Penne with courgettes (zucchini), shrimps and eggs is a tasty pasta dish you can choose for your weekly menu or a special occasion.
You will need: zucchini (courgettes), hard-boiled eggs, frozen or fresh shrimps, leeks, aromatic herbs (chives, parsley and tarragon - fresh or dried), white wine, extra virgin olive oil and good-quality pasta.
Here's the recipe as we usually make at our home.

Thaw the shrimps. You need about 2 hours. If you are in a hurry you can plunge the bag with frozen prawns in water. In this case you need only an hour. To accelerate the thawing change often the water.

Prepare the eggs. Boil the eggs for 8 minutes. Remember transfering the eggs from the boiling water into very cold water helps loosen the shell!

Prepare the sauce. Meanwhile place the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the leeks and courgettes (zucchini). Saute for few minutes on very low heat, stirring often. Then increase the heat and pour in the small amount of wine. Let it reduce and add the dried herbs and a ladle boiling water (or vegetable stock). Season to taste with salt and cook on medium heat until the mixture thickens and the vegetables are well cooked. If necessary add other water (cooking time: about 15-20 minutes).

Prepare the pasta and shell the eggs. Meanwhile cook the penne "al dente" following our instructions or the directions on the package.
Shell the eggs. You have to separate the whites from yolks. Crush all the yolks with a fork and crumble all the whites in a large bowl.

The last step. Drain the penne very well, transfer them together with the shrimps to the saucepan with the sauce. Stir with a wooden spoon over high heat for 1- 2 minutes to flavor all the ingredients. Stir with delicacy.
This is the secret for a tasty pasta dish: to finish cooking the pasta in the sauce!
Pour the pasta into the bowl, stirring gently, and serve immediately.
If you like, you can garnish pasta with fresh parsley, finely chopped

Note

• - You can also use other short pasta shapes (fusilli, rotini) or wholemeal pasta or felt or kamut pasta.
• - You can serve this pasta dish cold too! Enjoy it at your BBQ with your friends for a perfect menu, Italian-style
• - For a quicker recipe: grate your courgettes (zucchini). You will reduce cooking time. In fact in this case you haven't to add any water or vegetable stock to the sauce. Grated courgettes (zucchini) require few minutes to be cooked.
• - The best season to prepare pasta with courgettes (zucchini), shrimps and eggs (penne mimosa in Italian) is from June to October when you can find fresh and tastier courgettes (zucchini) and fresh aromatic herbs.
• - You can plan this pasta dish as one-plate meal in your weekly menu or as a course in a complete menu for a special occasion together with other courses. In the last case the doses are enough for more people (10-12).

Healthy eating

• - Daily menu. Obviously this dish, rich in ingredients, is a perfect one-plate meal. Complete your meal with fresh fruit but if you are still hungry you can also add raw vegetables such as bell peppers, carrots ...)
  We remember pasta should be eaten preferably at lunch and the calories eaten at lunch should be 500 - 700 (30 - 35% of energy needs for an adult if his daily needs are about 2000 calories and he correctly divides his calories into 5 micro-meals).
  Here are the doses per head: 60 to 70 g (2 1/4 to 2 1/2oz) short pasta, 1 medium-size courgette (zucchini), preferably 3 to 4 quail eggs or 1 hen egg, 70 g (2 1/2oz) frozen shrimps, 10 ml (1/2fl oz) white wine, 70 g (2 1/2oz) leek, aromatic herbs and less than one tablespoon olive oil. As you can read we use less than 80 g (2 3/4oz) pasta, suggested by the nutritionist, for there are a lot of ingredients. It's a satisfying dish!
• - Special occasion menu. As we've just written you can also choose this recipe for an important dinner menu or a celebration menu. Don't worry about fat, calories, sugars ... it happens rarely, doesn't it?
• - It's a tomato-free recipe, ideal for people intolerant or allergic to tomatoes.
• - If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 kCal per 100 ml.
• - Read more about Italian pasta and its nutrition value.
• - We remember you our original home recipes can be made without salt; there is a combination of flavors that substitutes salt. Other no salt recipes on the Italian cooking page

What's the right wine for " Pasta with shrimps, eggs and courgettes (zucchini) " ?

Our suggestion is Corvo Bianco (white wine of Sicily - Italy) or Collio Pinot Grigio (white wine of Friuli - Italy)