4 Great Pasta Dishes To Make At Home
The easiest pasta shape to make is tagliatelle or tagliarini. If you’re using a pasta machine, it usually comes with those cutting attachments. If you don’t have one, malloreddus – sometimes called gnocchi sardi – is a great shape to start with. All you need is a ridged board or a sushi mat to roll out small pieces of dough. You can find tutorials on my website here. Pici is another shape you can easily make by hand.
For date night, I always make spaghetti al pesto. I tend to think simple is best. It’s flavourful, a bit messy to eat, and nobody’s too careful with their table manners. I make mine with fragrant basil, sunflower seeds, good olive oil and lemon. Grate over parmesan from a craggy chunk of cheese, pour a nice glass of red wine, and supper is sorted.
I always have fresh garlic and good olive oil at home. In my cupboards you’ll find jars of beans and chickpeas, a tin or two of anchovies, dried chilli flakes and Maldon salt. In the fridge: capers, fresh rocket, celery and carrots ready to make a sofrito with onions and garlic. I also keep fresh herbs on the windowsill and have a bowl of lemons ready to go. I love the vibrant flavour of the zest and the juice. They really change the flavour of a dish and give it a subtle lift.
I love a slow-cooked tomato sauce with burrata. It’s one I always come back to, served with greens on the side. Start by gently frying 5 sliced garlic cloves in 3 tablespoons of olive oil until fragrant, then add 400g of good-quality tinned tomatoes and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and crushing them gently. Season, add two more tablespoons of olive oil, and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, boil salted water and cook 400g of egg tagliarini for 1½-2 minutes. Transfer the pasta to the sauce with a ladleful of cooking water and toss well. Stir in a handful of basil leaves, adjust the seasoning, and loosen the sauce with more pasta water if needed. Serve onto four plates, top each with half a burrata, drizzle with olive oil, and finish with grated parmesan.
Pasta looks great served on big platters. Place it in the centre of the table so people can help themselves – I really like it when everyone feels relaxed around my table. For a dinner party, I’d probably make spaghetti with squid, chilli and garlic, or ravioli filled with goat’s cheese and potato, served in a pesto sauce. Both recipes are in my new book.
I love dried pasta just as much as fresh. I tend to use lighter, creamy sauces for fresh pasta, and slow-cooked sauces like ragu or vongole for dried. It’s all about personal preference.
The biggest mistake I see is people cooking pasta for too long. Remember, it’ll keep cooking when it’s combined with the sauce. Nobody likes soggy pasta, so turn off the heat a minute or two before you think it’s ready.
I like to think more people are cooking pasta at home now. It probably started in lockdown, along with sourdough. It’s fun to make pasta with kids, but also soothing to do on your own when you have time. The visuals on social media have inspired people to give it a go – it’s not that hard to make fresh pasta at home.
My new book Pasta Pronto does what it says on the tin. It’s all about making delicious food without loads of time or effort. Each of the 55 recipes includes fresh and dried pasta options, plus simple ingredients you can pick up on the way home from work. You can make everything from the dough to the sauce with little effort and have a meal on the table pronto. One of my favourite dishes is the crab ravioli. That said, the spaghetti with creamy ricotta and basil is a crowd-pleaser too…
Ready to get in the kitchen? Here, Mateo shares four recipes from his new book…
Spaghetti with Prawns, Chilli and Garlic
You can use either fresh or frozen prawns in this dish – if you’re using frozen, defrost them in the fridge overnight or else remember to place them in the fridge in the morning before work. I’m trusting that you have a bottle of wine open and can use a splash in the sauce. If not, it’s a good excuse to open a bottle and pour yourself a glass while you cook.
Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, then add the garlic and chilli and fry for 2 minutes until fragrant and just beginning to colour. Add the prawns, stir well and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Now add the wine and reduce for 2-3 minutes. Finally, add the lemon zest and juice along with the chopped spinach, then cover with a lid for a minute or two. Take off the heat while you cook the pasta.
Follow the packet instructions to cook the dried pasta.
Drain the spaghetti, reserving a ladleful of the cooking water. Transfer the pasta to the sauce and toss together, adding some of the pasta cooking water if you need to loosen the sauce a little. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve straight away.
Rigatoni with ‘No-Vodka Sauce’
My friend Luigi runs a pasta factory in Brooklyn called La Trafila, where he makes several tonnes of pasta every week to sell at farmers’ markets around New York. It’s always nice to spend some time with him, mostly talking about pasta – flour types, machinery, popular shapes – we’re both obsessed. He made me this quick vodka sauce for supper one evening, only leaving out the vodka, and I really enjoyed it. This is the version I make at home.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic and fry for a minute before adding the tomato purée and chilli flakes. Stir together and fry for 5-7 minutes until the tomato purée mixture darkens; it will start catching on the bottom of the pan, but that’s what you want to capture all the flavour. Reduce the heat to low, pour in the cream and mix well – I like to use a balloon whisk. Scatter over the basil leaves, mix again and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Leave to one side while you cook the pasta.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil before adding salt, then add the rigatoni and cook until al dente, following the instructions on the packet.
Drain the pasta, reserving a ladleful of the starchy cooking water, then add the pasta to the sauce. Toss or swirl together until the pasta is well coated in the sauce, adding some of the cooking water if you think it needs loosening a little.
Check the seasoning before serving with a generous topping of Parmesan or pecorino.
Ravioli with Crab, Mascarpone, Chilli & Lemon
This is a recipe to save for a special occasion. Crab is quite a delicate meat, so it shouldn’t be overpowered with strong flavours. Combined with mascarpone, this makes a light, lemony filling with a hint of chilli – a delicious summer supper. Serve with a fresh green salad and a glass of crisp white wine.
Follow the instructions for making the Rich Egg Dough (RECIPE TO COME) and place in the fridge to rest.
Pick over the crab meat with your fingers to make sure any tiny pieces of shell are removed. Transfer to a medium bowl along with the rest of the filling ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon to combine. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then leave the bowl in the fridge until ready to use.
Now roll, fill and shape your ravioli.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil before adding salt, then carefully add the ravioli and cook for 1½-2 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the sauce. Place the butter and water in a large saucepan, and set it on a medium heat. As the butter melts, mix it with the water to create a light sauce, then stir in the lemon juice.
Transfer the ravioli to the sauce using a slotted spoon, moving them gently around the pan to make sure they are all well covered. Scatter over the chopped parsley, season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, swirl one more time and serve straight away.
Spaghetti Bake
I came home late one evening to the smell of sweet onions and cheese. My partner had made a pasta bake from a retro Rose Elliot cookbook – wholemeal pasta with cheddar and canned tomatoes. I may have raised an eyebrow, but it tasted incredible. This is my version, with garlic, mozzarella and herbs, slow cooked in a low oven for a couple of hours. Minimal prep, maximum comfort.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onions and garlic, and cook for 10 minutes until soft, stirring from time to time. Add a generous pinch of salt, a few twists of black pepper and the oregano, stir together and cook for a further minute. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, tip the tomatoes into a bowl, add the mint, mozzarella cubes and salt, and combine well.
Preheat the oven to 130°C fan/300°F/gas mark 2.
Spread the onions evenly across the bottom of a baking dish (mine is around 28 x 23 x 6cm). Break the strands of spaghetti in half (trust me on this) and spread them over the top of the onions – it will look like you’re about to play pick-up sticks – then pour the tomato sauce over the top. Poke any stray pasta strands under the sauce (or they won’t cook properly) and scatter over the grated cheddar.
Cover the dish with kitchen foil and bake in the oven for 2 hours. When the time is up, remove the bake from the oven and let it stand for 5 minutes. Remove the foil and serve.
Pasta Pronto by Mateo Zielonka (Quadrille, £18) is available to buy now.
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