What's your favourite fast food?

Ok, I'm not talking about Mc Donald's - I cannot make myself go in there because of the overwhelming smell of burning fat. The thought of it makes me shiver. Now think of delicious pasta, fresh herbs, colorful vegetables... mouthwatering... and so fast to prepare. None of my favourite Italian pastas takes longer than 20 minutes to prepare.  On the other hand - if you make sure, that the proportions of vegetables to pasta and cheese are in favour of the first ones, you get a light lunch, after which you don't feel heavy headed or sleepy. Which always happens to me if I eat traditional Polish lunch/dinner consisting of potatoes, some meat and a salad.
Oh, and I love the colours :) Green, yellow, red... in Italian pastas you'll find a rainbow of them. Especially uplifting when you face heavy grey sky and almost constant rain.

Pappardelle with Zucchini and Herbs 
Pappardelle con zucchine e erbe aromatiche

Serves 2.

150g (before cooking) pappardelle all' uovo | pappardelle with eggs
around 420g zucchini*
1 large egg
50ml cream (20% or lighter)
2 tablespoons grated cheese**
4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons each fresh herbs (you can subsitute with frozen, in the last resort - dried):
basil, oregano, thyme, dill
salt, freshly grated pepper

 
1. Wash and cut zucchinis, put them on a colander, salt generously and set aside for 15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the sauce: mix the egg with cream and 1 tablespoon cheese. Use salt and pepper to season it a bit.





2. Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the box - important: don't overcook it, it should be al dente.
3. Dry zucchinis with a paper towel. Warm up the olive oil in a pan and fry the zucchini on medium heat until it's golden. Add the fresh spices towards the end, if you use frozen ones do it in the begining.
4. Mix the pasta with sauce, add zucchinis and serve with the remaining tablespoon of grated cheese and freshly ground pepper.

* I prefer the smaller - salad - variety, but the big ones are fine too. They just need peeling as their skin tends to be hard.
** I usually don't use parmesan or parmigiano reggiano simply because they're very expensive here. Though they add very nice taste to the sauce. You can try substituting them with any hard yellow cheese that you like or sometimes you can find in the stores a grated mix of cheeses for lasagne. It works fine for me.