A Mass of Odds and Ends

The air in town is heavy with the scent of lime blossom but along the country roads I can smell rocket growing in the fields, which made me think of this recipe for tagliatelle with rocket and speck. Aldo tells me that speck is completely different from bacon, I used to think they were the same thing, so I can only hope that you can find something called speck wherever you are! Quantities for four people:

• 250gr speck cut into tiny tiny squares
• 200gr fresh rucola(rocket) washed and dried (very important this) then finely chopped
• half a fresh onion cut into fine slices
• 3Tbs olive oil
• half a glass of white wine

Soften the onion in the wine and oil, then add the speck. Put the tagliatelle on to cook, stirring the speck and onion occasionally, then drain the tagliatelle and retain a spoonful of the cooking water, add the speck and onion mix together with the rocket. Serve with shavings of parmesan.

This is one of my favourites, but as I write that I realise that I could honestly say that about just about every pasta recipe of Aldo’s. Let’s say it is my favourite for today, because we had it for lunch, and I had to be restrained from licking out the pot.

For this you need Italian sausage, the only type we get here, and I don’t know how easy they are to find elsewhere. An Italian sausage can be eaten raw, in fact it is delicious squashed onto bread, as the meat is already cured. Sedanini are short ridged tubes, smaller than the more commonly found penne, but any sort of short pasta, indeed any sort of long pasta, any pasta at all would be good with this sauce, it is so tasty. We use 100grams for normal adults and up to 250grams for growing teenage boys.

• Half a small onion chopped very fine
• 1 sausage
• 4 fresh mushrooms peeled and sliced finely (no cheating here, I never peeled a mushroom before I came to Italy but now…)
• 10grams of dried porchini, soaked for half an hour beforehand in tepid water (throw water away before using)
• 125gram cream (this is another Italian thing - as opposed to the limitless varieties of cream available in the UK we have only one kind, cooking cream)
• half a glass of white wine and of course olive oil, parsley for afterwards and parmigiano

Soften the onion in one spoonful of olive oil and the wine, until the wine has bubbled off. Then mash the sausage into the onion, cooking slowly. When the sausage meat is turning light brown add the sliced mushroom and the dried mushrooms and cook for approximately twenty minutes, whilst the pasta is cooking. Add the cream just before you drain the pasta, then sprinkle the parsley onto the dish before serving. Grated parmesan to taste.

Cima di rapa sounds more romantic in Italian, it means turnip tops.  They must be tender and young for this dish, these on the windowsill were picked in the morning from our vegetable garden. You could use broccoli, or even brussel sprouts, but perhaps the best alternative would be sprouting broccoli. The tiny flowers and the ends of the most tender leaves are cut off and the rest thrown away. Orecchiette means little ears, which I find confusing and often ask Aldo if we can have earrings with turnips for lunch.

Recipe for four

• Approx ,5kg of turnip tops or broccoli
• One clove of garlic sliced finely
• 1 anchovy fillet per person
• 2 chillies
• 2 spoons of olive oil per person
• handful of tiny tomatoes, sliced
• orecchiette pasta (we usually allow 100grams for normal people and up to 250grams for growing teenagers)

Boil turnip tops in salted water for about ten minutes. In another pan soften garlic in olive oil then add anchovies and chilli peppers.  Leave on lowest flame whilst you cook the pasta in the water with the turnip tops. Five minutes before the pasta is ready add the sliced tomatoes to the garlic and oil. When you have drained the pasta and turnip tops stir in the sauce and serve with grated pecorino cheese.