As I’ve discussed elsewhere, I like pasta because pasta is more about shape and form than flavour. The medium is the message, style before substance, form before function etc. I like papardelle because it cooks up to big ole flappy flaps and it comes in angry-looking fists, and I like to allocate a fist per person. Actually, here, in my lazy whatever’s-in-the-fridge take on Heidi’s papardelle with spiced butter, it was one and a half fists per person. Heh. Fist.
Here’s the deal with this dinner: you take a mess of butter, cook some shallots in it, toss in most of your spice rack, set it aside, cook up your pasta flaps, toss in a vegetable, some nuts and as much butter as it takes. It is, surprisingly, not overwhelmingly rich. The butter doesn’t so much sauce the pasta as gild it, delivering a warm burst of spice, and while Heidi used new spring asparagus I used a single serve bag of Safeway rocket. I’m ambivalent about rocket: too often it’s piled on top of foods where it’s just plain unnecessary, but here the bitterness and faint crunch sets off the butter beautifully. It took minutes to make and was wonderful on a cold night. Do it.
Spiced butter papardelle
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks. Serves 2-3
- A quantity of papardelle (I always eyeball pasta quantities)
- 60g butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/4 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- Fat pinch cayenne
- Fat pinch turmeric
- Fat pinch red chilli flakes
- Handful of mint, roughly chopped
- Handful of parsley, roughly chopped
- A handful of hazelnuts, toasted in a dry pan and coarsely crushed (I used my housemate’s mortar and pestle and it was surprisingly easy. Could I be persuaded that mortars and pestles aren’t just a poseurish waste of time?)
- Couple of big handfuls of rocket
Melt together the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat, then cook the chopped shallots until soft and translucent and the butter is a little brown, around 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put on a big pan of salted water to boil. Stir in the spices along with some salt and pepper and remove from heat. Cook the pasta; drain the pasta; return pasta to cooking pan. Add the butter, a little at a time, tossing well after each addition until you think you’ve had enough. There will be leftover butter, and it is very, very useful. I’ve been using it in my scrambled eggs in the morning and feeling fancy. Toss in the herbs, nuts and rocket, giving it all a minute to slump and wilt a little. Serve immediately.
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