Asparagus arrancini and shredded carrot with mint and orange

Every few months I pull out a Koan card. This card is something I keep in mind for the coming months and it's always the perfect advice for me. A few months ago, when I was finishing writing my book ("Polska" is now available for pre-order), the Koans advised me: "I burn the books in my bag, but the verses written in my guts cannot be forgotten". After all the research, this advice really struck a cord - it was time to forget about all the other books and create something new. Then when my baby was born the Koans said: " The seeds of the past are the fruits of the future". A reminder that every moment counts, because the baby is like a sponge. Today, I pulled out a new card. Right now my life is very busy - my baby is nearly 6 months and requires more attention than before, I am building a website for myself (something I haven't done since 1999) and I have a very long to do list, which needs to be completed before my book launch (July in the UK, September in the US). I am also selling my flat and trying to buy a family home with my partner. So the Koans told me: "Water heats slowly and it boils suddenly". They are advising patient perseverance. Perfect. Difficult, but really the perfect advice for me for now. Slow, consistent perseverance in the knowledge that everything will come in the right time and in the right way. In the midst of all these things I need to do, I also need to cook and eat. As I'm breastfeeding, I'm making an extra effort to eat healthy, nutritious, filling, food (because I am starving all the time). I made a risotto recently with local asparagus, which we bought in a farm shop somewhere in Sussex between London and Eastbourne. I also used local cheese instead of Parmesan. Apart from that the risotto recipe was the basic one - onion, arborio rice, vegetable stock added gradually. Then the steamed asparagus and some par-boiled peas. The cheese is added right at the end, once the risotto is cooked. The next day I rolled the leftovers into balls, covered them in breadcrumbs and fried them in rapeseed oil.

I bought beautiful carrots from that very same shop and shredded them. I juiced an orange and used that, along with good quality Virgin olive oil, Moroccan cumin and salt and pepper as a dressing. Finally, I tore some mint leaves from the garden and straight into the salad.

Radiccio and venison risotto with pinenuts

I don't usually blog about risottos and the like because, well, everyone knows how to make a risotto. However, a few days ago I stumbled across such a great flavour combination that I can't not tell you about it. Luckily, the days are getting longer now here in the UK so it was light enough to take a picture. Here it is, at various stages of being eaten.

You make the risotto like you usually would - fry the red onion, add the arborio rice, stir etc. Before adding stock, however, you squeeze the meat out of the venison sausages into the pan and fry it along with the onion and rice, squashing it down with a fork. After about 5min of this, start adding the stock and continue as usual. Add the dried oregano somewhere near the start. Meanwhile pour the balsamic vinegar over the radiccio, along with a little bit of olive oil and roast it in the oven at about 180 degrees C for about 25min. Half-way through add the pinenuts. Finally,  mix the radiccio and pinenuts with the risotto, and stick the cherry tomatoes in the hot oven for 10min. Right at the end we season well, according to our own taste, add the grated parmesan, and serve with the roasted cherry tomatoes on top as you see up there. I've made many risottos in my lifetime, but this one is my current number one, for the sheer depth of flavour. This recipe serves 2.

Ingredients:

200g arborio rice
1 radiccio, chopped
2 venison sausages
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons pinenuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Vegetable stock
Salt and pepper

Leftover risotto balls aka arancini

It's too easy to live a life filled with anxiety, frustration and stress, especially in a city like London. The more we want to move away from negative emotions, the more they stalk us. I've found that the only way is through: to accept that life is not meant to be easy, it's meant to make us grow. Ironically, once you accept life with all it's issues, the issues often give way and the clouds part. I'm going through one of these sweet moments right now, and it's giving me such an innate trust in the universe that every setback I encounter, every emotion that I face, I know is there for a reason and I accept them all. I am in the process of building the life I want, a very simple one in a way, yet here in London this is a challenge. I now see this as a good thing, because life would be monotonous with no challenges

I am eating simply too. Plenty of grains and vegetables, not much meat. I have a house guest in my living room and we share a lot of our meals. Recently, I made a risotto with some dried wild mushrooms I still had from Poland. The next day I rolled the left over risotto into small balls - it was still sticky from the melted parmesan. I could have rolled the balls around in some breadcrumbs like they do in Sicily, but I forgot and just fried them in about a centimeter of olive oil, turning every few minutes. They were divine! Make sure you don't throw away your left-over risotto, and do this instead. I ate them with a rocket salad on the side for lunch

La Stella Marina di Montecristo, Cagliari: possibly the best fish meal in Sardinia

It's the second year in a row that I've ended up in Sardinia, so it's fair to say that I am a little bit in love the place. This time round, I was there for over two weeks. I went to a festival and travelled down the east coast with girlfriends. Last year it was the west coast with my ex, LT. They are completely different, both equally beautiful and in some way, magical. At least to me

One place I do not love in Sardinia in Cagliari. It's a large city in the south. There is nothing wrong with it per se, it's simply a bit underwhelming in comparison to the rest of the island. It is nevertheless where we ended up having the best meal of our entire trip, in a weird, little, kitch restaurant full of locals

It was recommended to us by Alberto, our host through Airbnb. It's always fish and it's always cheap. You eat what they give you, no menu. For a person who doesn't particularly enjoy making decisions and loves all food, like myself, it's heaven

I could take you through everything we ate, all the different types of fish and seafood, finished off with sweets, mirto and limocello, but as it is different every night, I think it would be quite pointless. Also, having returned from Sardinia last night, I have found out the my second beloved gran (the only one left) is not well, possibly on the way out, so I need to fly to Poland today. I'm writing this in the one hour I have before I go to the airport again, therefore I do not have time to focus on the details of this meal. I hope that you get the idea of what it was like from the pictures. All you really need to know is that if you are in the area, you should come here. You need to book ahead and the meal will set you back around 30 euros per head with wine. You pay at the till at the end, no faffling around with bills and tips

Spaghetti with breadcrumbs

You know how I love simplicity. In food and in life, though the "in life" bit doesn't always come as easily. In the kitchen I am in control, whereas in life there are many conflicting forces at work, people who think and feel differently to me, with desires that don't necessary match mine, I tend to veer into strange corners. When I talk about simplicity in the kitchen, what I am really talking about is soul food - those homely recipes that make you feel warm and cosy on the inside and take hardly any effort, or ingredients, to make. When my semi-Italian lover (for want of a better definition at this moment in time) reminisced about spaghetti with breadcrumbs in Tuscany, I  immediately had to try and recreate it - even though it was 4am - instinctively knowing that this had the potential to be one of those special dishes

Yet I was sceptical throughout the entire cooking time, modifying and elaborating the dish with whatever I had lying around the cupboards and fridge, trying to make it edible. It ended up being much more than that. In fact, I recreated again the next day for lunch too. And I think I may well recreate it many more times in my lifetime. I used wholewheat spaghetti for this, which I cooked in salted water until it was al dente. While this is cooking, fry the breadcrumbs in the mixture of olive oil and butter (mainly olive oil). Once they have turned golden (after 3-4min), add the garlic salt, pepper and dried thyme, then cook for a further 2min. Turn the heat off and add the lemon juice. When the spaghetti is done, drain it and add it to the pan with the breadcrumbs. Put the stove back on and toss it all  together while heating for a couple of minutes - ideally you would use a very large frying pan for this. Finish off with plenty of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Do not eat at 4am if you care about your waistline

Summer spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, basil and crayfish

Life is full of unsung heroes - invisible people that make your life better in small ways and don't ask for anything in return. And food is the same. Normally, I don't blog about every little thing that crosses my lips, every ordinary pasta dish or pedestrian pasty, but sometimes you eat something so simple, so ordinary and it's just so bloody perfect that it would be a massive shame to forget about it. Perhaps it's the moment more than the actual dish: waking up after a nap on a hot Summer's evening, starving, still mildly euphoric from a beautiful, intense Saturday night spent getting to know someone new and quite special, having no idea what to eat or how to acquire that food in your dazed and sleepy state, then remembering a conversation from the previous night about simple pasta dishes, and realizing that this is exactly what you need. Then, making the said pasta dish, with love and care, creating something that fulfills all the unspoken needs and desires of that particular day... this is it

It's wholewheat spaghetti, cooked al dente. The sauce is garlic and good cherry tomatoes fried in olive oil, with fresh basil and ground, smoked crayfish, which I buy from the Wholefoods section at Tesco or in a Caribbean shop. Obviously, you need to season the sauce with salt and pepper, and I also added some Caribbean hot sauce at this point and squeezed in half a lemon. Finally, I transferred the spaghetti to the pan with the sauce and fried it all together for a few minutes, making sure all of the pasta was coated, before adding a bit more freshly ground black pepper. Super easy

Ingredients

Wholewheat spaghetti
Cherry tomatoes
Garlic clove
Big handful fresh basil, chopped
Handful ground crayfish
Half a lemon
Caribbean hot sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chiara's Maple pork belly with Jerusalem artichoke crisps

I've been travelling a lot over the past few weeks and eating plenty of good food, but one meal has stuck with me. I'm on the road again tomorrow so if I don't tell you about it now, it will be lost in the vortex of delicious meals never mentioned, which would be a massive shame. In New York I was invited to dinner at Chiara's flat. Knowing that Chiara is Italian and also a chef (at Bevacco in Brooklyn Heights if you're interested) did not prepare me for this meal. I was eating too much to make notes on every single course, but I did manage to get the recipe for the maple pork belly, which, if you ever try it, you will be grateful for. I plan to try it myself as soon as my detox is over

Boil the pork belly for about 2 hours (depending on how much of it you've got - we're talking 6 people here) with a carrot, celery, celery root, parsnip and peppercorns. Cool and cut into large cubes. Cover in pure maple syrup and allow to stand for a minimum of 1 hour. Sear it on the pan - both sides - until it looks like that up there, brown and crispy. For the celery purée - boil the celery root until soft, then blend with cream and some of the water it was cooked in, season to taste. The dish was finished off with chopped spring onion and Jerusalem artichoke crisps. These crisps were totally addictive, and a great snack on their own. You use a vegetable peel to cut the Jerusalem artichoke into fine slithers and fry these in very hot oil

Ingredients

Pork belly

Carrot

Parsnip

Celery

Celery root,

Peppercorns

Maple syrup

Single cream

Spring onion

Jerulsalem artichoke

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying

Wintery pasta - trottole with kale pesto and parsnips

When it's cold out, I love to play mad scientist in the kitchen. So this pasta is a kind of a Frankenstein's monster that's actually turned out damn tasty. Though still green, of course - my metaphor is perfect!

I used spinach trottole, that's why it's so very green, although the kale was (obviously) green too. For the kale pesto blend all the top ingredients until mushy, adding the olive oil slowly as they blend. The parsnips need to be chopped finely, not quite julienned, but not far from it - grill them with some olive oil, salt, pepper and nutmeg for about 10 minutes, or until crispy. Fry the pesto for a few minutes, stirring constantly, before adding the cooked pasta. My friend recently explained to me why we should never add oil when cooking pasta - it's because it makes the surface slippery so that the sauce doesn't stick. So make sure you just use loads of salted water instead when cooking the trottole, if that's the pasta you choose to use (I'd recommend it). Add the sizzling parsnips at the end and grate more cheese on top before serving. That down there makes about 3 servings

Ingredients

100g curly kale

4-5 tablespoons mild olive oil

100g pumpkin seeds

2 garlic cloves, chopped

100d Pecorino or grana padano cheese, grated

Salt and pepper

400g Spinach trottole pasta

Parsnips

Nutmeg, grated

Food in Sardinia

The best food discovery I made on my holiday in Sardinia has to be "Bottarga". The discovery was made on the second night there, when I couldn't tear away myself from the clam shells that were covered in it. It's like cat nip, I remarked to LT. So he enquired about this magic substance, and so I was introduced to "Bottarga". It's dried fish roe - I forget from which fish - and you can eat it grated on spaghetti (with clams) or as a starter. This was a salad made from bottarga slices and celery, for instance

I prefer it with clam spaghetti. Mirto is a drink made from the myrtle plant. The red (black) one is made from the berries, and the white from the leaf. This is the typical post dinner liquor round these parts, and it tastes different everywhere you go. We didn't like the red one so much on our second night, yet when we tasted a home-made version in an agriturismo we were staying at, it was delicious (and much stronger). One of the reasons I would recommend staying at agriturismos in Italy is the food. In the typical Italian fashion, it always starts with an antipasti course, followed by first course of rice or pasta and then a meat/fish course. And then a little desert. And then some coffee and liquor.That up there is the first course and a delicious cheese spread made from Pecorino and Ricotta. They kindly left it for me during the primo, because I liked it so much. The primo is in the background there - it may look like rice but its actually a specifically Sardo type of pasta. This is was at Mulino Betzu, an extremely friendly agriturismo in the Oristano region, about an hour south of Alghero. That's as far as we planned our holiday, so on the owner's recommendation we headed down to Piscinas after, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Here we stayed in an agriturismo in the mountains, nestled between ghost towns which used to be mining villages, and close to the soft, green dunes of the coast. We ate a lot of wild boar, washing it down with local wine and Ichnusa beer. Then I got ill and wanted to come home

Pizza for 16 in the French Alps

I'm starting to think that no matter how good you feel, how sorted you are in life, if you have the predisposition to loose control, then sooner or later, it will happen. Perhaps with time, as you get to know yourself better, mellow with age, and if you really want to, you can temper it. I live in hope...

I had such a fantastic weekend in the Alps, but I completely overdid the partying on the last night and, consequently, the journey back was a nightmare, with me having to stop the car every twenty minutes on the way to the airport. I hate to admit that the same thing happened on my weekend in Basque Country. Then, of course, there's the self-flagellation. It's a vicious cycle that I am determined to break free of. Recently, I read an interesting article on meditation, which has made me see things from another perspective. I have always meditated in a way where I try to clear all thoughts from my head, but there is  also another way. By bringing up sensitive feelings (such as anger or anxiety), internalizing them and really focussing on them, we can start to understand the true nature of the mind and the emotion itself. It doesn't sound like much fun, I know, but it seems that when you understand something you can, paradoxically, let it go... so perhaps I shouldn't even be looking at my life in terms of staying in control or losing it... perhaps it's about accepting, and thereby feeling calmer and more content

So with 16 people to feed in our Alpine chalet, we decided to make pizzas. I knew this was the plan, so I'd been practicing at home. I like the feeling of the dough and I liked it even more with a massive dough ball. The bigger the better. No double entendres intended there. Although, on second thoughts... I am going out with a guy who's 6ft 6, so maybe... Anyway, here's a recipe that will feed 15-16 people. Originally we planned that everyone was going to do their own toppings. This turned out to be wholly unpractical. The girls basically made the pizzas and the next day, the boys looked after the hog roast

Ingredients

2 kg flour
Aprox 1200ml lukewarm water (boiled)
2 Tblsp fine sea salt
8 Tblsp olive oil
2 Tblsp sugar
4 x 7g dried yeast
Tomato passata
Mozzarella
Basil
Salt and pepper

Toppings

Anchovies
Capers
Black olives
Marinated artichokes
Parma ham
Rocket

Mix the water with the sugar, yeast and olive oil. Sieve the flour onto a table with the salt and make a little well in the middle. Slowly pour the water mixture into it, covering it with flour as you go. Ideally, you would have one person pouring and another mixing and starting to kneed, as I had with the help of lovely Larissa. Work it all in and kneed until the dough is soft and springy. Now put  the dough ball in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour. We put an oven on for 10min, then turned it off and left the bowl in there. Finally, kneed it all out a little more and split into smaller balls to roll out. You can use a full wine bottle if you have no rolling pin. Roll it out really thin and place onto an oiled baking tray, before topping with passata, basil, mozzarella, salt and pepper and whatever other toppings you fancy. Each pizza needs about 10min of baking time, but if there is more than one in the oven then the baking time increases, so just keep checking until it looks done

A couple of great bruschetta ideas and some stuffed tomatoes

Some of the best moments in my life so far have been spent cooking with people I love. Whenever I look back on any special occasion from my childhood, it was the moments spent in the kitchen beforehand that were often more fun than the occasion itself. Perhaps it's because I couldn't drink vodka at that age and invariably the party ended with yours truly cornered by a drunken distant relative who felt compelled to tell me the story of their life. But I digress

When one of my closest friends, Anna, asked me to help her cook for her husband and his friends as a birthday treat, I jumped at the chance. I've known James for ages and it was a great opportunity to do something nice for a friend, but really I wanted to do it for the entirely selfish reason of spending some quality time in the kitchen with the lovely VP. As she had a beautiful baby boy just a few months ago, the chance to have her to myself was not one I was going to miss out on. Anna had everything planned out, so it was really a matter of just learning a few new recipes and their execution. Most the stuff was from the River Cafe Cook Book, one which I don't have at home and I enjoyed exploring - a lot of great, simple, rustic Italian recipes in there

To start, it was bruschetta with a couple of different toppings. We grilled the bread with some olive oil drizzled over it on both sides, and I vigorously (someone may have used the word "manically") rubbed garlic on each piece. I ended up smelling like a garlic clove myself by then end of the night but the result was well worth the effort. The first topping was broad beans and peas with mint, lemon juice and parmesan and chickpeas with roasted cherry tomatoes and rosemary was the other. You cook the broad beans and peas in boiling, salted water until tender (about 15min), cool, then add shaved parmesan and chopped mint. Finally, squeeze a couple of lemons in there, season, drizzle with olive oil and serve. The cherry tomatoes I roasted with garlic and rosemary at 200 degrees C for about 15min. I added them to the drained and rinsed chickpeas, with chopped fresh chilli, olive oil and sea salt. Allow to cool before serving

For main course there was quail with sage, some pilaf, green beans in tomato sauce and stuffed tomatoes. Normally I don't enjoy stuffing things too much. It's a lot of work and I'm a lazy cook who likes to keep things simple in life. But these ones, from the Plenty book up there, were well worth it. You fry some chopped red onion and garlic in plenty of olive oil for a few minutes before adding chopped and pitted black olives, capers, herbs and bread crumbs. We used oregano, chives and parsley but you can mix and match - whatever you fancy. The tomatoes are hollowed out and dried inside with a paper towel. Once stuffed, you stick them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or foil and cook for 30-40min at about 180 degrees C. They are perfect party food, because if you're going to go to all the trouble of stuffing vegetables, you may as well makes loads of them. Anna's friend, Abbie, made the most amazing chocolate cake with hazelnuts for desert. The weather is stunning in London right now, so we ate outside, drinking calprinas and wine, chatting until the sky turned a beautiful, bright royal blue, then black. Dinner parties are a massive effort if it's just one person cooking, but when there are a few people involved the whole process becomes something quite special, and it's even more fun than just turning up and eating. There's more of a connection or something

Fusilli with baby vegetables

The thing about me and pasta is that it's my go-to food when I don't have time or can't be bothered. Theo Randall's book (Pasta) has got me thinking about it in a different way. With more care perhaps. I had fusilli in the cupboard and he suggests fusilli with cuttlefish (sadly, this seems to be the only fusilli recipe), as they curl around the pasta so nicely. It reminded me of the time my friend's boyfriend cooked for us in Treviso, using massive pasta shells to complement tiny little sea creatures perfectly - the little things all got stuck in the shells, so that each mouthful was full of sea flavour and there was no need to chase anything around the plate. That's the Italian way of choosing pasta - the shape depends entirely on the sauce. However, as today I have an early spring clean on my hands, thanks to the lovely Coco and some critters she's picked up, I really didn't have time to go on a mission to find cuttlefish. A few years ago, I would definitely have done that and got incredibly stressed out in the process, but now I am older and wiser, without the inclination to complicate my life

So I decided that I was going to use stuff that I already had in, and that shallots were going to have to do the job of the cuttlefish in Theo's recipe - of curling round the fusilli, I mean. It turned out to be something worth writing about, so here we are. I fried some shallots in olive oil, added some baby mushrooms chopped in half and finely sliced baby aubergines, and continued to fry throughout the whole time that the fusilli was cooking - so about 20min - stirring occasionally. Half way through, I seasoned with sea salt and some pepper. Then, I added a splash of this amazing balsamic vinegar. I had to, I add it to everything now. I'm sure you've heard this before but if you like your food, then it's really worth spending at least a tenner on good quality balsamic. That was followed by some tomato passata, and a handful of thyme. Allow to simmer for 5min. Finally, add the drained fusilli and stir everything together really well, no rushing. Finally, finish off with parmesan shavings, black pepper and more fresh thyme. Here are the ingredients

Fusilli

Olive oil

Shallots

Baby closed cup mushrooms

Baby aubergines

Passata

Good quality balsamic

Fresh Thyme

Parmesan

Salt and pepper

Fisherman's spaghetti with courgettes and mussels

I once read somewhere, that in a certain part of Italy the fishermen eat spaghetti with courgettes, olive oil and garlic on days when they have no fish. For some reason, I have remembered this little fact for years. This will surprise anyone who knows me and my inability to remember facts, peoples' names, even songs I love. But with food it's different and the image of these fishermen, tired from a day's hard work and salty air, worn out from the sun, the toil, but somehow essentially content from living a life so close to nature... has always stayed with me. And I have made this dish many times, with many variations, and always with a thought for the fishermen. This one was the best I've made so far. Since they are fishermen, I reasoned, it therefore follows that this kind of dish would be especially good with something that comes from the sea. I imagined a fisherman's wife casually throwing in a handful of fresh seafood into the pan. Just like the mussels that I had left over from the paella we made the other night. As you can see if you clicked on that link, the paella really couldn't handle any more of them

I felt really mean waking up the mussels by splashing cold water on them until they closed their shells, then boiling them alive, but what can you do... I boiled them in fish stock with saffron. At the same time I also boiled the spaghetti in salt water, until it was al dente. In the massive frying pan, I fried small, fine, almost translucent chunks of courgette and garlic in plenty of olive oil, and some sea salt. Finally, I added both the spaghetti and the mussels to the pan, along with a splash of the saffron stock. I cooked this for a while longer, adding more stock to make sure it didn't burn, and squeezed some lemon in right at the end. I served it with ground black pepper and some cold beer. I love to imagine that by eating this some little part of me is right there with the fishermen, in a cosy kitchen somewhere in Italy

Aubergine medallions

I never thought I cared for spring much, preferring hazy summer days and golden autumn with that smoky smell. Then this year it came around and, completely unexpectedly, filled me with hope. The smell of grass and earth and young flowers awoke in me the kind of pure emotion that I haven't felt for a long time, making me grateful just to be alive. It truly has been the perfect spring - warm, bright and friendly, the island breeze a blessing rather than the burden it is during the winter months.  It's been a time for sangria under the cherry blossoms and long lunches in the garden. And an ideal time to rediscover Carluccio's "Vegetables" - a cookbook full of easy, fresh, natural recipes, perfect for now. So when my brother came over for dinner the other day I decided to make aubergine medallions, though I made them slightly differently to the way Carluccio does, replacing tomato pulp with real tomato and using a British cheese, rather than the pecorino and parmesan that he suggests. The medallions were followed by spaghetti putanesca and rocket salad, and washed down with a light, peachy rose. Then Moroccan mint tea to finish

Ingredients (serves 2)

6 thick round aubergine slices (from the middle)

6 basil leaves

6 tomato slices

Pesto

A hard cheese like pecorino - I used Berkswell

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Fry the slices on both sides until golden. Place on a baking tray. Put the basil leaf on top of each slice, followed by a teaspoon of pesto, and the tomato slice. Grate the cheese on top and season, then stick under a grill for 4-5 minutes. So easy!

Pasta e fagioli - Pasta and bean soup

I have an easygoing cooking style, improvising on the ingredients and/or techniques more often than not. I keep in mind the millions of people that have made a particular dish throughout history and all the hundreds of people that are probably cooking it right at this very moment - each one, their own version. So when Mr. Carluccio told me there are as many pasta e fagioli as there are political parties in Italy (regrettably not in person, but through his cook book "Vegetables"), I recognized immediately my type of dish: relaxed and fuss free. They don't have borlotti beans in Tesco? No problem, replace them with cannellini beans, for pasta e fagioli southern-style. So I improvised quite a lot with this one, and the recipe below can now only really claim to be inspired by Mr. Carluccio's



Ingredients (serves 2)

2 x 400g tins cannellini beans

100g tubatini or lumache pasta

Garlic clove

Red chilli

100g cherry tomatoes

1 Tblsp tomato puree

Handful finely chopped fresh onion

Garlic salt

Black pepper

Puree half the beans, while frying the chilli and garlic in some olive oil, followed by the tomatoes along with the tomato puree. After a few minutes, add the bean puree and the whole beans, drained. Cover with about a pint of hot water (just over half a litre). Add the garlic salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then chuck the pasta in and cook for a further 10 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then serve with some fresh onion on top (or hot pepper sauce)

I won't rant and rave too much about this dish, even though I really want to - lets just say that I have made a friend for life, and like the people I love, it's warm, comforting and generous (and no effort at all, of course). The only thing I did question is whether it could have been even better had I used tubatini pasta as Mr. Carluccio had suggested. Of course, I couldn't find it and used lumache instead. They were, perhaps, just that little bit too big. In terms of shape, however, they were ideal, because they caught all the juices and even whole beans at times, transforming them into delicious little morsels