, peeled prawns, a little tomato juice, and season with some Chinese pepper. Cook for another minute.
In a pot, bring water to a boil. Add salt. Cook the Farfalle. Fresh pasta will cook for only two to three minutes. Industrial pasta will need a little longer.
Once cooked, remove the pasta from the water and put them in the pan with the sauce. Thoroughly mix together and place on a serving plate. Serve warm.
