Strozzapreti

‘This is a truly delicious pasta that people will never forget. You do invest a little time in slow-roasting the cherry tomatoes, but the immense flavour you get in return is hard to ignore. This is easy to double up.’

SERVES 4 TIME 1 hour 30 minutes

• 1kg ripe mixed-colour cherry tomatoes

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 2 fresh bay leaves

• olive oil

• white wine vinegar

• 1 red onion

• 15g raisins

• 15g pine nuts

• 250g minced higher-welfare pork shoulder

• 50g stale breadcrumbs

• 2 sprigs of fresh mint

• 300g dried strozzapreti or penne pasta

• 25g pecorino or Parmesan cheese

• extra virgin olive oil

1 Preheat the oven to 190°C. Prick each tomato with the tip of a sharp knife, blanch in a pan of boiling salted water for 40 seconds, then drain. Once cool enough to handle, pinch off the skins, placing the tomatoes in a roasting tray. Peel, roughly chop and add the garlic, throw in the bay leaves, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a swig of vinegar, season with sea salt and black pepper and toss to coat. Roast for 30 minutes, or until starting to caramelize. Meanwhile, peel and very finely slice the onion, then place in a large frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Roughly chop and add the raisins, then season. Cook gently for 15 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly. Crumble in the pine nuts for the last few minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool.

2 Put the pork, breadcrumbs and cooled onion mixture into a bowl. Pick, finely chop and add the mint leaves, then season. Scrunch and mix together, then, with wet hands, roll into 16 balls, just slightly bigger than the tomatoes. Fry the balls in 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the large frying pan on a medium-high heat for 5 minutes, or until golden all over, jiggling the pan regularly. Spoon into the tomato tray and bake for 20 minutes.

3 Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of starchy cooking water. Use two spoons to gently toss the pasta into the tray of balls, loosening with a little reserved cooking water. Finely grate in the pecorino, gently toss again, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Yum. PER SERVING: CALS 637; FAT 26.6G; SAT FAT 6.5G; PROTEIN 26.8G; CARBS 77.6G; SUGAR 17.1G; SALT 1.6G; FIBRE 6.5G