Spinach pasta with modenese sauce

(La gramigna con ragù modenese)

Serves 6

This recipe is inspired by a dish that I tasted in one of my favourite places to eat in Italy, Trattoria Ermes in Modena. It is one of the simplest and most memorable meals that I have ever eaten. Trattoria Ermes is a great 25-seat trattoria in one of the back streets of the city where you will find the most amazing traditional Modenese cooking. In this dish, ragù is simply at its best. We serve it in Caffè Pendolino in Sydney and it has become another iconic dish that will be very difficult to take off the menu. At Pendolino, we make a dried version of gramigna (wild weed) pasta in our dedicated pasta kitchen. Gramigna pasta may be difficult to find outside of Italy and can be substituted with spinach fettuccine or spinach tagliatelle, two other classic pastas used with ragù.

700 g (1 lb 9 oz) modenese sauce

fine sea salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

600 g (1 lb 5 oz) good-quality dried gramigna pasta (or any other dried spinach pasta)

freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino cheese, to serve

Heat the modenese sauce in a small saucepan. Check seasoning and adjust with the sea salt and black pepper, to taste. For the pasta, simply bring abundant salted water to the boil and cook until it is al dente. Strain the pasta and return to the pot. Add the sauce and mix. Check seasoning again and serve with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino cheese.