If you’re new here, WELCOME…This is first and foremost a place for recipes, but also where I can dish out expertise on the only thing I truly know about- feeding your friends. I hope that You Bring The Wine either remains, or becomes, your ultimate tool kit.
This week I’m bringing you some pasta. I love salad more than nearly everyone I know, but I get that you might not want to feed your friends only salads, ever. Not even I want to do that. So salads are off the menu for a hot minute and this week is all about one of my other loves. Pasta.
This pasta is the ideal summer pasta, it’s best served kinda luke warm, not TOO hot, but not cold- because, as I mentioned, it’s not a salad. It hits every spot, somehow feeling super fresh despite being drenched in (very good) olive oil and topped with a big old pile of burrata.
Yes, you could be less liberal with the burrata, but honestly, where’s the fun in that? Really… you could be even more liberal, a whole ball on top of each wouldn’t be a bad move. Indulgent? Yes. Too much? Definitely not.
I created a few recipes to be paired with the always delicious @VinsdeChablis so they’ll be popping up in the newsletter over the next few months! This pasta has been paired with their Chablis Domaine des Hates 2019… scroll down for the low down.
Serves 2
PREP: 10 mins
COOK: 10 mins
The when is obvious for me, it’s PERFECT for when your mate (or literally anyone you know and like) is coming over for lunch, probably on a Saturday afternoon, hopefully it’s sunny outside and you’re in the mood for drinking wine alongside a whole ball of burrata. Now for the why… I don’t think theres a huge need to sell a bowl of pasta topped with a ball of buratta, BUT I’ll do it regardless… as a combo, the lemon-y, oily pasta with the ribbons of courgette, sweetness of peas and creamyness of the buratta- plus that crunch of hazelnuts it what dreams are made of. It’s terrible for nearly every dietary, so I’m sorry about that- I guess it’s veggie (having said that- a few anchovies cooked down in the garlic-y oil would be an absolute treat.
Ingredients
200g Linguine
1 large courgette
3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
1 tbsp fennel seeds
200g frozen peas
2 lemons
2 tbsp capers
Small bunch dill, roughly chopped
1 ball burrata
50g hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped
METHOD
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions.
Whilst the pasta cooks, use a peeler to peel the courgette into thick ribbons directly into a large mixing bowl.
Tip the oil into a small sauce pan over a medium heat, add the sliced garlic and fennel seeds and cook for 2 mins or so, until the garlic is a little softened- set aside. You don’t HAVE to do this, but I despise raw garlic and un-toasted spices- so yeh, I highly recommend this step.
Right before you drain the pasta, add the peas to the pan for 20 seconds, then tip everything through a sieve and give a little rinse to wash away a bit of the starch. Tip the pasta and peas into the mixing bowl. Add the zest and juice of 1 of the lemons, plus the capers and most of the dill. Season generously, then toss. Taste and add as much of the juice of the second lemon as you fancy.
Swirl into bowls, then tear the ball of burrata in half and snuggle each half into each bowl of pasta. Drizzle with a little extra oil, season with salt and pepper and finish with the roasted hazelnuts and remaining dill. Finish with a little lemon zest if you haven’t used the second lemon.
This dish was designed to paired with the wonderful Chablis Domaine des Hates 2019 from Vins de Chablis. It’s dry, mineral and a little citrusy and so its the dream companion to this epic pasta.
Okay this is very simple this week, but if you don’t own this peeler, and you wanna make this pasta with total ease. You should get it.
Ready, GET YOURSELF READY because I’m showing you how to make the worlds best Prawns Cocktail with Sriracha Marie-Rose sauce. The Prawns are ON ICE, aka how they need to be served, and there is no weird cocktail class or shredded iceberg in sight (ps I love iceberg just not here)
They are up there with the best of things to feed your friends if you want them to love you EVEN MORE. You can serve them peeled, OR with their shells for everyone to do their own hard work at the table. I’ll give you the run down on why this is 1000% better than serving a plated version, OR really any plated starter because IMO…
“No one needs to serve a plated starter in their homes in 2022.“
More on that controversial opinion and so much more, next week.