What do you get when you cross a clever cook, some leftover zucchini, and a prince? Spaghetti alla Nerano—at least, so the story goes. According to legend, the dish was born in 1952 when Francesco “Pupetto” Caravita, the Prince of Sirignano, turned up at Ristorante Maria Grazia, a favorite restaurant of his located in the charming Amalfi Coast fishing village of Nerano. He told the owner, his friend Rosa Mellino, that he had brought a guest whom he wanted to impress, so the pair sized up the ingredients on hand, got cooking, and emerged from the kitchen with a neverbefore-seen pasta dish—spaghetti tangled with basil, black pepper, and delicate, golden coins of fried zucchini, all napped with a creamy, lightly cheesy sauce.
The dish is enchantingly simple. It’s rich but eats light, and the zucchini’s sweetness is concentrated and heightened by the frying. Nowadays, versions of the dish abound in restaurants across Nerano, and tourists flock to its shores just to get a
