A chef has revealed how to make a “beautiful” pasta dish that could help you “live to 100”. This tagliatelle primavera recipe is packed with beans, legumes and vegetables, inspired by one of the world’s Blue Zones.
Francesco Mattana, who has more than 390,00 followers on his cooking TikTok channel, showed his viewers how to make this meal the Sardinian way. He called it the “live to 100 pasta”.
He explained: “A simple recipe packed full of beans and legumes, which are an essential part of the Sardinian diet.
“The flavours of the green beans, broad beans and peas combine with the freshness of the tomatoes, lemon, basil and mint and the savoury of the pecorino cheese make this dish a joy to eat.
“The sauce can also be used simply on top of toasted bread or as a bed for baked fish.” Sardinia, off the coast of Italy, was the first area in the world to be identified as a Blue Zone – defined as an area where people live extraordinarily long lives.
According to data, around 33.6 people per 100,000 inhabitants in Sardinia reach the age of 100 or older, making it one of the regions with the highest concentration of centenarians globally.
The ingredients needed for this pasta dish are:
- 300g tagliatelle
- A quarter of a leek
- Two garlic cloves
- Three tablespoons of peas
- A handful of broad beans (fava beans)
- A handful of green beans
- A handful of baby plum tomatoes
- Pecorino cheese
- Basil
- Mint
- Lemon zest
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper.
To begin, Francesco prepared all his vegetables. He started with finely chopping two cloves of garlic.
Then he chopped the bottom part of the leek off – claiming this is the “sweetest” part – and finely sliced it. He trimmed the ends from the green beans and cut them in half.
Next, Francesco opened the pods containing the broad beans and removed what was inside. He placed a frying pan on medium-high heat and added a “good drizzle” of olive oil.
He added the leeks, green beans, and broad beans to this and stirred it all together, then let it cook for a few minutes. The next step is to add the peas, tomatoes, and garlic before stirring and adding black pepper and salt.
He then added some water, covered it with a lid and let it steam for five minutes. While that was steaming, he cooked the tagliatelle in a separate pan. Once the pasta was cooked, he added it to the vegetable pan along with some pasta water.
For the finishing touches, he added fresh basil, a small amount of fresh mint, some lemon zest, and grated pecorino cheese. Then, he stirred it all together and added another dash of olive oil and pasta water before serving.
The chef said: “Oh, this is so good. I hope you’re going to make this one because it’s too good to miss.”
The five original Blue Zones are Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy; Nicoya Peninsul in, Costa Rica, Ikaria in Greece, and Loma Linda in California. BlueZones.com explains that the classic Sardinian diet consists of “whole-grain bread, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and, in some parts of the island, mastic oil”.
“Sardinians also traditionally eat pecorino cheese made from grass-fed sheep, whose cheese is high in omega-3 fatty acids,” it says. “Meat is largely reserved for Sundays and special occasions.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
