Beetroot fettuccine with black olives & fresh goat’s cheese

(Fettuccine di barbabietole con olive nere)

Serves 6

6 brown pickling onions

20 baby beetroot (beets)

2 litres (70 fl oz/8 cups) water

250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) white wine

250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

14 dried black olives, pitted and cut in half

600 g (1 lb 5 oz) good-quality dried beetroot fettuccine (See Note)

2 tablespoons roughly chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

fine sea salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

fresh milanese or piedmontese soft fresh goat’s cheese, to taste

To make the sauce, you must cook the onions and beetroot separately. For the onions, simply boil them in their skins in salted boiling water until they are just cooked all the way through. Take care not to overcook them. You can check this with a skewer during the cooking process. When they are ready, strain them and allow them to cool before carefully peeling and cutting them into quarters. For the beetroot, trim the tops to 2 cm (¾ inch), scrub the beetroot, then place in a saucepan with the water, white wine, vinegar, salt and sugar. Cook for 45–60 minutes until they are just cooked all the way through. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, peel each beetroot and halve or quarter them depending on the size of each beetroot. The idea is to have bite-sized pieces. Once cut, put the beetroot pieces back into the cooking liquor until ready to use.

When you are ready to cook and serve the pasta, heat half of the extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan over medium–high heat. When hot, add the beetroot, quartered onions and black olives and cook for a few minutes so that they caramelise. The onions should become nicely browned. Add approximately 100 ml (3½ fl oz) of the beetroot cooking liquor to deglaze the pan.

Cook the pasta in abundant salted boiling water until al dente. Strain the pasta, return to the warm pot and then toss the sauce through the pasta, adding the chopped parsley and remaining extra virgin olive oil. Season with the sea salt and black pepper, to taste. Serve with the fresh milanese goat’s cheese crumbled on top.

NOTE: If you can’t find dried beetroot fettuccine, you can replace it with regular dried fettuccine.