Tag: recipe

Handcut Pappardelle with Three Meat Ragù | Pappardelle Fatte a Mano al Ragù di Tre Carni

Handcut Pappardelle with Three Meat Ragù | Pappardelle Fatte a Mano al Ragù di Tre Carni

You’d know by now that Pasta et Al is all about mindful food. We source locally and seasonally, and buy all things grass-fed, free-range, unpackaged, and covered in soil. And when we’re not making pasta, we grow things, ferment things, jar things, and spend a lot of our time talking about things like permaculture, aquaponics, silvopasture, microbiomes, and regenerative agriculture. We’re a little bunch of passionate food-loving nerds, and this week we’re delighted to introduce our equally passionate regen ag friends at Dirty Clean Food.

Tabasco Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Stracciatella and Roasted Tomatoes

Tabasco Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Stracciatella and Roasted Tomatoes

Tabasco! It’s probably our family’s most regularly consumed condiment, and one that Little Al has recently become obsessed with. Al’s favourite is Chipotle, but we’ve gone with the classic Red Pepper for this week’s pasta. Its earthy, spicy, familiar smell somehow reminds me of my mum taking me on our regular rounds of the imported food stores when I was a kid. So, all things considered, it’s past time that we stuck it in some pasta dough.

Tomato Day 2023

Tomato Day 2023

Tomato Day this year only happened because I’m notoriously bad at reading and responding to messages. In the space of 24 hours we somehow pulled it all together. My uncle was immediately up for the challenge, and had a guy lined up by the end of the day with probably the last Romas in Australia. My mum grabbed some regular tomatoes and came straight around from work so that we could use them to clean out the machine, my cousin made early-morning plans to turn up with her baby and mum in tow, my brother drove 2.5 hours in the dark in a breaking down car, and my startled father-in-law, by chance visiting from Sydney, found himself swept up in the unstoppable momentum of Tomato Day 2023.

Striped Ricotta Fagottini with Garlic and Fennel Confit Purée

Striped Ricotta Fagottini with Garlic and Fennel Confit Purée

Working on our book over this last year or so, I’ve focused on pairing more complicated pasta with simpler sauces, and vice versa. It just allows you to save a little time on one element, and use that to create something special with another.

So the dough and pasta is the focus here, although the confit purée is deceptively impressive for its simplicity – you certainly don’t have to sacrifice flavour to save time! This is our Striped Ricotta Fagottini with Garlic and Fennel Confit Purée.

Smoked Paprika Foglie d’Ulivo with Saffron Brown Butter

Smoked Paprika Foglie d’Ulivo with Saffron Brown Butter

This week’s pasta is a quick little dish built on pantry staples. We’ve mixed our pasta dough up with a hit of smoked paprika, turning the typically green foglie d’ulivo into a more autumnal colour (for our northern hemisphere friends). They’re served in a warming but understated brown butter sauce flavoured with garlic, saffron, fennel, pepper berries, and rosemary. One of the easiest doughs to make, turned into a forgivingly rustic pasta shape, served in the easiest of sauces.

Cavatelli in Sugo with Pine Nuts and Ricotta Salata

Cavatelli in Sugo with Pine Nuts and Ricotta Salata

This week’s pasta is a little something special that we put together for Mutti. Simple but delicious cavatelli, served in a quick sugo, and topped with fresh ricotta salata, pine nuts, and lemon zest. For when you’re in a hurry, but still want to impress!

Sumac Garganelli with Ricotta, Chicory, and Spinach

Sumac Garganelli with Ricotta, Chicory, and Spinach

Spinach and ricotta was really my Nonna’s trademark pasta filling, stuffed generously into huge batches of ravioli and cannelloni. With a little Romano cheese, maybe some minced garlic, egg to bind it all, and salt and pepper. Simple perfection, and to this day my favourite filling. Well, this week, we’re turning things inside out.

Pulled Pork Gnocchi Ripieni with Brown Butter Corn and Jalapeño Vinaigrette

Pulled Pork Gnocchi Ripieni with Brown Butter Corn and Jalapeño Vinaigrette

Pasta, for me, has always been more about an approach to food than a favourite dish. Don’t get me wrong, we make and enjoy it at least once a week, and it is a passion bordering on obsession, but tacos truly vie for my heart. Or my stomach, as it may be. It was only a matter of time before we quite literally stuffed some Mexican into our pasta.

Squid Ink Bucatini con le Sarde

Squid Ink Bucatini con le Sarde

Though perhaps a little late in life, and unhelpfully complicated by life’s realities, if I could choose someone to be when I grow up, without a doubt I’d be Inspector Montalbano. Aside from pleasantly relatable traits, such as his warranted, weary grouchiness and exaggerated hand gestures, Montalbano is a man who pays food the respect that it deserves.

Red Wine Tortelli with Pork and Radicchio in Garlic Oil

Red Wine Tortelli with Pork and Radicchio in Garlic Oil

A couple of weeks back I was enjoying a good glass of Montepulciano with a light pork ragu and a side of charred radicchio. How far I’ve come from Fruity Lexia and chip rolls. Anyway, I’d paired it so uncharacteristically well that it occurred to me I should probably stick it all into some sort of tortelli. And so this weekend’s pasta turned out to be a little ode to wine, pairing the dish to the vino, rather than the other way around. This is our pork and radicchio tortelli, made with a red wine dough, and served simply with smashed garlic fried in olive oil.

Fennel and Potato Cappelletti | Cappelletti di Finocchio e Patate

Fennel and Potato Cappelletti | Cappelletti di Finocchio e Patate

I’m not going to say that we ran out of fresh ingredients due to poorly-timed lockdown grocery deliveries, but if that had hypothetically happened, this would have been the perfect pasta solution. This week’s cappelletti is made with a fennel seed dough, and a simple, comforting filling of roasted potato and fennel. We served them up with crispy potato skins, a delicious agrumato, and a scattering of crushed pink peppercorns. Sometimes it takes a pantry emergency to remind you that the simple food is often the best!

Smoked Rye Tonnarelli Carbonara

Smoked Rye Tonnarelli Carbonara

We’ve been making all kinds of creative pasta lately, with unusual ingredient lists, playful dough colourings, and fiddly shapes. Well, this week we’re going back to basics, and cooking up a crowd-pleasing carbonara. To add a little Pasta et Al spin, we’ve made our tonnarelli with half rye flour, and smoked it briefly before tossing it through the sauce. It’s a creamy, cheesy, smoky smile-bringer.

Cassava Leaf and Rendang Fagottini Potstickers with Terong Balado and Sambal Ijo

Cassava Leaf and Rendang Fagottini Potstickers with Terong Balado and Sambal Ijo

Selamat pagi para pemasak dan para pecinta makanan! This week we’ve crafted something extra special and delightfully different, a fusion of cuisines that is particularly close to my heart. And is quite possibly one of the tastiest things that I’ve ever cooked! My roots might be in Italy, and my home in Australia, but Indonesia is where I really grew into myself. So I’m very excited to present our latest creation: fagottini made with cassava leaf dough and cooked as potstickers, filled with slow-cooked beef rendang, and served with green sambal, chilli eggplant, and toasted coconut.

Rigatoni with Veal and Eggplant Meatballs in Tomato Sauce | Rigatoni al Pomodoro con Polpetti di Vitello e Melanzane

Rigatoni with Veal and Eggplant Meatballs in Tomato Sauce | Rigatoni al Pomodoro con Polpetti di Vitello e Melanzane

Ah, rigatoni. For all of the incredible shapes and fillings out there, all of the carefully handcrafted pasta that we obsess over, there’s just something indescribably special about these chewy, ridged, extruded tubes. Even as a kid, I remember secretly hanging out for the dried supermarket rigatoni, despite always having a freezer full of fresh pasta. A big bowl of rigatoni with thick tomato sauce and a huge mound of grated cheese can fix just about anything.

Saltbush and Squid Ink Tagliolini with Crab and Finger Lime

Saltbush and Squid Ink Tagliolini with Crab and Finger Lime

Back before parenthood and pandemic, when we were able to fly around the world, or jump in the car on a whim and just drive, I’d get to the ocean as often as I could. For a while there I was diving almost every weekend, and became quicker at jumping into a wetsuit and slinging on a tank than pulling on my socks and shoes.

Dark Rye Fileja with Onions

Dark Rye Fileja with Onions

It’s time to go back to basics, and it doesn’t get much simpler than flour, water, and onions. This week we’re tapping into our roots with the perfectly imperfect Calabrese fileja. Although we make all kinds of pasta these days, and tend to use egg doughs more often than not, a lot of the pasta that we made and ate growing up was just flour and water. In fact, most of the food that we enjoyed was really cucina povera, imported to Australia relatively unchanged from how it was cooked by generations before us back in Italy. For me, something about that connection always makes these dishes a little special.

Short-Rib Ragu | Ragù di Costine di Manzo

Short-Rib Ragu | Ragù di Costine di Manzo

As much as we love a light pasta dish, there is something incomparably comforting about a slow-cooked, thick tomato sauce. It’s been a while since we featured a good old ragu, so this week we’re cooking up a pot of short ribs. Nothing tricky, nothing fancy, just a nice long sit in the oven.

Wattleseed and Peppermint Gum Malloreddus with Sea Celery and Macadamia Pesto

Wattleseed and Peppermint Gum Malloreddus with Sea Celery and Macadamia Pesto

The Italian-Australian experience, and all that it brings with it, is really the only ‘Italian’ that I’ve ever known. My brother and I grew up with an Italian mum (first-generation Australian) and an English-Australian dad, spending most of our early years in the care of a thoroughly Calabrian Nonna who arrived in that rich 50s boom. To this day, the only Italian that sounds right to me is her comfortable, lazy southern drawl, and the only Italian-English accent that makes sense comes from that same familiar dialect.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Scarpinocc with Citrus-Infused Olive Oil

Lemon and Poppy Seed Scarpinocc with Citrus-Infused Olive Oil

We couldn’t let Valentine’s Day coincide with pasta day without creating something a bit special for our favourite person. My long-suffering better half, little Al’s lovely Ma, is the genius cake-extraordinaire behind Forty-Two Cakes. So as a little tribute to her, we’ve taken cake flavours and turned them into pasta!

Cocoa Fettuccine with Mascarpone and Walnut Sauce | Fettuccine al Cacao con Crema di Noci e Mascarpone

Cocoa Fettuccine with Mascarpone and Walnut Sauce | Fettuccine al Cacao con Crema di Noci e Mascarpone

This week’s dish is short and sweet, figuratively. Otherwise it’s long and savoury. Every now and then we get asked about cocoa pasta, so this week we’re sharing our go-to recipe for cocoa fettuccine, served with a mascarpone and walnut sauce, and topped with toasted buckwheat.

Asparagus and Mascarpone Cappellacci in Red Cabbage Broth | Cappellacci Ripieni di Asparagi e Mascarpone in Brodo di Cavolo Rosso

Asparagus and Mascarpone Cappellacci in Red Cabbage Broth | Cappellacci Ripieni di Asparagi e Mascarpone in Brodo di Cavolo Rosso

One of little Al’s favourite things is our weekend trip to the markets. We’ve got a routine now, that starts with a snack and a coffee – decaf macchiato for him, double espresso for me, followed by the butcher, deli, and wholefood shop, before finishing with the fruit and veggies at the grocer. Little Al talks about it all week and tells anyone who’ll listen.

Pan-fried Gnocchi Ripieni with Eggplant |Gnocchi Ripieni di Melanzane Spadellati

Pan-fried Gnocchi Ripieni with Eggplant |Gnocchi Ripieni di Melanzane Spadellati

Pretty much the only thing better than a plate of stuffed and pan-fried gnocchi, is a plate of bright purple stuffed and pan-fried gnocchi. This week we’ve made a light dough out of roasted purple potatoes, and filled it with creamy eggplant. Tossed through the sage-infused oil that we finished them in, they have a comfortingly subtle flavour, but with a bold hit of colour!

Tomato and Spinach Fusilli with Nduja Sugu

Tomato and Spinach Fusilli with Nduja Sugu

We had to do it. We had to make a festive season pasta. This week’s two-tone fusilli combines tomato and spinach doughs into hand-rolled twisty goodness. Served in a light nduja-spiced sauce, with crispy basil and sage leaves and cherry bocconcini, what better way to celebrate the closing out of the year? Pignolata, that’s how! To finish our dish we’ve prepared these usually sweet Christmas treats as savoury gold-coated baubles, and used them to dress our tinsel-like pasta. Because ‘tis the season.

Spinach and Ricotta Rotolo | Rotolo di Ricotta e Spinaci

Spinach and Ricotta Rotolo | Rotolo di Ricotta e Spinaci

This week we’re throwing back to the 80s! This spinach and ricotta rotolo was something that my Mum used to cook up for special occasions, back when béchamel was big. Or so I’m told. I was more a concept than a thing at the time, and I’m not sure that béchamel ever actually went out of fashion anyway, so take that as you will.

Tequila Prawn Sacchettoni | Sacchettoni di Gamberetti e Tequila

Tequila Prawn Sacchettoni | Sacchettoni di Gamberetti e Tequila

Sometimes we cook up the classics, other times we think: what would you get if you made sea anemones out of pasta, plated them into a rockpool, and made that rockpool out of margaritas? This week’s pasta is lime and tequila prawn sacchettoni, made with blue spirulina dough, and served in citrus salt enclosed pools of juniper-olive oil, dehydrated blood orange and lime, pippies, and fresh seaweed.

Fig and Anisette Caramelle | Caramelle ai Fichi ed Anisette

Fig and Anisette Caramelle | Caramelle ai Fichi ed Anisette

This week we mixed a little nostalgia into our pasta: figs, anisette, and the lolly bowl. One of the most enduring memories that I have of my Nonna’s house is actually my Nonno’s liqueur cabinet, filled with mysterious and intricate glassware, and the intoxicating smell of anisette. Always competing for my fickle loyalty was my great aunty, who would keep a box of those rectangular Italian lollies at the ready to bribe us with. And my mum loves figs!

Spinach and Paprika Funghini Arrabbiata | Funghini agli Spinaci e Paprica all’Arrabbiata

Spinach and Paprika Funghini Arrabbiata | Funghini agli Spinaci e Paprica all’Arrabbiata

Little Al and I were playing around with cookie cutters, making a lot of mess and noise, when we came up with this week’s shape. It’s kind of close to funghini pasta, so that’s what we’re calling it. We wanted to pair it with a rich, spicy arrabbiata sauce, and this shape allowed us to work in some two-tone laminated goodness of spinach and paprika doughs: one flavour to contrast with the sugo and one to complement. These fun guys were the result.

Doppio Ravioli of Peperonata with Balsamic Tomatoes

Doppio Ravioli of Peperonata with Balsamic Tomatoes

One of my favourite childhood dishes, that my Mum still makes when I visit, is peperonata. Ours was simply capsicums and potatoes, roasted with breadcrumbs and a good hit of olive oil: a magic combination. I’d always though that it would be fun to capture these flavours in pasta, but had never quite settled on how to do it. Do you focus on the potato or the capsicum? And then, suddenly, I remembered doppio ravioli. Perché non entrambi?

Gluten-Free Reginette | Reginette senza Glutine

Gluten-Free Reginette | Reginette senza Glutine

We’re regularly asked about gluten-free pasta, and to be honest the only reason that we haven’t blogged about it yet is that it feels a little too simple to put on a recipe card. Which of course is no reason at all. So this week, please accept our apologies for not posting it sooner, and enjoy our recipe for gluten-free reginette.

Red Wine Pici with Sausage and Fried Bread | Pici al Vino Rosso con Salsiccia e Pane Fritto

Red Wine Pici with Sausage and Fried Bread | Pici al Vino Rosso con Salsiccia e Pane Fritto

Pici are the answer to all of your thick, chewy pasta cravings. They’re sort an Italian equivalent to chunky hand cut rice noodles. We usually make them with just bread flour and water, but this week we’ve taken it up a notch by swapping out the water for red wine. We served them up with a chunky sauce of crispy sausage meat, fried chunks of bread, and wilted greens, for a satisfying dish loaded with texture and flavour.

Bitter Greens Pansotti with Walnut Sauce | Pansotti di Verdi Amari con Salsa di Noci

Bitter Greens Pansotti with Walnut Sauce | Pansotti di Verdi Amari con Salsa di Noci

This week we wanted to bring you a filled pasta dish that you can knock up in less than an hour; something packed with fresh flavour, and accompanied by a sauce that you can make without a single pot or pan. These simple pansotti, filled with rainbow chard, radicchio, mustard greens, marjoram, and ricotta are what we came up with. They’re served with a delicious walnut sauce that’s made entirely with a stick blender!

Wholemeal Spelt Gemelli | Gemelli di Farro Spelta Integrale

Wholemeal Spelt Gemelli | Gemelli di Farro Spelta Integrale

Last week we tried to escape the mists and frosts of winter with a little touch of the seaside, but this week we’re embracing it. Or at least trudging on, bolstered by a hearty bowl of chewy wholemeal spelt gemelli. Their twisty texture and earthy flavour makes for a fortifying plate of pasta, whether it’s stirred through a hearty ragu, or tossed with a bit of butter and pepper.

Squid Ink and Lemon Linguine with Whitebait | Linguine al Nero di Seppia e Limone con Bianchetti

Squid Ink and Lemon Linguine with Whitebait | Linguine al Nero di Seppia e Limone con Bianchetti

Two of the clearest and most joyful memories that I have of my first visit to Italy, when I was four, are of me loudly pretending that I was being kidnapped as my dad tried to load me into the car across from the Colosseum, and sitting in the back seat of a cousin’s car as we hurtled through acres of olive trees in my nonna’s hometown of Melicuccà.

Baked Tortiglioni | Tortiglioni al Forno

Baked Tortiglioni | Tortiglioni al Forno

There was often a uniquely delicious smell filling my great aunty’s house when we’d drop by for a meal. This is in contrast to my poor nonna, whose penchant for boiled broad beans left her house more often than not smelling like sweaty feet. It was many years before I learned that the characteristic ingredients of my aunty’s famous pasta bake (and to be fair, my nonna’s equally famous prupettone) were in fact rather representative of southern Italian cooking in general: the humble hardboiled egg and a chunk of salami.

Sausage Ragu | Ragu di Salsiccia

Sausage Ragu | Ragu di Salsiccia

Sausages are fantastic; what more is there to say? They’re a self-contained, considered balance of meat, fat, and spice. I can relate. And they’re versatile: as perfect slow-cooked in a stew or sauce as they are grilled and rolled up in a slice of white bread. Think of this deliberately uncomplicated pasta sauce as a celebration of the sausage-maker and their hard work. Or at least a really quick way to make a very flavourful ragu.

Bread Flour Casarecce | Casarecce di Farina Manitoba

Bread Flour Casarecce | Casarecce di Farina Manitoba

This week we left the eggs in the fridge and the pasta machine in the cupboard, and made some good old flour and water casarecce. None of that fiddling around with egg to egg-yolk ratios and oil to water moisture levels; just two ingredients and our hands.

Smoky Nettle Cappellacci with Beetroot Purée and Cocoa-Rhubarb Crumb

Smoky Nettle Cappellacci with Beetroot Purée and Cocoa-Rhubarb Crumb

There was a time, many years ago as a young kid, when I knew the people that sold us our food. I could walk to the orchard at the end of the street for a box of fruit and veg, head off in my stroller with my nonna to collect eggs from around the corner, trade a bucket of loquats from the man two houses down.

Charcoal Sacchettoni with Garlic Yoghurt Sauce | Sacchettoni di Carbone con Yogurt all’Aglio

Charcoal Sacchettoni with Garlic Yoghurt Sauce | Sacchettoni di Carbone con Yogurt all’Aglio

This week’s pasta, with its paired sauce, is one big celebration of honouring your ingredients, and enjoying the histories of the dishes that you cook. With a hint of the unconventional and a touch of cultural fusion! A few weeks ago we made some tasty four cheese fagottini in beef bone broth. Whilst those little chaps owe their shape to Turkish manti, this week’s meaty sacchettoni filling takes its inspiration from them.

White Bean and Chorizo Sauce | Fagioli Cannellini e Chorizo

White Bean and Chorizo Sauce | Fagioli Cannellini e Chorizo

There’s nothing like cooking with fresh, carefully sourced ingredients, but it’s not always that easy. Sometimes you just need a dish that you can make from tins and cans and a handful of greens. This time around, as I peeked into the cupboard, I was really in the mood for beans.

Farfalle with Rye Flour | Farfalle con Farina di Segale

Farfalle with Rye Flour | Farfalle con Farina di Segale

Farfalle are a much maligned pasta. I suppose that they’re easy to dismiss as a bit of a novelty, little butterflies that are stocked in most supermarkets, beloved to children, comfort food to adults. Often featuring in horrid cold salads. But when I look at farfalle I see textures: smooth expanses with ruffled edges, ridged hollows that hold sauce, an extra firm pinch in the middle to contrast with the softer bite of the flat sides.

Pressure Cooker Bone Broth | Brodo D’osso in Pentola a Pressione

Pressure Cooker Bone Broth | Brodo D’osso in Pentola a Pressione

Let me tell you about my obsession with bone broth. I’ve never been particularly excited by soup, although I’d concede to the odd stew or thick blend of veggies. I certainly had no time for anything watery, and thin stocks weren’t even up for discussion. Then I discovered bone broth. This magnificent golden friend, silky and smooth to eat, wobbly like jelly when it’s set, and packed with flavour both deep and subtle at the same time.

Four Cheese Fagottini | Fagottini ai Quattro Formaggi

Four Cheese Fagottini | Fagottini ai Quattro Formaggi

If you want to light a fire in the pasta world, just ask someone what these little guys are called. Even the ravioli versus tortelli debate is easier to settle than this one. Manti, fagottini, ravioli, cofanetti, lanterne. Whatever you want to call them, they look great, taste fantastic, and are one of the easiest filled pastas to make.

Mushroom and Taleggio Sauce | Sugo di Funghi e Taleggio

Mushroom and Taleggio Sauce | Sugo di Funghi e Taleggio

One day, when I’m living in a whimsically decrepit villa in southern Italy, backing on to woodlands and looking down towards the ocean, I’ll grab my whittled walking stick and amble out the backdoor to collect mushrooms. There are honestly fewer things that I want more in life. But right now I’m 16,000 kilometres away and have little idea how to pick mushrooms that won’t kill me.

Egg Yolk Pappardelle | Pappardelle Solo Tuorli

Egg Yolk Pappardelle | Pappardelle Solo Tuorli

When we first decided to turn our little pasta tradition into a blog, posting a different pasta each week or so, I thought it would be a good idea to list out every type of pasta I could think of and make sure that we had enough weeks in us. As I approached 100 I decided we’d be fine. Then when, with a little additional research, I discovered that there are actually an estimated 350 varieties out there,, I had a little panic.

Brown Butter with Pink Peppercorns and Lemon Thyme | Burro Nocciola con Pepe Rosa e Timo Limone

Brown Butter with Pink Peppercorns and Lemon Thyme | Burro Nocciola con Pepe Rosa e Timo Limone

The worst kept secret of the pasta world is that for all of the incredible, complex, layered sauces out there, there is no pasta that can’t be enjoyed with just a chunk of butter and a crack of pepper. Whenever we got home especially late after school, and everyone was exhausted, it was hard to hide our delight at the suggestion of plain old pasta with butter.

Tomato and Basil Sauce | Sugo di Pomodoro e Basilico

Tomato and Basil Sauce | Sugo di Pomodoro e Basilico

The best things in life are often simple. It’s with great pleasure that we spend a whole afternoon making pasta, but with even greater pleasure that we remember the sugo to go with it will only take half an hour to make. This is our super quick and tasty tomato and basil sauce.

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli | Ravioli Verdi agli Spinaci e Ricotta

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli | Ravioli Verdi agli Spinaci e Ricotta

Little Al has managed to inherit a few of my more ‘difficult’ personality traits, but so far there’s been no sign of the calculated, scheming mischief that defined my own childhood. The prime stone against which I honed my blade of torment was my nonna. She did have pleasant diminutive nicknames for me, but my given names may as well have been ‘delinguente’ and ‘scustamato’ for their frequency and familiarity.

Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder Ragu | Ragù di Maiale

Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder Ragu | Ragù di Maiale

Slow cooked meat. Oh yeah. A surefire way to a satisfying meal is simple ingredients, cooked for a long time. And meat. I remember a couple of decades back, the last giant family party that I think we had. The kind that has so many ‘uncles’ and ‘cousins’ that you’re reminded of the fact that they’re actually placeholder titles used to avoid convoluted explanations of exactly who’s brother’s great-uncle-in-law you’re talking to, and that actually you can’t remember.

Handmade Paccheri | Paccheri Fatti a Mano

Handmade Paccheri | Paccheri Fatti a Mano

Handmade paccheri! Opinions are famously and aggressively varied as to what authentic Italian food is, and how it should be cooked. Pasta is no exception. Little Al and I value time-honoured recipes and pairings (it’s the basis of everything that we make), but we don’t believe that the love and joy of food should ever be stifled by tradition.

Meatballs in Tomato Sauce | Polpette al Sugo

Meatballs in Tomato Sauce | Polpette al Sugo

Here’s one that comes from the heart. This is our signature family sugo: meatballs in tomato sauce. It’s the sauce that bubbled away quietly in the background every Sunday, filling the house with delicious anticipation; it’s the sauce that simply holds everything together. In fact, when I talk about pasta and what it means to me, this is the sugo that I think of.

Spinach Fettuccine | Fettuccine Verdi agli Spinaci

Spinach Fettuccine | Fettuccine Verdi agli Spinaci

These days I make all kinds of pasta with all kinds of dough, but when I was a kid there were only four types. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed plenty of packet pasta – secretly but unanimously excited as my nonna apologised for the rigatoni she was opening – but when we did it ourselves, our repertoire was deliberately and appropriately limited.


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