Padella is, quite frankly, a London institution.
Nearly a decade after opening, the restaurant still boasts long queues made up of anyone from the throng of tourists in Borough Market in London Bridge on a Saturday morning to locals craving a bowl of its iconic pipi cacio e pepe after a few post-work pints.
And for those who ever wanted to try and replicate Padella’s famous and reasonably priced cacio e pepe or beef shin ragu (both of which have been on the menu since the beginning), there’s now a very handsome book with 350 pages full of recipes and techniques instructing how to make the very best fresh pasta in your own kitchen.
Co-founder of Padella Tim Siadatan first learned how to cook beef shin ragu from Jamie Oliver when he was a student at Fifteen in Cornwall, and he played around with the recipe to create his own version, which he used when launching Trullo in north London in 2010. It has never come off the Trullo menu – not even in the summer when temperatures hit 30ºC – and similarly at Padella it has become a signature dish.
Despite being asked for the recipe countless times, he’s never shared it – until now. I can confirm there is no secret ingredient waiting on page 142, just proof that ragu is indeed a labour of love and an affair that Padella has managed to keep going for almost 10 years.
The restaurant is known for its short menu, so I was surprised – and delighted – to read from a book this hefty. There are recipes for tagliarini with crab, chilli, lemon and parsley; pici with duck, orange and cinnamon ragu; and agnolotti of calf’s brain with morel and rosemary butter.
But as with the very best pasta dishes, simplicity is key. Just take the recipe for spaghetti with smoked cod’s roe, the only extra ingredients for which are single cream, lemon juice, sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
The recipe for another cult favourite – and the favourite dish of fellow pasta lover Stanley Tucci – spaghetti alla nerano, again shows how much culinary joy can come from so few ingredients. This summer dish makes the most of courgettes, which are shallow-fried in batches until golden before being stirred through pasta with courgette pulp, basil leaves, butter, pasta water and provolone cheese.
The final pages detail how to make the best pasta dough, with clear instructions and step-by-step photographs of how to create a variety of pasta shapes.
This book clearly offers a great deal of inspiration to any pasta lover but, like the beef shin ragu, unique recipes or cheffy techniques aren’t in abundance, despite its size. That said, if you spent any time in the capital during the independent restaurant renaissance of the 2010s, it’s like having a slice of that incredibly delicious history on your bookshelf.
Padella: Iconic Pasta at Home by Tim Siadatan (Bloomsbury Publishing, £25). Photography by Sam A Harris. Make the stracci with pistachio, mint and basil pesto from the book
Dining and Cooking