Fresh Basil and Pea Pappardelle
with a Greek Spin
People may need passports to travel, but taste knows no borders. Tonight’s recipe features pappardelle from our fantastic pasta producer Delverde, from the Abruzzo region of Italy, thrown together with the best Greek Feta we could lay our hands on. The secret trick here is to keep a bit of the starchy pasta water to add to the pasta at the end. Italian chefs have used this trick for hundreds of years to help make their silky pasta sauces and ensure the finished result is never dry. Buon appetito!
Boxes and ingredients are packed in facilities that handles Peanut, Nuts, Sesame, Fish, Crustaceans, Milk, Egg, Mustard, Celery, Soya, Gluten and Sulphites. Due to the war in Ukraine, it has been necessary to substitute sunflower oil with rapeseed oil in some products without a label change. The FSA have advised that allergic reactions to rapeseed oil are rare.
Ingredients
1
Onion
2
Garlic Clove
½
Basil
2
Pine Nuts
440
Pappardelle
(Contains Cereals containing gluten)
⅔
British Smoked Bacon Lardons
½
Chilli Flakes
½
Greek Style Yoghurt
(Contains Milk)
2
Peas
½
Feta Cheese
(Contains Milk)
Nutritional information
Utensils
Instructions
Boil a large pot of water with ½ tsp of salt ready for your pasta.
Peel and finely dice the onion. Peel and finely dice the garlic. Roughly chop the basil.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over a medium heat for a few mins. Watch your nuts like a hawk as they can burn easily.
Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 7 mins or until ‘al dente’. Tip: ‘Al dente’ just means the pasta is cooked through but has a slight firmness left in the middle. Add the peas for the last 3 mins of cooking. Drain but keep the pasta water as you’ll need some of this later.
While your pasta cooks, heat 1½ tbsp of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until it just starts to brown off at the edges. Add the onion, the garlic, as much of the chilli flakes as you dare and cook for 5 mins, until soft. Tip: We only added a tiny pinch of the chilli flakes as they pack quite a punch!
Add ½ cup of greek yoghurt and stir well. LH: Add the drained pasta along with the peas, ¼ tsp of salt and pepper. Toss everything together along with the crumbled feta and half the basil and 5 tbsp of the pasta water. Tip: If it looks dry, add in a couple more spoons of the pasta water.
Serve with the remaining basil and the toasted pine nuts on top.
