For anyone that has known me for even a small amount of time, they will know that carbonara is my death row dish. Salty, creamy, cheesy, carby goodness. You could say I am fanatic about carbonara. Which is why I have been heavily testing this recipe for the better part of 12 months.

There are some incredibly strong opinions on carbonara: ingredients, how to make it, the type of pasta etc etc. I could go on but honestly the longer I spend writing this the longer it will take for me to publish the actual recipe so I will cut it short and just note that you only need four - yes, four - ingredients to make a proper carbonara and no, none of them are cream.

Guanciale, eggs, Pecorino Romano, black pepper.

The key to creaminess is utilising the magic that is pasta water. Trust the process and trust your judgement. Although there are only a few ingredients, this is a somewhat technical dish, but an easy one once you’ve tried it.

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Spaghetti Carbonara

Serves 2, generously

If you’ve not tackled a carbonara before, I recommend you read through the recipe thoroughly and the cook‘s notes before starting.

Ingredients

• 300g pasta - spaghettoni is often the pasta of choice for carbonara, but spaghetti, bucatini or rigatoni will suffice

• 100g guanciale

• 2 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks

• 150g Pecorino Romano - very finely grated

• Lots of ground black pepper - quantities will be divulged in the method notes

Method

1. Cut the hard skin off the guanciale, slice it lengthways into 1cm strips and then cut into 1 cm pieces.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for your pasta.

3. In a separate pan start to fry off the guanciale on a gentle heat - no need to add any oil as its fat will melt.

4. Meanwhile in a bowl add your eggs (whole and yolks) and beat well. Stir through the grated pecorino and a really decent amount of freshly cracked black pepper (about 1 heaped tbsp). Set aside. 

5. When the guanciale is nice and crisp, turn off the heat and using a slotted spoon remove the guanciale from the pan and onto a plate - reserve the fat in the pan, and add another good crack of black pepper (1/2 tbsp).

6. Add the pasta to your boiling water and cook for approx a minute under packet instructions (just before it’s al dente).

7. Add the pasta directly to the pan with the guanciale fat (reserving the pasta water) and add a half ladle (roughly 45ml) of the water with it. Turn the heat back on the lowest flame, and allow the pasta to continue to gently cook, giving it a toss in the guanciale fat and pepper.

   THIS IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING! You will need to move relatively quickly.

8. Add a ladle (roughly 90ml) of the pasta water to the egg mixture and stir well until the pecorino and egg mix is nice and smooth and quite liquid, like pouring cream.

9. Take the pan with the pasta/guanciale off the heat, pour in the egg mix and stir, toss and mix continuously until it starts to thicken, similar to a béchamel sauce. If you feel it’s still a little too liquid after a minute or so, put the heat back on the lowest possible flame and keep stirring/moving constantly until you’ve worked the egg mixture into a beautiful crema. It’s important to keep the sauce moving constantly.

10. Stir through the reserved guanciale before serving.

11. Serve immediately!! With extra black pepper and a dusting of pecorino. 

Notes and troubleshooting

• Guanciale is a cured meat made from pork jowl/cheeks. If you can’t get hold of any, substitute it for pancetta. However if you can find it at a local deli, it’s worth it.

• Finely grating the cheese helps it melt deliciously smoothly with the eggs and avoids any stringy, melted cheese bits in your sauce. I used the finest, powder grade on a box grater.

• Adding pasta water to the eggs before adding to the pan will essentially do the job of tempering and help you avoid a scrambled egg situation. I find this step is essential in carbonara making territory. Think of it as preparing your eggs for the heat of the pan, so they’re not “shocked” when added - effectively this helps stabilise them.

• Carbonara is similar to an emulsion, where we’re combining water with fat and agitating it to form a stable sauce. And while there are a few different methods for bringing a carbonara sauce together, this is the most forgiving in my humble opinion. I prefer to add a bit more water to the eggs to create a loose cream-like consistency, before adding to the pasta, then coaxing it into a luscious crema. You can always thicken a sauce, but you can’t fix a scrambled one. This process is similar to thickening a custard or béchamel sauce, just to give you a visual.

• Make sure you keep extra pasta water on hand to lend itself to the sauce as needed, if you find it’s too thick and need to loosen it.

• Carbonara is best served immediately as the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. If you are planning to serve this family style, I recommend taking it off the heat while it’s still just a touch too thin, so you don’t have a coagulated sauce when serving at the table.

Everyone has that one recipe that they go back to time and time again, and for me it's pesto. Perhaps it's the ease in throwing it together, or the fact that its traditional use is with my favourite carb, but there is something about its herby, garlicky notes that keep it firmly on my go-to recipe list. 

What I love about pesto is its versatility. Every green herb or leaf that I throw at it seems to work in its own right, with unfamiliar flavour profiles lending themselves to different parts of the palate, adding an element of discovery each time I try a new combination. This particular pesto is made using chives as well as basil, resulting in luxuriously garlicky undertones while keeping it classic. Use it on pasta like I've done here, or dot it onto ricotta on toast - it is all good.  

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CHIVE + BASIL PESTO

Makes 200g 

Ingredients

30g fresh chives

20g fresh basil leaves, stalks discarded

3 tablespoons pine nuts

1 garlic clove, minced

6 tablespoons mild/light olive oil

30g parmigiano reggiano, finely grated

Method

1. In a food processor, add the herbs, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper and blend.

2. Scrape the pesto mixture into a bowl and by hand stir in the grated parmesan. Add an extra glug of olive oil for good measure.  

3. Cook your pasta of choice until al dente (allow 150g per person), reserving a little of the cooking water before draining. Add 1 heaped tablespoon of pesto per person, along with a splash of the reserved water.

4. Serve immediately. 

Updated 17 Oct 2021

I’ve been making a mental list of things that I want to start doing when I move out into my own home. On this list there are projects and purchases, little gestures that I truly believe will make my life that bit more beautiful. I imagine becoming less reliant on supermarkets for our fruit and vegetables, instead taking the time each week to visit the local farmer’s market, butcher and fish monger. I see myself hand-selecting flowers and having an array of pretty vases to showcase them in. I picture making my own nut butters, almond milk and ice cream. There are other small things that I’d like to have too, like fresh orange juice daily, artisan bread (made by myself if I’m feeling particularly adventurous), interesting magazines and beautiful books for the coffee table and of course, pasta Sundays.

The latter is highest up on that list and probably the most likely to happen, no matter how much I fancy myself as a cross between Heidi Swanson and Rachel Ball.

I’m sure that traditionally pasta on a Sunday should be had with a slow-cooked meat sauce like ragù, but being a pasta fiend and predominately herbivorous a simple pesto is my go-to sauce for any celebration of carbohydrates. The kale adds an element of richness (and health benefit), but I couldn’t give up the basil altogether, however you can easily sub the basil and go all kale if that’s how you like to roll.

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Linguine with Kale Pesto

Makes roughly 300g pesto, serves 2

Ingredients

60g kale leaves, stems discarded

40g fresh basil leaves

1 clove of garlic

8 tablespoons mild/light olive oil

3 tablespoons pine nuts

2 tablespoons walnut halves

40g parmigiano reggiano, finely grated

30g pecorino romano, finely grated

250g linguine

Method

1. To make the pesto, in a food processor add the kale and basil leaves, garlic, walnuts, pine nuts, olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper and blend.

2. Stir in the grated cheese by hand. Add an extra glug of olive oil for good measure.

3. Cook the linguine according to packet instructions. When ready, drain and reserve a 1/4 cup of the pasta’s cooking water. Add 2 heaped tablespoons of the kale pesto to the hot pasta and add enough of the reserved water to loosen the sauce. Serve immediately.

Store the pesto in an airtight container covered with a little olive oil in the fridge. Keeps for a couple of weeks.

A couple of weekends ago I was in Impruneta in provincial Florence. It was like everything you’d expect from a small Tuscan town; winding countryside roads, rolling hills, incredible regional produce and beautiful views in every direction. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I seriously considered moving there approximately 4 times in a 36 hour period.

I was there for a wedding. A proper Italian, Tuscan wedding – or matrimonio toscano, if you will. Not that I’m massively into it but you know, basically the dream.

The ceremony was short and tasteful. The views were undeniably beautiful. The company was unbeatable, and the food? Incredible. I’m talking salty cured meats, the freshest tomatoes, the most creamy and delicious burrata I have ever encountered, zucchini flowers, pork cheek, fresh pasta – the list goes on. I left beaming and well-fed, and perhaps a little tipsy. Ya know.

After I got back to London it got me thinking about my favourite appetisers and entertaining dishes and it occurred to me there was something that could be in the running for the ultimate ‘occasion’ nibble: crostini.

Crostini consist of toasted slices of ciabatta, drizzled with great quality olive oil and topped with pretty much whatever you fancy. Keeping true to its Italian origin you could go for a simple mushroom or tomato and basil topping, but I love to get more creative with flavours and textures.

Longing for the burrata I ate in Impruneta and not having it to hand I topped toasted fresh ciabatta with ricotta, before laying to bed wafer thin slices of Parma ham and shaved asparagus on top, finishing with a simple leaf or two of fresh basil. Uh-oh kinda heaven.

Crostini certainly get my vote. What are your go-to dinner party dishes?

Happy Friday (and 4th July for all y’all American readers)!

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Ricotta, Asparagus + Parma Ham Crostini

Makes 8 crostini

Ingredients

1 loaf of ciabatta, cut into inch thick slices

Olive oil

1 garlic clove

4-5 slices of Parma ham

4 small or 2 large asparagus

250g ricotta cheese

Fresh basil

Method

1. Toast the ciabatta slices. Rub the garlic clove over one side of each crostino slice.
2. Season the ricotta with a little salt and pepper and dollop onto each crostino. Next top with a sliver of Parma ham.
3. Cut the asparagus into ribbons using a vegetable peeler and blanche in boiled water for around 1 minute. Drain and cover with cold water to prevent losing the vibrant green colour.
4. Top the Parma ham with the asparagus ribbons, followed by a few basil leaves and a healthy drizzle of olive oil.

In 2010 I spent the summer travelling through Europe with my best friend. The original plan had been to travel along the coast of Spain through to the South of France, dip into Tuscany and head across to Hungary and other Eastern European destinations, before swinging back through Central Europe and returning home. Technically speaking we did follow this route, but we didn’t stick to our times. We stayed in Italy for as long as we possibly could without turning our Euro trip into just a trip to Italy.

We started in Genova, the home of pesto, hidden restaurants and narrow streets – it really is an unknown gem. Our next stop was Pisa where we spent our days living the nomad life and the hot evenings drinking cheap cocktails by the river. Next it was Florence where we found the number of tourists quite shocking and the ice cream irresistible, before we grabbed our backpacks and headed straight for what I consider to be Italy’s capital of food, Bologna. Finally we took a train to what would be our final destination in Italy: Venice.

Venice has a charm different to that of Rome or Naples, it’s rather more enchanting and I suppose a little less in your face. Of course there are days where the small canal-side streets are crawling with tourists, all eager to have spaghetti al vongole in San Marco square, but what makes this floating city special is that you can turn a corner and find yourself away from the hustle and bustle and in another world in a snap. It’s pretty easy to get lost, but that’s part of the fun.

We spent longer than expected in Venice, enjoying a life of somewhat luxury by staying with M’s aunt Julia in her beautiful renaissance apartment (SO Vicky Cristina Barcelona, right?). We spent our time divided between discovering the beauty of Venetian cuisine, free-riding traghettos and whiling the days away on the sandy shores of the lido. Flicking through the pages of my newest cookbook purchase reminded me of that trip, which now seems like so long ago. Better yet, it reminded me about the blog I kept while I was travelling; if you’re interested in seeing some horrendous grammatical errors and some amusing anecdotes you can find all of that here.

Now about this risotto, I can’t tell you enough how wonderfully simple and delicious it is, and after trying the method of adding the wine before the rice I will never go back to doing it the other way around. The fat from the prosciutto melts into the creamy risotto, which is in turn spiked with its saltiness and that of parmesan. Truly delectable.

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Asparagus Risotto with Prosciutto

Serves 2

Barely adapted from Polpo, A Venetian Cookbook (of sorts)

Ingredients

50g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 white onion, finely chopped

100ml dry white wine

150g arborio rice

250g asparagus

700ml-1ltr vegetable stock

Parmesan

4 slices prosciutto crudo

Method

1. Heat 25g butter and olive oil then add the onion and sauté for 7 minutes or so until soft but not browned. Add the white wine and cook down for a few minutes before adding the rice and chopped asparagus (reserve the spears for addition later). Stir until the rice is well-coated and opaque.
2. Begin to add the stock, add a ladleful at a time and stir often. Don’t let the rice ever dry out before each addition. After about 15 minutes you should have reached the right consistency, but go by your personal taste.
3. Add the remaining butter and grate in a handful of parmesan, stir until melted and distributed and season to taste with salt and freshly cracked black pepper and leave to rest for a couple of minutes.
4. Serve topped with prosciutto and a sprinkling of parmesan.