TAGLIOLINI AL PESTO AMARO

This ‘bitter pesto’ is not alarmingly so, but the rocket certainly gives a more rasping bite than the softer herbal scentedness of the traditional basil leaves. The anchovy fillets provide a counterbalancing salty intensity, though if you’re making this for vegetarians, simply leave them out and add a couple of tablespoons of grated pecorino instead (or indeed just bolster the parmesan quantities). Finally, and importantly, the ricotta’s milky calmness perfectly offsets the ferocious tangle of ingredients that precedes it, providing just the right amount of mellow creaminess.

I tend to use tagliolini that’s been tinted green with spinach here but I have to say this is for reasons more visual than culinary. You neither have to go for the green, nor indeed use tagliolini to start with. Any pasta you like will do. One thing, though: you must make the pesto at the last minute (not hard) and use immediately; the sauce loses its intensity, and thus its point, on standing.

500g tagliolini verdi

50g rocket leaves

1 fat or 2 small cloves garlic, peeled

30g pine nuts

3 anchovy fillets

25g parmesan or pecorino, freshly grated

100ml extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon ricotta cheese

Heat a large pan of salted water and cook the pasta. Put all the other ingredients except for the olive oil and the ricotta into the bowl of the food processor fitted with the double-bladed knife and blitz to a purée. With the motor running, slowly pour the oil down the funnel, till you have a feltily green emulsion. Remove the lid, stir with a spatula to combine the oily puddle which will have collected around the blades and then dollop in the ricotta. Put the lid back on and blitz for a final few seconds, then tip into a bowl and stir to mix well.

You should be doing all this while the pasta’s cooking. Once it’s ready, drain and dress with this intense, baize-green emulsion.

Serves 6 as a starter; 4 as a main course.