For reliability and consistency it’s hard to go past Barilla pasta, Italy’s #1 selling pasta. After all those Italians know a thing or two about pasta.
Bottarga & Lemon Pappardelle I love pasta! I also love lemon and bottarga, so I created this simple recipe combining all three. It’s inspired by my friend and co-author, Giovanni Pilu who introduced me to the joys of bottarga along with many other Sardinian ingredients (you can order his Aussie-made bottarga online and scroll to […]
This is the best way I’ve found to cook leftover pasta that has a relatively dry sauce, such as orecchiette with broccoli, spaghetti aglio e olio, and pesto tagliatelle. The photo here was made with leftover Orecchiette with Salsiccia & Mushrooms, one of the dishes from the Month of Traditional Italian Inspired by Lucio Galletto, […]
I’m not sure why I hadn’t made this classic pasta sauce before … I love tomato, cheese and all things quick and easy. Perhaps it’s because guanciale (cured pork cheek) can be tricky to find … so when I discovered Salumi Australia’s guanciale in my local Harris Farm, I had no excuse. Amatrice, for which […]
‘Nduja Strozzapreti This very versatile recipe is built around Calabria’s fiery, spreadable salami called ‘nduja; available from most delis, my favourite version is from Salumi Australia. I’ve made this dish without the chicory (just eggs) and without the eggs (just chicory), but I like it best with both. The name chicory is sometimes used for […]
Tagliatelle Bolognese Slow-cooked meat sauces, called ragùs, are made all over Italy, though the best known comes from Bologna in Emilia-Romagna and is the ancestor of Australia’s beloved ‘spag bol’. Not that it would ever be served with dried spaghetti in Emilia-Romagna where fresh egg pasta, like tagliatelle and fettuccine, is more typical. There are […]
Carbonara sauce traditionally contains guanciale (cured pork cheek), but I had a delicious vegetarian version with zucchini at Fratelli Paradiso in Potts Point, and couldn’t resist trying to recreate it at home. You need female zucchini flowers for this recipe, they’re the ones with the baby zucchini attached to them. It’s important to use authentic […]
This simple Roman sauce is made creamy by the combination of egg yolks and hard cheese – it doesn’t contain cream, despite the profusion of recipes using it. The origin of the name is a bit more of a mystery … ‘carbone’ is Italian for coal, and it’s been suggested that this was a favourite […]
Cacio e pepe, cheese and pepper. One of the simplest pasta sauces, this Roman classic can also be one of the trickiest to get just right. The idea is to emulsify the cheese with the starchy pasta cooking water to create a creamy sauce. A few things ensure success: quality Ingredients, ratios, temperature and vigorous […]
I love mushrooms. ‘Meat for vegetarians’ one advertising campaign called them, and I’d suggest that this super quick pasta dish is so tasty that even die-hard carnivores won’t miss the meat. In autumn, when wild mushrooms appear in farmers’ markets and good greengrocers, use gorgeous orange pine mushrooms or meaty slippery jacks instead of the Swiss […]
I love this vegetarian twist on a classic lasagne – full of spring greens. It’s a bit messy to make, but delicious to eat; the ricotta mixture is much thicker than the béchamel sauce used in a traditional lasagne, so don’t worry that it doesn’t form a perfectly smooth layer … it all evens out […]
