Scrumptious Sugos

My lovely friends from London all arrived for a warm weekend in Rome, where we were house sitting a villa just outside the city. In order to feed a crowd I popped pasta on the menu more than a couple of times, and thankfully my beautiful and glam friends are not carbohydrate fearful (like many other Londoners) and demolished big platefuls together with a lunchtime glass of Rosato.

I got prepared by preparing a few sugos (or simple pasta sauces to a Brit!).

Miche, a darling friend who joined us this weekend , is like me – a true foodie; where the other girls were neck deep in latest editions of Elle and Grazia, Miche opted for Jamie Oliver’s Yearbook or Delicious magazine. So this post is for you Michelle!

Both serve at least 6!

Sugo di Zucchine:

Ingredients-

1 kg courgettes

1/2 white onion

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt

500g Rigatoni

A block of Pecorino Romano

I’ve added the photos first as it really is a this easy….choose a big bag of lovely fresh zucchini. Slice them up finely. Take half a white onion and chop roughly. Add both to a non-stick pan with a lid. A big pinch of salt and a slug of good olive oil and let its simmer on a low heat, covered, for about an hour, or until the courgette are breaking down. Serve with dried Rigatoni and lots of Pecorino and black pepper.

Sugo di Pomodoro e Aglio:

Ingredients-

2x tins of excellent chopped tomatoes (I recommend Mutti, photo below to try and spot in the shop)

8-10 cloves of garlic

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2 tbsps

Salt

Black Pepper

Grana Padano Cheese

Too simple…just be super patient

Mince cloves of garlic and babysit it while it cooks down slowly in the olive oil. No browning please, you’re looking for soft, sweet and  gentle in flavour. When you are happy you’re at this stage (15-20 mins) add your tomatoes and let simmer gently for 60-90 minutes. Cover for half this time and when you take off lid, season and ensure the sauce doesn’t become too concentrate. Mix through with spaghetti and serve with fresh basil, grana padano and many forks!

Thanks ladies for a superb weekend of good food, wine and conversation around the table!

Gongonzola gluttony…

We have had a snowy patch in Rome this week. The Romans have reacted to the inclement weather very dramatically and as such on Saturday night my very unhappy husband was unable to locate a tasty takeaway pizza, the answer to everyone closing up on a Saturday evening shortly after our first glass of Spritz was “ma sta nevicando” …but it’s snowing. The logic there for NOT making us a pizza was lost on George. To cheer him up I cracked on with making a yummy gnocchi dish, one we enjoyed lots in Piemonte, it never fails to make me feel like a proper greed (don’t even dare think about the calorie content) and reminds us how incredibly efficiently life went on despite incredibly volumes of snow in the mountains. Here’s to you Sauze!

Inspired by Locatelli and my friend Vickie!

Ingredients:

• 100g Gongonzola
• 20g Butter
• a quick dash of cream
• handful of chopped chives (we didn’t have these!)
• lots of black pepper
• 200g fresh gnocchi

Pop the gnocchi into boiling, salted water and keep an eye on when it starts to rise to the surface. Simply melt the cheese and butter slowly in another pan, when they have melted down turn the heat off and stir through the cream. Add the drained gnocchi and mix gently through the cheese sauce, serve with the chopped chives and pepper according to taste. Definitely the thing to make you forget the winter chill!