Annals of Ruth Rogers pasta recipes, part 8. I was looking for something to make with just stuff in the house or easily available… it turned out that all I needed for this one was heavy cream. This dish is extraordinarily delicious and piquant with intense depth of flavor, and I’m not sure why. It may have been the white wine I used, a 1999 Zind-Humbrecht riesling Clos Häuserer, but it was frankly past its prime for drinking and I worried that it would add a cloying note. It may be the cooking process… rather than fry the pancetta aggressively as in her excellent carbonara, you cook it at very low heat in an equal amount (!) of butter, so that the fat of the pancetta combines with the butter.

Long cooking time and patience is of the essence, I suspect. Melt 150g butter in a thick-bottomed pan, and add 150g pancetta cut into 2cm pieces and cook over very low heat until the pancetta becomes crisp – at least 20 minutes says the recipe, more like a half hour for me. Add 2 dried crumbled red chiles (I used Indian ones), 1/2 tbs freshly ground black pepper, and 120ml white wine. Cook for 5 minutes to reduce the wine, then add 6 real San Marzano canned plum tomatoes, roughly chopped in their juice, and some sea salt, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add 120ml heavy cream and cook for a further 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and put it into the pot with the sauce (still warm but off the heat) and toss. Stir in 50g freshly grated reggiano parmegiano. Serve with the remaining reggiano on top, in heated bowls.

I added a decidedly non-Italian touch as you can see above: chopped curly parsley. Like most cooks reared in the ’80s and ’90s I learned always to use flat-leaf Italian parsley for everything and treated curly parsley as a relic from ’60s and ’70s cuisine, only useful as a visual garnish. In fact it has a bright, fresh flavor of its own, quite different from the humid grassiness of flat-leaf. It took Fergus Henderson and Jesper Eklow to bring me to my senses. This led me to my favorite new dish, so simple it’s almost not worth mentioning… white rice with chopped curly parsley. Make steamed white rice by your favorite method. Chop about 3 tablespoons of curley parsley medium (no stems, not coarse, not fine). As soon as the rice is ready, fluff the parsley well into the rice with a wooden fork or wooden spoon. Serve. I have no idea why this is so delicious. I could eat cups and cups of it. Freshly ground pepper and some lemon juice may be added if you like.

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