Curly question of pasta

CONTRARY to popular mythology, Italian pasta traditions date back more than 3000 years, and do not owe their heritage to the explorations of the Polo family.

Regardless of when noodle culture first emerged in Italy, certainly they were a dominant part of regional cuisine in the years before Columbus visited the Americas and brought back the capsicum, the chilli and the tomato.

Given that our sense of pasta today is so dominated by the use of tomatoes, it’s interesting to imagine what pasta cookery was like in the centuries before their popularisation in the mid-1600s.

Cheese and olive oil were staples, as were salted fish such as anchovies. Leftover bread was combined with a cheese sauce and short noodles then baked in an oven — macaroni anyone?

During the summer months fresh herb sauces were preferred, often enriched with egg or ricotta. But these were rural and bucolic approaches, recipes used by farmers and poor city traders.

For the nobility, cookery was something else altogether. Meat, fruits, butter and sugar were considered hallmarks of success, usually reserved for those who could afford land and labour.

One recipe that has survived from Renaissance Florence and is still cooked today by some of the more traditional Tuscan eateries presents pasta in a form that seems foreign and up-ended to our modern palates.

A mid-brown caramel made from sugar is turned into a sauce with chopped oranges and ample butter. A hint of vinegar adds acidity, while a splash of prized cinnamon was added to show worldliness.

Finished with a generous amount of local cheese the result is, well, different.

It’s a flavour that grows on you, somewhere between sweet and savoury.

Ingredients 180g cup) raw cashews, soaked in cold water for 3 hours 2 tsp lemon juice 1 tsp dijon mustard 3 tbsp water 300g purple sweet potato, peeled, cut into 12 rounds 2 zucchini, trimmed, cut lengthways into 8 slices 1 small (350g) eggplant, trimmed, cut into 4 thick slices, lengthwise 250g firm tofu, cut into 8 slices 250ml (1 cup) tomato passata 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil, plus basil leaves, to serve 1 garlic clove, crushed 100g mixed salad leaves, to serve