Phillippa Spence - Posh Pasta over 70 recipes, from perfect pappardelle to tempting tortellini.

Publishing Director: Sarah Lavelle

Series Designer: Gemma Hayden

Designer: Alicia House

Food Stylist and Recipe Writer: Pip Spence

Photographer: Faith Mason

Props Stylist: Rachel Vere

Production Controller: Katie Jarvis

Head of Production: Stephen Lang

Published in 2020 by Quadrille, an imprint of Hardie Grant Publishing

Quadrille

5254 Southwark Street

London SE1 1UN

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders. The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Text, design and photography Quadrille 2020

eISBN: 978 1 78713 547 5

CONTENTS

Pasta in its many forms is one of the most satisfying things to eat in my opinion. Whatever shape or size, sauce or filling, it brings a warmth and a joy from the first forkful. I love pasta! Im not Italian (and some of the recipes in this book most definitely arent!), but I appreciate the versatility and function of pasta to be as humble or as posh as you want to make it.

Every base is covered in this book midweek meals that are heavy on the greens, hearty soups, comforting bakes and classic combinations with a twist. Hopefully something for everyone!

As I wrote these recipes, I called on hints and tips that Ive been lucky enough to gather from brilliant pasta chefs (some of them genuinely Italian) over the years.

Buy quality ingredients I dont mean the most expensive ingredients, but if youre making a pasta dish with only 6 ingredients, say, they may as well be the best you can find.

Canned whole plum tomatoes are preferable to chopped, as they generally contain riper, sweeter tomatoes and the can contains less water. Buy a piece of Parmesan instead of pre-grated itll last for ages wrapped in the fridge and the rind can be popped into sauces and soups for extra flavour.

Pasta shapes Different shapes of pasta work better with different sauces. Long noodles like linguine and spaghetti work so well coated in smooth or creamy sauces. Flatter, wider strands like pappardelle catch chunkier sauces such as rag. Tube-shaped pastas, like rigatoni and penne, also work well in creamier sauces. Tiny grain-shaped pastas suit soups and salads. But its all down to personal preference!

Gluten-free and egg-free pasta there are so many types of gluten-free pasta on the market these days made with lots of interesting alternatives to pasta flour. All of the recipes in this book can swap out regular pasta for your favourite gluten-free. Egg-free pasta is widely available and you can make your own at home by swapping out the egg for a mixture of water and olive oil.

. Its quite simple once you get going. Always dust the pasta in fine semolina as you go to stop it from sticking and drying out. Fresh pasta cooks in 24 minutes. You can serve it simply with just a little melted butter and a sprinkling of cracked black pepper.

If youre making noodles, you can dry them out to cook later. You can hang them on a clean clothes airer in a cool, dry room until dry (it usually takes 6 hoursovernight). Some pasta can also be dried in nests; place the nests on a cooling rack and make sure they are ventilated from all sides until totally dry. Store dried pasta in a clean airtight container for up to 3 months.

Salt the cooking water when you come to cook any pasta, make sure you salt the water well. You dont add salt to pasta dough, so if you dont salt the water, it wont taste of very much at all. You dont need to add cooking oil to the water and make sure you use a large pan to boil the pasta. It needs room to move and a good stir while cooking.

Use pasta water to loosen If youre cooking any hot pasta dish, please, please save a mugful of the starchy water just before you drain. When youre combining your sauce and pasta, a good splash of pasta water brings everything together, keeps the sauce silky and the pasta evenly coated.

Dont let the pasta dry out in the colander dont cook your pasta too early in the proceedings, as itll sit there drying out in the colander and just wont be as good as you had hoped. The pasta is often the last thing to cook in the recipe, so just make sure your big pan of salted water is boiling and ready to go!

How to present pasta noodles a simple and elegant way of presenting pasta like a pro is by using a pair of tongs and a ladle. Use the tongs to pick up a good nest-worth of noodles. Keeping the tongs of noodles in one hand, twist the noodles into the ladle and keep twisting until you have a neat nest. Carefully transfer over to a serving dish, remove the ladle slowly while using the tongs to place the noodles in the dish and youll have a lovely nest to coat in sauce and add your favourite topping.

What to do with scraps if youre making pasta and you have a few scraps leftover, you can turn them into a tasty snack like the one on . You can go savoury or sweet with a little drizzle of melted chocolate and a dusting of icing (confectioners') sugar.

The general rule of thumb for making pasta is 100g (3oz/ cup) tipo 00 flour (its super fine) and 1 egg per portion, but this depends on what youre using the pasta for. Filled pastas require less dough per portion than tagliatelle, for example. When kneading the dough it will sometimes feel a little dry, so add a little splash of water or olive oil. Its important to work and rest the dough well in the fridge; it needs time to develop the gluten.

	SERVES 46 (stuffed) or 810 (unstuffed)
	TAKES 1520 minutes, plus resting and rolling

400g (14oz/3 cups) tipo 00 pasta flour

4 large eggs

fine semolina, for dusting

olive oil, if needed

Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack in the eggs and, using a dinner knife, beat the eggs and gradually bring the flour into them. Keep mixing and forming lumps of dough, then use your hands to bring the mixture together into a ball.

Dust a clean work surface with a little semolina. Tip the dough on to the work surface and use your hands and knuckles to knead it until firm and springy; this may take 510 minutes. If its still a little dry, add a drop of olive oil or water.

Wrap in cling film (plastic wrap) and place in the fridge for at least an hour to rest before its ready to roll.

To roll out fresh pasta, ready for stuffing or shaping:

Set up your pasta machine with the rollers on the widest setting. Take the pasta dough from the fridge and cut off a quarter. Roll this through the machine, fold it into thirds and roll again. Do this a few times, then gradually work the pasta sheet through the machine down to the last 2 settings. If making stuffed pasta, it needs to be as thin as your pasta machine will allow. Sheets of dough for shaped pasta can be slightly thicker. If its not coming together well or youre not happy with the shape of the sheet, dont worry! Just fold the sheet up into thirds so that itll fit widthways through the machine, set the machine to the thickest setting and start again. Pasta needs to be worked well to develop gluten and improve elasticity (a bit like bread dough).