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History

The story goes that Marco Polo brought noodles back from this travels in the east to Italy, the Italians embraced this dish and it became a staple in Italian cuisine.

It has thankfully travelled well and there are very few households here in the UK that would not serve pasta at least once a week.

There two types of pasta, fresh and dried. Both types are made well and badly. There are countless varieties of mass produced, cheap pasta, both fresh and dried on supermarket shelves. These do not give an accurate impression of the pleasure to be had from a good, well made bowl of pasta. There are certainly good brands of dried pasta out there and no store cupboard should be without some. Always choose the more expensive brands on the shelves, they still work out as a cheap meal even if they are twice as expensive as the cheapest brand.

My preference is for a plate of homemade pasta, what we at Gusto make is as close to this as possible, even though our pasta is machine made we make it fresh on the day of the market and we make small batches. Our pasta is made using traditional bronze dies which give a coarser texture to the pasta which means that the sauce will stick to each individual piece.

Pasta is made in hundreds of shapes and there are constantly new ones being introduced, there is a view that certain shapes are better for certain sauces, this is true in some cases but I feel that whatever shape you like to eat is the best for you.

The best sauces are the simplest and there is nothing wrong with a bowl of good pasta with just some oil and cheese. I have included some simple recipes please do have a look.

Quotes:

"Spaghetti is no food for fighters" Marinetti, a Nationalist poet 1930's

"The important thing is to adapt your dish of spaghetti to your circumstances and your state of mind" Giuseppe Marotta, Neapolitan writer

 

This stew will serve four, but feel free to make it and freeze a couple of portions. Either way you will probably only need about 100g pasta per portion.

4 Rabbit legs
2 tbsp olive oil
knob of butter
1 small carrot,onion and a stick of celery, finely chopped
2 clove garlic
2 tsp chopped thyme and rosemary
1 tsp tomato puree
1/2 glass white wine
250ml chicken stock

Brown the legs in the oil and butter
Remove from the pan and add the veg and cook for 5 mins until lightly coloured
Add garlic and puree, cook for 2 minutes, add legs and wine, reduce for 2 minutes and add stock.
Simmer with a loose fitting lid or a pice of foil for 45 mins.
Remove the legs and strip the meat, discard the bones and put the meat back into the stew.
Add some chopped parsley and serve.