The Pasta That Was Worth Taking a Boat To (And How to Bring It Home)

There are meals you remember, and then there are meals that rearrange your idea of what a meal can be. Mine happened on a pebbled beach on the Sorrento Peninsula, somewhere between a swim and applying more sunscreen, and I have been thinking about it ever since.

Let me back up.

A Captain, a Cove, and a Recommendation

We had booked a private boat for the day via Mamma Mia Sorrento, one of those decisions you make while planning a trip and then quietly worry about the cost later. It turned out to be the best money we spent in Italy. We spent the morning drifting along the coast, ducking into caves, swimming clear-ish water, and generally doing very little with great enthusiasm.

Around midday, our captain Antonio asked if we were hungry. Then he said the thing that every traveler hopes to hear from a local: *I know a place.*

The place was Nerano, a fishing village tucked into the Massa Lubrense coastline, and specifically the beach at Marina del Cantone. The restaurant was Maria Grazia. And the dish, he told us with the seriousness of a man discussing family history, was spaghetti alla Nerano.

The Story Behind the Dish

Here is what makes this pasta more than pasta.

According to the website, the restaurant has been on that beach since 1901, when a woman named Maria Grazia started cooking for the fishermen who pulled their boats onto the pebbles at Marina del Cantone. Simple food, nothing unusual about it. Bread, fish…whatever the sea and the garden offered.

The dish itself came later, in 1952, and the credit goes to her daughter, Donna Rosa, who by then was running the kitchen. The story goes that she created it alongside a friend and regular guest, Prince Francesco Caravita di Sirignano, known to everyone as Pupetto. What they came up with used whatever was abundant that summer, which mostly meant zucchini.

Seventy years later, the restaurant still serves this amazing dish. People take boats there specifically to eat it. We were among them, and we had no idea we were joining a very long line.

What Is Actually In It

The ingredient list is short, which is the whole point.

– Spaghetti, ideally the thicker spaghettoni

– Zucchini, sliced thin and fried in oil until golden and sweet

– Provolone del Monaco, an aged, buttery cheese with a little sharpness at the finish

– Fresh basil

– Olive oil, garlic, black pepper, and a great deal of starchy pasta water

That’s it. Surprisingly, no cream ever. The silkiness comes entirely from the cheese and the zucchini melting into the starchy water.

Lunch on the Beach

We sat close enough to the water that I could hear it. The tables were full and the service was warm and welcoming. The best part was watching them prepare the pasta right near us, tossing and stirring and folding until the sauce came together. It is a genuinely beautiful and mouthwatering thing to watch….and an even better thing to eat. It arrived to our table and smelled like a garden in August. Even my husband, who was quite seasick at the time, did not pass up this dish.

A Memory Made in Amalfi 

Eating a famous dish in the exact place it was invented, on the beach where it was invented, is rather magical and a little secretive, like a beachside speakeasy. It felt less like checking something off a list and more like being let in on something truly unique.

You cannot bottle that feeling. But you can whip up a little spaghetti alla Nerano at home, sans the boat and beach. Once you find the recipe that works for you….pour something cold, put on music that sounds like summer, and make a dish that a woman invented on a beach in 1952 out of almost nothing.

And isn’t that what living the vacation life – aka the Bistro Chic life – is all about? That is…not saving the good life for two weeks in July, but borrowing pieces of it whenever you like.

Let’s recap…Bistro Chic Life = Make the pasta. Open the wine. Sit down….live your Italian girl summer.

*If you go: Ristorante Maria Grazia sits right on the beach at Marina del Cantone in Nerano, reachable by boat or by a winding drive from Sorrento. Book ahead in high season, and go hungry.*