I don’t know a single child who doesn’t love a bowl of warm, buttered pasta—a dish that’s simple, satisfying, recognizable, safe, and comforting. This is my grown-up version, full of lusty garlic and anchovies in a butter sauce built on a white wine reduction. It’s the dinner I make when there’s “nothing to eat” in the house or when I just need my dinner to feel like a hug. For the best buttery sauce, be sure to add your butter and hot pasta cooking water bit by bit to help form the emulsion, like the process used when making beurre blanc.
If you like alla vodka, you’ll love alla mezcal. In the classic vodka version, the ethanol in the alcohol is used as an emulsifier in the sauce but doesn’t really add any flavor. Since more flavor is more better, I decided to try swapping out my favorite adult beverage, and the result was a smoky take on the Italian American classic.
This creamy marinara sauce is great tossed with any dried pasta for a quick and easy weeknight dinner that will leave you thinking, “Why didn’t anyone try this sooner?”
This is inspired by a Roman recipe called pasta e piselli. As is the case with so many Italian dishes, it is deceptively simple but packed full of flavour and is sure to please diners of all ages. Brodo – Italian for broth – is often made with meat stock, so do use a chicken stock here, unless you’re serving to vegetarians. This is a recipe that will welcome a spare Parmesan rind: it will impart so much flavour. Just add it to the liquid as it cooks and discard before serving.
This is one of those dishes I make at home a lot because it relies mainly on store-cupboard ingredients and uses an ingredient that I always keep in the freezer for emergencies: frozen raw peeled prawns. It really takes no time at all to throw together and works especially well with orzo, but you can use any pasta you like.
A dish I was tasked with making when I was working in my first restaurant job at The Dorchester Hotel. Needless to say, the skill of making gnocchi has stayed with me and they often feature on the menus I write. The key is to not overwork the potatoes when mashing: you need it to be dry and floury to give you the best chance of success. Don’t be disheartened even if you fail: there is a lesson in that.
Don’t burn the sage: burn the butter, add the sage and the aromas will create a wonderful sense of calm in your home.
Seafood can be intimidating, so straightforward and simple is the name of the game, and each and every seafood recipe I have to offer you is back- to-basics. The thing about fish is that it cooks more quickly than other proteins, which means it’s prone to being overcooked, so it’s best to keep a close eye on it. Good thing eating fish is good for eye health. Puttanesca is a fairly simple Italian sauce made with anchovies, olives, capers, and a chunky tomato base. It’s bright and briny, and comes together as quickly as the fish cooks within it, resulting in a beautifully pungent dish that’s shore to make a splash. (SOMEBODY STOP ME, PLEASE.)
If you ask me what my last supper would include, this dish would absolutely make the list. It features a combination of some of my favorite ingredients: lemon, Parmesan, garlic, and butter. I’ve been making this dish for weeknight dinners for over 20 years, especially on Mondays as it’s a good way to use up any sesame bagels or baguettes left over from the weekend.
This recipe is essentially buttered noodles for adults (even though buttered noodles are also for adults but . . . you get what I mean). And if I’m going to flex how easy they are, they’re the same commitment as Kraft macaroni and cheese, give or take a noodle. Since tahini occasionally stiffens up if it sits too long, you’ll need to include a generous scoop (or two) of pasta water to keep things smooth and saucy. And while it’s always tempting to skip a garnish, a few sprigs of mint beautifully break up the richness of the nutty sauce
These are Brussels sprouts but with a difference. First, they are finely shredded and sautéed in plenty of butter flavoured with nutmeg and sage, then they are combined with orecchiette, double (heavy) cream and plenty of Parmesan.
Bold, fiery, thick, and creamy, this pasta—great served hot or cold—offers a taste of the beauty of cultural syncretism. In Jamaican immigrant communities from New York to London, Rasta Pasta is a treasured tradition, favored for the way two seemingly disparate worlds—Italy and Jamaica—come together in one bright and unfussy pot. It’s so beloved in Jamaica that the esteemed Evita’s Italian Restaurant devoted an entire menu to the dish’s many variants, including a signature the restaurant dubs Reggae-toni. This version turns the typically dairy-heavy dish plant-based with the use of coconut milk, itself a Caribbean staple, keeping Rasta Pasta firmly in touch with its roots.