A big bowl of pasta is a comfort food eaten only in winter — said no Italian ever. “Of course you can eat pasta in the summer. I am from Puglia and we eat pasta all year round,” says Gaetano Farucci, the head chef at Caractère in Notting Hill, the Italian restaurant founded by the chef Emily Roux and her husband, Diego Ferrari.
“When I was younger and I would go to the beach my mum would always prepare a bowl of pasta to take with me. You can eat it hot, but the dish my mum would make I prefer cold,” Farucci says.
Cold pasta may not sound appealing — until you have a hot, balmy evening, and a few fresh, ripe tomatoes, on your hands. The summer pasta Farucci’s mum would make would be pasta alla crudaiola, a southern Italian pasta dish made with fresh, raw tomatoes, basil, parmesan, lots of olive oil and, traditionally, orecchiette. “It’s the ultimate Italian pasta salad for summer,” he says. “You can eat it in the garden, at picnics or on the beach. You might think it’s crazy to eat pasta when it’s 40 degrees outside, but we’d do it.” Another summer classic is the delicious Venetian clam pasta, spaghetti alle vongole — one of the staple items at Big Mamma, the Sicilian-inspired restaurant empire.
Unsurprisingly, pasta never comes off the menu at Bancone, the upmarket London restaurant group that specialises in it. Next month it will open its third site, in Borough Market, southeast London. “We just tweak the ingredients [in summer]. It’s all about the accompaniments,” explains Ben Waugh, the executive chef.
If you’re going to make a chilled dish, you’ll want to know which shapes to use. Long, thick pastas are out — “they stick together”. Shorter, smaller shapes are best. “Fregola, which look like mini pasta balls; orzo, the ones that look like large risotto rice grains, or orecchiette are good,” he says.
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Still not sold on the cold pasta idea? Keep things light, Waugh says. “In summer we use a lot more olive oil over butter, and instead of roots and meats I’ll be using green vegetables: peas, beans, broccoli.”
Surely serving a steaming bowl of ravioli when it’s boiling outside is a dinner party no-no? Not necessarily, Waugh says. “I would always do a vegetarian filling, rather than a meat one.” He has added to the menu at Bancone a light dish of ravioli filled with pea and ricotta. It’s up to you whether you take it to the beach.
Bancone’s summer fregola salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp Dijon mustard
10ml apple cider vinegar
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
300g fregola
2 pork tenderloin
150g ricotta
½ radicchio
Small bunch of basil
½ bunch of radishes
½ jar of roasted red peppers, chopped
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas 6. Make the lemon dressing, mixing together the lemon juice, mustard and vinegar with a pinch of salt. Whisk and slowly add the olive oil. Set aside.
2 Add the fregola to a pan of boiling water. Simmer for 8-10 min until the pasta is tender. Drain thoroughly, then add to a bowl. Toss in the lemon dressing, making sure everything is covered.
3 Season the pork with salt. In a hot non-stick frying pan add a splash of oil and fry the pork on all sides, creating a rich golden colour. Place the pork on a roasting tray and cook in the oven for 8-10 min. Once cooked, leave to rest for 10 min.
4 Put the ricotta and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl, season with salt, and whisk until smooth and light.
5 Thinly slice the radicchio, basil and radishes. Add the ricotta, red peppers and fregola and mix well. Divide into four bowls. Slice the pork into 1cm strips and arrange on top.
bancone.co.uk
Gaetano Farucci’s pasta alla crudaiola
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
250g fresh cherry tomatoes
1 garlic clove, crushed
Fresh basil leaves, torn
50g ricotta
200g orecchiette
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
1 A few hours before serving, mix together the tomatoes, garlic, basil and half the ricotta with salt and black pepper to taste and about 80ml of olive oil. Stir well and leave so the flavours meld.
2 Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta al dente.
3 Strain the pasta and stir together with the tomato mix. Add the rest of the ricotta and more olive oil and, just before serving, more fresh basil.
Stevie Parle’s courgette conchiglie
Serves 4
Ingredients
80ml extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
800g courgettes, roughly chopped into 2cm chunks
500g conchiglie
2 big handfuls of basil, roughly chopped
2 big handfuls of mint leaves, roughly chopped
80g parmesan, grated
80g provolone cheese
Method
1 Place your widest pan with a lid over a medium heat and add the oil and the garlic. Once the garlic begins to sizzle, add the chopped courgettes. Season and stir well so the courgettes are coated in oil. Continue to fry, stirring, for 8-10 min until the courgettes begin to take on some colour. Turn the heat to low and place the lid on top.
2 Leave to simmer for 10-12 min, or until the courgettes are soft. Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a big splash of the cooking water.
3 Transfer the pasta to the courgette pan, and stir in the herbs, parmesan and pasta water to loosen the sauce. Stir well until the pasta is nicely coated. Transfer to plates, grate over the provolone and serve.
pastaio.co.uk
Big Mamma’s pasta alle vongole
Serves 4
Ingredients
700g clams
Coarse (kosher) salt
4 artichoke hearts
50g rice flour
1 litre sunflower oil
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
600g linguine or spaghetti
¼ bunch of parsley, finely chopped
75g mullet bottarga (optional)
Method
1 Clean the clams by putting them into a large bowl of cold water with the coarse (kosher) salt for 1 hour. Tap each clam against a work surface and discard any that you find still contain sand.
2 Wash the artichoke hearts, then cut them vertically into thin slices. Put the rice flour into a dish, then dip the artichoke slices in it. Heat the sunflower oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy-based pan to 160C, or until small bubbles rise to the surface.
3 Fry the artichokes for 3 min. Drain on paper towels, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
4 In a frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the garlic clove and clams. Cook over a medium heat for 1-2 min until the clams are all open. Remove from the pan and set aside. Discard any unopened clams. Reserve the cooking juices in the pan.
5 Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta. Using pasta tongs, remove the pasta from the pan 2 min before the end of the cooking time indicated on the packet and transfer to the frying pan with the clam cooking juices. Add a ladle of the pasta cooking water and mix the sauce with the pasta.
6 Return the clams to the frying pan. Transfer the pasta with the clams to a serving dish and sprinkle with the parsley. Grate the bottarga (if using) very finely on top, then add the fried artichokes. Serve immediately.
Gnocchi della nonna
Serves 4
Ingredients
240g Maris Piper potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
500g spinach
80g grated parmesan cheese, plus extra to garnish
170g dried breadcrumbs
2 eggs
160ml whole milk
60g plain flour
10 hazelnuts, halved, to garnish
For the sauce
250g butter, diced
Leaves of 1 bunch of sage, plus a few extra to garnish
Method
1 Put the potatoes into a large pan of cold water, bring to a boil, then cook over a high heat for 40 min. Set aside.
2 In a frying pan, heat the olive oil over a high heat and cook the spinach for 10 min. Transfer the spinach to a colander and squeeze to extract as much water as possible. Put on a chopping board, and finely chop until you have a paste.
3 Peel the potatoes, transfer them to a mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher. Add the chopped spinach, grated parmesan, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk and flour, and mix well. On a floured work surface, roll the dough into balls of about 4cm in diameter. Flour your hands, then shape the dough into perfectly round gnocchi.
4 Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the gnocchi for about 3 min — they will rise to the surface when cooked. You’ll need the cooking water.
5 Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat the butter in a frying pan over a high heat until you have a beurre noisette (brown butter), then add the sage leaves. Immediately pour a ladle of the gnocchi cooking water into the pan to prevent the butter from burning.
6 Drain the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and add to the frying pan. Mix the sauce with the gnocchi for 2-3 min. Transfer the gnocchi to serving dishes. Sprinkle with grated parmesan, hazelnuts and sage leaves.
Big Mamma Cucina Popolare (Phaidon £29.95). Buy from timesbookshop.co.uk or call 020 3176 2935. Discount for Times+ members