I watched an episode of that curvaceous queen Nigella the other day, and she seems to have moved from pretend-chef to full-time food porn star. She made puttanesca sauce, constantly reminding us that it was Italian for ‘slut spaghetti’ while almost dribbling all over the poor camera man in anticipation, before finishing the dish and retiring to her boudoir with the whole pan (an unrealistic move given that a hot pan would burn through that Egyptian cotton in seconds). Anyway, it made me think – if it’s good enough for Nigella, it’s good enough for me. So with slightly less heavy breathing and slightly more actual instruction, I’ve included here a couple of pasta recipes which might be a little slicker than your average.
I know I’m not moving mountains here. I know everyone knows about pasta. But I want to salvage it from the ‘oh-no-I’ve-run-out-of-food’ status to something a little more razzle-dazzle. I’ve included recipes below which take just a little more effort than opening a can, but don’t demand Lloyd Grossman levels of knowledge, skill or even his creepy drawling accent.
Done well, pasta can be a truly great solution to eating tastily and cheaply; as the saying goes, look after the pennes, and the pounds will look after themselves. (Corrrrr.)
Pea and bacon carbonara
500g pasta
1 egg
100ml crème fraiche
6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, roughly sliced
frozen peas
(optional but delicious) 2 handfuls of Parmesan cheese
Bring some water to the boil, add salt (Nigella demands that it be ‘as salty as the Mediterranean’) and the pasta. Put the bacon into a frying pan and fry until crispy and delicious. (Don’t eat it all now.) Meanwhile in a bowl mix eggs, crème fraiche, salt and pepper. Add peas (as many as you want, a few handfuls is fine) to another pan of boiling water or just add them in with the pasta. Cook for a couple of minutes. Drain the pasta and the peas and add to the pan with the bacon. Take the pan off the heat and (while the pasta is still hot) add the crème fraiche etc, stirring so it makes a sauce (add some water if its too thick). Mix in parmesan (normal cheese is ok, but not as good) and serve.
Anchovies, capers, olives, aubergines… it’s so good it doesn’t even really have a name
400g spaghetti
2 tbsp olive oil
1 aubergine, chopped into small cubes
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5 anchovy fillets
2 tbsp capers
1 tsp chopped chillis
handful of black olives (about 15)
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
Boil water in a large pan and add plenty of salt. Heat the oil in a pan and add the chopped aubergine. Once it has started to soften, add the garlic, chilli and anchovies (and some more oil if needed) and cook (stirring often) until the garlic is starting to turn brown and the anchovies have turned into a grey mush. Add olives and capers and cook them in the mixture for a few minutes. While they are cooking add spaghetti to the boiling water. Mix in tomatoes and oregano to the sauce, before turning the heat down and cooking for as long as it takes the pasta to cook. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix together. Serve with parmesan if you can, but its delicious without.
