Ruote alla Nonna The ultimate Italian fast food

AQUESTION I am constantly asked is: which pasta shape goes with which sauce. It’s an argument we have in our house every Sunday. Everyone has their own preferences.

The basic rule is light pasta pairs well with light sauces, heavier pastas with richer sauces. Aglio e olgio, garlic, chilli and oil is always served with spaghettini (thin spaghetti) – heaven forbid, never with chunky pasta like rigatoni. These are the natural choices to serve with a rich slow-cooked tomato ragu.

Classic Bolognese sauce made with slow cooked pancetta, ground pork, veal and meat is never served with spaghetti in Bologna… they don’t produce that shape of pasta there!

It is estimated there are more than 350 different types of pasta in Italy. Apart from names being changed in different regions, the minute variations in shapes are a lesson in Italian grammar: masculine, ini, -elli, -illi, -etti or the feminine -ine, -elle, to convey the sense of “little”; or with -oni, “large”, -otti, largish!

The list is endless.

My great-grandmother taught me this recipe, one of her favourites. This for her, who spent all her life cooking for her Neapolitan family, was the ultimate fast food. To open a tin was the height of decadence.

She used “route” wheels, so that the artichokes and peas stuck in the grooves, making each mouthful completely irresistible!

RUOTE ALLA NONNA

Ingredients 400g tin of artichoke hearts preserved in brine

Blob of unsalted butter 125ml double cream 2 handfuls of frozen petit pois (wee peas to you and me) Sea salt 360g chunky pasta, ruote (wheels), conchiglie (shells) or orrechietti (little ears)

2-3 tablespoons parmesan Black pepper

Method

Rinse the artichokes in cold water and squeeze them to get rid of excess water and brine.

Break into pieces.

Melt the butter in a shallow pan and add the artichokes, turning them in the butter.

Add the cream and the frozen peas and warm everything through gently.

The peas will defrost as the cream heats through. Be careful not to boil the sauce or the cream will curdle.

Taste and season lightly, bearing in mind you will be adding parmesan later, which is quite salty itself.

Add the pasta to a pot of boiling salted water, stirring so that it doesn’t stick together. Cook until al dente.

Add two tablespoons of the pasta water to the sauce to loosen it a little.

Drain the pasta and tip it back into the cream sauce, turning it round to make sure all the pasta is well coated.

Serve immediately in warm bowls with plenty of grated parmesan and black pepper.