Stuffed Lumaconi with Garden Peas and Pancetta
It finally feels like spring this week. After so many weeks of fluctuating temperatures, getting some warm sun and spring breeze is so nice. I started to transplant many seedlings in my front yard and backyard. I’ve been waging wars against the slugs and snails as they come every night munching my seedlings’ leaves ravenously. I’ve thrown slug pellets everywhere, but they just won’t stop coming and feasting on my seedlings. I honestly wish I had some ducks as they are effective predators, and their soft webbed feet won’t destroy the plants. But alas, my urban house won’t be the ideal place for them to live. The best solution for now is just to cover the plants with flipped pots every night and take the cover off in the morning. It’s a bit annoying but so far, it’s worth it.
Anyway, apart from my slug complaint, I think my garden has started to look nice and I have more energy to cook and experiment. Seriously, I swear the sun is charging my mood battery.
Today we’ll be making stuffed lumaconi with garden peas and pancetta. The inspiration for this dish came from English mushy peas meets an Italian cottage garden. I made something similar before when I was still studying at the university—and wow, that’s a long time ago! For some reason, I sort of forgot about this dish until lately.
I always love stuffed food because I think it’s so cute. Stuffed tomatoes, stuffed eggplants, stuffed peppers, you name it. For this dish, you will need a large pasta that has a hollow space to hold the filling. I used lumaconi but you can also use conchiglioni. By the way, do you know that lumaconi means “large snails” and conchiglioni means “large shells” in Italian? That’s why they look like snails and shells.
For the filling, we’ll be using zucchini, garden peas, and pancetta which are sautéed together. When I made it, I was so tempted to eat it just like that because it’s so good. That’s really the most difficult part of making this dish. I think this mixture will even be delicious served with battered fish, just like how you serve mushy peas with fish and chips.
The stuffed pasta will be topped with thick and creamy cheese sauce before baked in the oven. One tip from me is, when you make the sauce, grate the cheese so it will quickly melt. I forgot to do this and just chopped the cheese, and it took forever to melt.
This stuffed pasta is such a comfort food for me. I can literally eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (I already did as I made this entirely for myself muhahaha *evil laugh*—my partner is vegetarian)
I hope you enjoy this newsletter and I’ll see you in the next one!
Serves 3-4
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1 hour
Level of difficulty: 2/3
Keep for 3 days, refrigerated
Ingredients:
300g/ 11 ounces lumaconi or conchiglioni
2 zucchinis, roughly grated
2 tbs olive oil
250g/ 1½ cups garden peas
160g/ 6 ounces pancetta, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Zest of 1 lemon
15g/ ½ cup mint, finely chopped
350ml/ 1½ cups heavy cream
550g/ 19 ounces Gruyère, grated
½ tsp ground nutmeg
To taste, salt and black pepper
30g/ 1/3 cup Grana Padano, grated
Steps:
Put grated zucchini in a bowl. Sprinkle with some salt and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Boil water in a pot and cook the pasta according to the manufacturer’s instructions until al dente. Drain and drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil. Mix and set aside.
After 10 minutes, the zucchini will be swimming in its juice. Squeeze the water out of the zucchini.
In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté pancetta until brown and crispy. Add garlic and sauté for a minute until fragrant. Add zucchini and lemon zest and stir for 2-3 minutes until the zucchini is tender but not mushy.
Heat the water that you boil the pasta in and blanch garden peas for a minute. Take them out and put them into a food processor. Add the zucchini mixture and mint. Pulse a few times until you get a roughly minced mixture. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 356°F. Stuff the pasta with the zucchini peas mixture using a teaspoon.
Heat water in a pot and let it simmer (I used the same pot for cooking the pasta and garden peas and took out some of the water to prevent it from overflowing). Place a glass bowl on top of the pot and add Gruyère and cream. Stir until the cheese has melted and you get a nice, thick creamy sauce. Add nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to your taste. Stir to combine.
Place all the stuffed pasta in a large oven tray or casserole. Pour the cheese sauce on top and sprinkle with Grana Padano. Pop the dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm with a glass of chilled white wine.