Walking among the low of Spanish neighborhoods on Sunday mornings is a unique experience. A colorful journey in which to let yourself be lulled by the noises, the colors but above all the smells. Among the heady scent of 'rrau left a pippiliare ("Boil / puff" from the earliest hours of the morning) and the intense one of the parmigiana e'mulignane you could perceive, at slightly lower olfactory frequencies, a vaguely sweet smell, delicate but insistent. Characteristic yet not easily identifiable at first glance. It is the smell of cocozza, the typical Neapolitan pumpkin with an elongated shape, used for many recipes and protagonist of one of the Neapolitan cuisine specialties: the pasta and cocozza.

Poverty and goodness

Typical dish of the most popular Naples, reached up to the present day through the important through the grandmothers. It will not be known as much as pizza or sfogliatelle, but not for this reason it is less characteristic testimony of the multifaceted Neapolitan culinary culture. The pasta and cocozza is in fact part of that line of poor (yet very tasty) recipes, born to satiate an entire family with little burden on the budget. The typically Neapolitan art of arranging used in the kitchen stoves. It looks vaguely like a soup and it is easy to imagine it smoking, in a deep dish, in the home of a family gathered around the table. Book image "Heart" aside, this first one it is still in vogue today. The reason? Easy to imagine: it is tasty, full and not "stuffs himself with anti". For this reason, every autumn returns on time to occupy the tables.

A ’cocozza

It is prepared using "La Cocozza", precisely, a particular variety of pumpkin from Campania which resists even the first rigors of winter and is characterized by the slightly elongated shape and yellow color. The pasta indicated by the original recipe is the big tube, but it is not uncommon to see it prepared with the 'mmescata (the mixed). The important thing is that the variety chosen is short and – preferably – pierced, so as to absorb the pumpkin inside, which once cooked becomes azzeccosa. Complete a simple recipe both in the choice of ingredients and in the realization: parsley, extra virgin olive oil, garlic and – to taste – a pinch of chili pepper, good for dampening the sweet aftertaste of the pumpkin.

Method

The realization is simple. To cook it you must first let it fry a couple of cloves of garlic (lightly crushed) and chilli pepper inside a pan large enough to accommodate both the cocozza and the pasta. The proportions are 500 grams of pumpkin – weighed whole – for 150 grams of pasta. Once the sauté is prepared and the garlic is browned, it can be removed from the pan: in its place the pumpkin should be inserted, cut into cubes and properly scocozzata (peeled and seeded). It should also be added chopped parsley and the amount of water needed to cover the whole. Once the water boils again, the pumpkin should be covered and left to cook for another 15 minutes. Some cubes of cocozza must be crushed to create the necessary creamy consistency, others must be consumed while remaining solid. At this point, once the necessary mix of creaminess and crunchiness has been achieved, the pasta should be lowered directly into the sauce. To prevent the mixture from drying out too much, it is a good idea to always keep one handy saucepan with water already boiled: to be used when necessary to dilute everything and guarantee the right cooking (but watch out for additions, never more than one or two tablespoons otherwise the risk is to water down too much). Inside the cream the pasta will cook more slowly and it must be constantly turned to prevent it from sticking. For this reason it is also possible to boil the pasta separately and add it to the sauce only after cooking. Nothing forbids it, but the result will always be a deviation from the original. Remember this when you prepare it, haste is a bad counselor: nu ’poc’ and pacjenza'Is always necessary, especially at these latitudes.