We love a pasta dish with just a few ingredients and this one is light and fresh and conveniently uses tinned tomatoes.
Wine Suggestion: Despite the cream which may suggest an oaked white, this actually works best with an unoaked, textural white instead. Something like the brilliant Dissidents Cassandre, a Vermentino from Maison Ventenac in Carbades which both lifts and expands the flavours, plus the fresh nuttiness cuts through the light cream.
Rigatoni with tomato, cream and pesto – serves 4
200ml double cream
300g tinned tomatoes, drained weight
2 tbsp pesto
350g rigatoni
40g Parmesan
Pour the cream into a saucepan, add the drained tomatoes and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the pesto.
Meanwhile, cook the rigatoni in lots of salty water until al dente, then drain and tip it into a warm serving bowl. Sprinkle the pasta with the Parmesan, then spoon over the sauce and serve.
(Original recipe from The Silver Spoon Pasta, Phaidon, 2009.)
Jules’ parents often give us yellow peppers as they prefer green ones, and for some reason they can only buy peppers locally (NI) in multi-coloured packs of three. Perhaps another Brexit effect. No matter as we’ve found the perfect use for them in this simple pasta sauce by Joe Trivelli. We didn’t have enough rigatoni so added some penne that got stuck in all the rigatoni tubes. We had good fun sucking them out.
Wine Suggestion: This is excellent with oaked Sauvignon Blanc, especially white Bordeaux, where the oak mellows out the grassy characteristics and adds a creamy, buttery layer with extra citrus fruits. We recognise these are harder to find and higher in price, so more affordably we successfully opened an Umani Ronchi Ca’Sal di Serra Verdicchio which carries over the cut grass and citrus characters and adds an almondy twist.
Rigatoni with yellow peppers – serves 4
1 large yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
½ dried chilli or a pinch of chilli flakes
40ml double cream
400g rigatoni – Joe sugests whole-wheat but we had the regular stuff so just used that
a handful of basil leaves
salted ricotta if you have some – we used Parmesan which works too
Put a medium frying pan over a medium heat and add 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the pepper for 3 minutes, then add the garlic with a pinch of salt. Crumble in the chilli, cover and cook over a low heat, stirring now and then. You want the pepper to soften completely which could take around 30 minutes so be patient.
Add the cream and bring to the boil, then simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning, then purée the sauce in a food processer and return to the pan.
Cook the pasta in lots of salty water until al dente. Scoop out a mugful of the pasta cooking water before draining, then add the pasta to the pepper mixture. Toss the pasta and sauce over a low heat, adding the basil leaves and some pasta water if needed to make the sauce creamy.
Serve on warm plates with some grated cheese.
(Original recipe from The Modern Italian Cook by Joe Trivelli, Seven Dials, 2018.)
There is a rosemary bush in our front garden and it often comes to the rescue when we have pretty much nothing for dinner. Provided you have a rosemary bush at your disposal this is pretty much a store cupboard dish and also handy for using the end of a jar of cream. This is surprisingly tasty and a great throw together weeknight dish.
Wine Suggestion: this dish suits a rustic red wine with a bit of “garrigue”, the southern French earthy, herby, spice that is a bit wild and untamed. This time we opened a wine that has this in spades, the Mas Conscience “le Cas” which is 100% old vine Carignan, which is all black fruits hints of hot rocks and earth, and wild Languedoc spices. Not shy in character but a good match nonetheless.
Rigatoni with Tomato & Rosemary Sauce – serves 4
4 sprigs of rosemary, leaves finely chopped and stalks discarded
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
a pinch of chilli flakes
400g rigatoni or penne
100ml double cream
1 tsp sugar
Fry the chopped rosemary in a tablespoon of olive oil for about a minute. Stir in the tinned tomatoes and the chilli flakes, then simmer hard for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in lots of salted boiling water according to the time indicated on the pack.
Stir the double cream into the sauce along with the sugar and plenty of seasoning, then mix in the drained pasta and serve.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food Magazine, February 2011.)
The technique used to cook the meat is quite clever as the amount of beef is small and is only quickly, flash fried which keeps the juiciness, adds the caramelisation flavours and gives great depth to the whole dish. It’s an expensive cut but the quantity required is so small that it won’t break the bank. It’s hard to believe a dish with so much flavour takes such a short time to prepare.
Wine Suggestion: we drank one of our favourite Tuscan wines: the Selvapiana Chianti Rufina which is refined and elegant and complements the beef fillet and provides a foil to the rustic black pepper background in this dish.
Rigatoni, tomato, beef and red wine – serves 4
320g rigatoni
200g beef fillet
4 garlic cloves, sliced
50g Parmesan, grated
100g unsalted butter
600g top quality tinned tomatoes
350ml Chianti wine
1tbsp ground black pepper
3tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Trim the beef fillet and cut across into 5mm slices. Cut the slices into 1cm strips.
Heat the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, add the garlic and fry gently until brown. Add the tomatoes and season. Cook over a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring to break up the tomatoes, then add half the red wine. Continue to cook on quite a high heat, adding more wine as the sauce reduces. Cook for 15 minutes in total, using up all the wine, then stir in the pepper.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan until very hot. Add the beef pieces and fry very briefly, just to brown each piece on both sides. Stir the beef into the sauce with any juices from the pan.
Cook the rigatoni in boiling salted until al dente. Drain and add to the sauce.
Serve with the Parmesan.
(Original recipe from Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, Random House, 2006.)
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