Passionate about Pasta

[ItalianinLondon]

As requested!

I'm no way any expert, but it seems that there is an appetite (haha) for a thread to share recipes, ideas and inspiration.

Here's one of my lazy, quick ones (my grandmother's, really).

Casareccia with hazelnuts and fresh vegetables

Needs:

• EVOO
• Salt and pepper
• Dried or fresh oregano
• Handful basil leaves
• Handul shelled and crushed hazelnuts
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 sliced onion (Tropea preferably)
• 1 Romano pepper
• 20g grated pecorino
• 200g casareccia pasta

First put a pan of water on to boil with some salt.

While it is coming to the boil cut the onion into small pieces, along with the red pepper, garlic, nuts, basil leaves and oregano. Mix it all with grated parmesan cheese and put it into a small pan with 4 teaspoons of extra virgin oil. Leave it on low heat until the onion becomes soft.

When water comes to the boil, put casareccia pasta in and follow the cooking instructions. Drain the pasta 2 minutes before it's ready and put the drained pasta in the vegetable pan, mixing it up with other ingredients. Turn up the heat a little, but still leaving it still fairly low, and go on mixing for a couple of minutes. Serve with some fresh basil leaves sprinkled on top.

You can substitute the casareccia for gemili, strozzapreti, etc. And the hazelnuts for pine nuts or even walnuts. And the peppers for zucchini. I'd avoid using tomatoes in this one though, because they make everything too soggy.

Look forward to reading everyone's recipes!

Bloody autocorrect! (Sp?), not so, ha!

De Cecco definitely do it and I usually get it from a deli in Soho, but I'd imagine in larger supermarkets or Ocado you'd be able to get it also?

You can buy it on Amazon - it's not cheap though.

Please can someone share their lasagne sauce recipe? I usually just use passata, herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, tomato purée. Onions don't agree with me so I leave those out. I fancy lasagne and homemade garlic bread tonight.

Does anyone have any slow cooker sauce ideas? I made bolognaise in the slow cooker this week and it was so bland and awful!

I find TKMAXX handily if I can't get hold of the pasta I want at the supermarket.

The recipes shared here are seriously good! I've realised why I stopped eating pasta. Because I keep going back for seconds and thirds...and fourths

Handy*

I find TKMAXX handily if I can't get hold of the pasta I want at the supermarket.

Kicking myself!

I was in sight of a TKMAXX yesterday and didn't go in. I tend to forget that they do foodstuffs.

Still trying to find a recipe I made a couple of times that basically put all the ingredients plus pasta into a pan and, I suppose, worked like a glorified Pasta 'N' Sauce (sorry to sully this thread with that product ).
Think it was one I ripped out of a magazine, but haven't been able to track it down recently.

Two favourites chez LaMars are Jamie's 5 Ingredients gorganzola, chicory and pear dish and Nigella's lemon linguine.

DH was much struck by the latter when I first moved in with him and it may be the reason he is now DH rather than OH.

Spaghetti, butter, lots of black pepper and lemon juice and some zest.

Pasta like penne, friend chorizo and caramelised red onion with chargrilled roasted bell pepper (from a jar)

Shell pasta, greek yogurt, cream or butter with corn and peas and garlic powder/black pepper

My DCs and dps favourite is adapted from a joe wicks recipe.

Slowly fry onions in garlic, add bacon or chorizo, mushrooms and oregano.

Put pasta on to boil.

Add chicken to the mix, sprinkle a bit of plain flour. Add a carton of double cream and parmesan. Mix all together when cooked and add more parmesan when plated up.

Not authentic at all but we love it.

Oh, that is true about TK Maxx! They do often have, by the counters, more unusual pasta types. But there are also many websites where you can order:

www.vorrei.co.uk (but it is all top quality organic stuff, and reflected in the price!)

www.delicatezza.co.uk (they do bulk orders too)

www.nifeislife.com in London. The ONLY place I have found in London for fresh cime di rapa and they also do the most amazing mozzarella and burrata fresh from Campania twice a week. Plus all the pastas! I order their fresh scialatielle once in a while; again, hard to find in the UK.

www.nifeislife.com

I've just tried cacio e pepe for the first time and loved it. Thanks OP! DC's thought it was ok. I made homemade garlic bread and we had Alexa playing Italian music

@BercowsFlamingoFlownSouth glad you liked it! My DDs are not too keen on cacio e pepe, so I hardly make it any more. I think it's the amount of pepper which is a bit much for children!

I was guessing amounts from the recipe I found and probably didn't use as much pepper or pecorino as the recipe said. My ibs is objecting strongly now I found it a bit too oily from the butter so I'll play around with the recipe as I do with most recipes and develop my own bastardised version (sorry!)

I'd probably add a little chilli, baby spinach and garlic perhaps. And call it cacio e pepe alla Bercows I'll let you know how it goes.

@ItalianInLondon we had your casareccia with hazelnuts this evening and it was perfect, thanks. So easy and so tasty! Look forward to trying more of your recipes.

Something different with pesto!

Tagliatelle primavera - serves 4

• 1 golden onion
• cooking salt
• olive oil
• pecorino romano (or similar)
• about half a jar of pesto
• tagliatelle (fresh or dried)
• cherry tomatoes
• carrots
• zucchini
• red and yellow peppers
• 1 aubergine (or 1/2, depending on its size)

Slice the courgettes, carrots, yellow pepper and red pepper into thin strips. Cut the fresh cherry tomatoes into halves. Finely dice the aubergine and onion. Bring to the boil a deep pan of salted water for the tagliatelle. Add all the vegetables to a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and soften for about 7 to 10 minutes.

Cook the tagliatelle for no longer than 1 and half minutes. Add to the vegetables a few spoonfuls of pesto, about half a normal sized jar, or add to taste. Toss it together. Drain the tagliatelle and toss in the pan with all the vegetables. Serve immediately, with grated cheese.

This also works well with any other long pasta, and you can omit some of the vegetables if you don't have them to hand (or if you don't like them!).

@Squishedpickle glad you liked the recipe!

I'm going to try that pesto recipe- sounds lovely :-)

@ItalianinLondon

First of all - sorry.
I realise this is a pasta thread not an "Italian food in general" thread.
Nor is it a thread about pronunciation.

However, it was the best place I could think of to catch your eye to ask how "gnocchi" should be pronounced.

I used to vary between "knocky" and "notchy". Then, after hearing John Torode saying "knocky", I veered more towards that. And, I suppose, thinking of "radicchio" being called "ra-deek-io" (I hope?) and all.

But then it got complicated because a German friend called it "know-chee" and assured me that was correct.

So I started saying that because, well... Germany's nearer Italy, I suppose

But I've not heard anybody else say it like that and I'm starting to worry that I sound a bit stupid.
More than usual, I mean.

I would be jolly grateful to be pointed in the right direction as to how to say it and if you have any recipe recommendations, regardless of how they're pronounced, that would be lovely, as I like making them but am fed up of just calling them "them".

Ahem.
I do, of course, realise this is a pasta thread.
Oh yes.
Thank you in advance

Haha, no worries! I never heard anyone in Italy say other than "NOH-kee". It's maybe possible that up in the mountains by the Austria border, they say it with your German friend's pronunciation? Not sure

I was considering posting my orecchiette con cime di rapa recipe (really my grandma's and my father's) but I may get jumped on because it deviates from the norm

Thank you!

And also thank you for giving me a tactful explanation to use when said friend catches me saying "NOH-kee" .*

I was considering posting my orecchiette con cime di rapa recipe (really my grandma's and my father's) but I may get jumped on because it deviates from the norm wink

I would say: don't hold back...

*Wasn't my pronunciation good then?!

@LaMarschallin your pronunciation was bellissima!

Here's my cime di rapa recipe.

Orecchiette - fresh is nicer but dried is also fine IMO. Ca. 100g per person
Cime di rapa - if you cannot get it, you can also use any broccoli. Purple sprouting works well, but even calabrese is okay if you chop it finely.
1 clove of garlic
1 Tropea onion (my deviant addition)
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
EVOO (1 tabslespoon)
Salt, pepper, pecorino, to taste.

This is according to my grandmother's recipe and if you can multi-task it's a literal 10-min meal!

Put the orecchiette into a pan of salted water and bring to boil

At the same time, slice the stems of the cime di rapa and the onion. Warm a tablespoon of EVOO in a deep frying pan on medium heat and add the cime di rapa stems and onion. Most recipes tell you to discard the stems, but sliced into small pieces (think 2cm) and cooked a little longer, they taste AMAZING.

Stir, and slice the middle sections of the cime di rapa and the garlic clove, including any buds. Add after about two mins with the chili flakes and seasoning.

After another two mins, add the top leafy parts of the cime di rapa and turn the heat to low, continuing to stir.

When the orecchiette is two minutes before its packet cooking time, add a tablespoon of the cooking water to the cime di rapa and drain the pasta before adding it to the pan also. Continue to stir on a low heat for ca. 2 mins.

Serve, with a grating of pecorino!

Most recipes for this tell you to boil the cime di rapa first, but I find this takes away the flavour. The onion is also an "illegal" addition, and the retaining of the cime di rapa stems is also not usual.

N.B. the cime di rapa (or whatever you use) reduces A LOT as you cook it.

Just found this. Marking place so I can find it this evening!