Zucchini Scapece Pasta with Peas and Minty Cream Sauce

Welcome to One Pot Bangers, Benjamin Kemper’s column, where you’ll find our freshest, boldest cooking ideas that require just one pot, skillet, or sheet pan. Busy week? We’ve got you covered with these low-effort, high-reward recipes from around the globe.

If you’re wondering how zucchini and bread could ever trump pasta tossed with Pecorino and guanciale, here’s your answer: scapece. Scapece shares a culinary (and etymological) lineage with escabeche and ceviche, and like Spain’s vinegar-soaked fish and game and Latin America’s citrus-marinated seafood, Neapolitan zucchine alla scapece employs acid as both flavor and preservative. It’s simple, if slightly messy, to prepare: Deep-fry zucchini in olive oil until blistered and soft, then soak it overnight in a garlic-vinegar marinade. 

Right, back to the sandwich. At a cafe in Trastevere called Ercoli, I looked on as a cook halved a warm roll and scooped it with what I now know to be zucchine alla scapece, its vinegary juices seeping into the crackly bottom crust. Then she swooshed the top with sheep’s-milk ricotta, a salty, tangy counterpoint to the rich and mellow olive oil. Last came a flurry of torn mint leaves, the scent of summer suddenly filling my nostrils. I ate the sandwich so fast I blacked out. And then I devoured another. By the time I left Rome, the waiters knew my order.

Back home, I was Italy-sick. I’d grown fond of the barside espressos, the fruit market in the piazza, the aggressively al dente pastas—but most of all, I missed that damn zucchini sandwich. So I started scheming. What if I could knock out my cravings for pasta and zucchine alla scapece simultaneously? That’s when it dawned on me: Zucchini. Scapece. Pasta. 

This recipe hits all the high notes of Ercoli’s sandwich—the vinegar, the garlic, the dairy, the mint—and layers on other Italian ingredients I adore such as anchovies, lemon, and crushed red pepper. Not only does the dish come together in a single pot in under an hour, it eliminates the deep-frying step of traditional scapece, so your kitchen stays splatter free. 

Zucchini scapece pasta is both forgiving (no peas, no problem!) and adaptable. Fold in tuna, cubed prosciutto, or chopped roast chicken for extra protein, or make it vegan by nixing the anchovies and swapping the dairy for pounded pine nuts or walnuts. Served cold, drizzled with more oil and vinegar, it makes a refreshing pasta salad. 

Until I get back to Rome, and back to that pitch-perfect sandwich, this will have to do.