Cavatelli with sausage, mint and tomato

This is one of the deceptively simple recipes in Rachel Roddy’s wonderful A-Z of Pasta.

Although, like many of the recipes, it looks - and is - straightforward it’s prefaced by a fascinating essay on how to make cavatelli and the origins of the shape which comes from southern Italy and is also known as cavateddi and cavasuneddi.

“What is clear though is that these small pasta sculptures are domestic works of art that came about through ingenuity and the need to make something to eat. We should approach cavatelli as people have for hundreds of years, finding a way to cave a nub of dough .... the aim of all [methods] is to create both a cave and a sauce-catching surface. Because at the end of the day, catching the sauce, that is the aim.”

I imagined that Rachel used Italian sausages (which you can buy from most good Italian delis) for the sausagemeat rather than the English style you might use for stuffing but while she says yes, for preference, any good sausagemeat will do.

There is also a wonderful footnote (below) on how to get the best out of garlic which is well worth reading.

Cavatelli with sausage, mint and tomato

Cavasuneddi or cavatelli con salsiccia, menta e pomodoro

Serves 4

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

4 tablespoons olive oil

400g sausage meat, crumbled

150ml white wine

400g ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

a sprig of fresh mint

salt

450g fresh or 400g dried cavatelli, orecchiette, fusilli or casarecce

grated pecorino and red chilli flakes, to serve

In a capacious pot over a medium-low heat, fry the crushed garlic in the olive oil. Add the crumbled sausage and stir until all pinkness has gone.

Pour in the wine and raise the heat. When the wine has evaporated, add the diced tomatoes and cook for another 5–10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Finally, add the mint leaves and salt to taste.

Cook and drain the cavatelli, put them into the pot with the sauce and let them simmer for a few minutes, stirring and adding some of the cooking water if needed. Serve, passing round grated pecorino and red chilli flakes for those who want them.

A note about garlic

While some would have us believe garlic is a fixed star, it varies massively in strength and pungency. This is to do with variety, but more so with age. Garlic is a spring vegetable – young bulbs have white skin and tender cloves with a sweet, sunny fragrance, with which you can be careless with quantity. As garlic gets older its skin turns translucent and flaky and the cloves take on a greater pungency and power. Which is great, but you need to take care, also pull out any green shoot that has developed inside. Too old and garlic can be acrid and a bit of a bully. Be reassured, garlic is no good at hiding, the smell as you open a clove tells you everything. Then prepare accordingly, also to your personal taste. It is all about surface area. Peel and gently crush with the back of a knife or the heel of your hand so the clove is broken but still whole, for a gentle fragrance (whole means it can be pulled out if you wish). Peel and slice thinly for a stronger flavour. Peel and mince for the strongest. In all three cases always put the garlic into a cold pan with cold oil (fat) and then on a gentle heat. To start, warm rather than fry garlic, to encourage and coax out the flavour, then progress to a gentle sizzle but not much more; too hot and the garlic will burn and, regardless of how young or carefully prepared, it will turn into a bitter bully. Store garlic out of the fridge.

Extracted from An A-Z of Pasta by Rachel Roddy, published by Penguin Fig Tree at £25. Photograph by Jonathan Lovekin.

What to drink: As the sauce includes white wine I’d be inclined to drink a white wine with it though given it’s meat-based a red would also do. If you want to keep it local you could chose a Sicilian or Southern Italian white though I often find the wines we get here are too fruity. You really just want a simple carafe wine of the kind you get in a trattoria so I’d personally go for something like a verdicchio or vernaccia. A simple Sicilian red like a young nero d’avola would work too but as Rachel told me when I interviewed her for my piece on wine with pasta in the Guardian you don’t drink anything from outside your immediate area and the house wine is just fine.

Tomato and tapenade tart

The most perfect Provençal-style summer tart from Alex Jackson's evocative book Sardine, named after his former London restaurant

Alex writees: This tart is extremely simple. Given the right tomatoes, it’s a highlight of the summer table. At Sardine, we wait until the heavy, deep-coloured Amalfi bull’s heart tomatoes are in season and throw over some datterini or small plum tomatoes to fill in the gaps. A sprinkling of fragrant basil at the end is essential, as well as a drizzle of your best olive oil. Nyons olives make amazing tapenade, but any soft black olives will do nicely.

Tomato & Tapenade Tart

Makes 1 large tart (enough for 4 people for lunch or lots of small squares for a party)

For the tart:

4 bull’s heart tomatoes

1 x 500-g/1lb 2-oz block of pre-rolled puff pastry

A handful of small Italian plum tomatoes, red and yellow if possible

Olive oil

1 bunch of basil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the tapenade:

100g/3 1⁄2oz black olives, drained of any brine or oil and pitted

1⁄8 garlic clove, peeled and crushed to a fine paste

1⁄2 tsp picked thyme leaves

1 salted anchovy fillet, washed and patted dry

1 tsp salted capers, soaked well, washed and drained

1 tsp brandy

4 tsp olive oil

1 tsp red wine vinegar

First, slice the bull’s heart tomatoes into thick 1-cm/1⁄2-inch rounds. Transfer to a sieve (strainer) suspended over a bowl and season well with salt. Leave the tomatoes for a good half hour to allow the juices to drip into the bowl. This will prevent your pastry becoming soggy if the tomatoes hold a lot of juice.

To make the tapenade, put all the dry ingredients in a blender. Blitz well.

Add the wet ingredients and blitz further until everything is fully incorporated.

The tapenade should be very smooth.

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Next, roll out – or simply unfurl, if pre-rolled – the pastry to a rectangle to fit your largest, flat, heavy-based baking tray. Cut a rectangle of parchment paper to the same size, then place the pastry on top. Score a 2-cm/3⁄4-inch border all around the edges of the pastry. This pastry border will puff up around the filling.

Put the baking tray (without the pastry) in the oven to pre-heat for 10 minutes.

To assemble the tart, top the pastry inside the scored border with a generous smearing of tapenade. Arrange the sliced tomatoes in a single layer over the tapenade. Halve the small tomatoes, season with salt, and use them to fill any gaps. Drizzle the tart filling with olive oil and grind over some black pepper.

Remove the hot tray from the oven, slide in the tart on the parchment paper and return the tray to the oven. Bake the tart for 30 minutes, or until the pastry borders are puffed and crisp, the base is a light golden brown (lift the tart tentatively with a spatula to check) and the tomatoes are soft, squidgy and just started to take on a little colour.

Remove the tart from the oven, season lightly with a little flaky sea salt and black pepper, and scatter over the torn basil leaves. Allow the tart to cool on its tray, then slice into squares while still just warm. Drizzle with your best olive oil before serving.

What to drink: a Provençal rosé would be the obvious match with this summery tart but you could also enjoy a crisp white like a Vermentino or a Picpoul de Pinet.

Extracted from Sardine: Simple seasonal Provençal cooking by Alex Jackson, published by Pavilion Books. Photograph © Matt Russell

Uyen Luu's Vietnamese Chicken salad

I don't know how often you turn to Asian-inspired salads at this time of year but I find myself making them more and more. Here's a classic Vietnamese salad from Uyen Luu's Vietnamese to inspire you.

Uyen writes: "This is a version of a classic salad that is seen at all celebrations, even if it is a weekend gathering.

Don’t let that stop you from enjoying a burst of flavour on a weeknight. You can use up a leftover roast chicken or buy a cooked rotisserie chicken. You don’t have to poach the chicken from scratch if you have leftovers.

Prep the vegetables beforehand and assemble when you are ready to serve.

CHICKEN SALAD WITH SUGAR SNAP PEAS, VIETNAMESE CORIANDER & SHALLOTS

GỎI GÀ HÀNH TÍM ĐẬU HÀ LAN

Serves 6–8

For the salad

1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) whole corn-fed, free-range, organic chicken

400 g (14 oz) sugar snap peas, thinly sliced lengthways

10 radishes, thinly sliced

10 Vietnamese coriander (cilantro) sprigs, leaves picked (or Thai basil, mint or coriander), roughly snipped

small handful of coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped

handful of roughly chopped pistachios

seeds of ½ pomegranate (optional)

For the shallot pickle

4 round shallots, sliced as thinly as possible

3 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar

pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing

5 tbsp crushed pistachios

3 bird’s eye chillies, de-seeded and finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

3 tbsp maple syrup

5 tbsp lime juice (from about 2–3 limes)

5 tbsp fish sauce

To serve

prawn crackers

Fill a very large saucepan with 3 litres (100 fl oz/ 12½ cups) of boiling water, season with salt and add the chicken. Reduce to a simmer, cover and poach for 60–80 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken) until the juices run clear when you pierce the thickest part of the thigh and the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Meanwhile, reserve some pistachios to garnish, then mix together all the remaining dressing ingredients in a screw-topped jar and shake well.

Taste for the balance of sweet, sour, salty and heat and adjust as necessary.

To make the shallot pickle, mix the shallots with the vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside for about 20 minutes.

Mix the radishes, sugar snap peas and any other vegetables you’re using in a large salad bowl.

Add the Vietnamese coriander.

When the chicken is cooked, leave to cool. Tear off the meat along the grain and season with pepper. Add this to the salad bowl along with the pickled shallots and its juices.

When ready to serve, toss the salad together with the dressing. Garnish with the coriander, pistachios and pomegranate seeds. Serve the salad with the prawn crackers.

Note

—† Try swapping out the sugar snap peas for carrot, papaya, kohlrabi, daikon, courgettes (zucchini), mangetout (snow peas) or a combination of your favourites.

—† You can use the chicken stock to make a delicious chicken rice.

What to drink: My favourite wine choice with Vietnamese food is an Austrian grüner veltliner but an off-dry riesling would also work well.

Extracted from Vietnamese by Uyen Luu (Hardie Grant, £22) Photography: Uyen Luu

Charred Tomatoes with Cool Yoghurt, Pomegranate Molasses and Herbs

An irresistibly more-ish recipe from Helen Graves brilliant book Live Fire which you can also cook on a cast iron griddle

Helen writes: I have made, and will continue to make, many iterations of this tomato and yoghurt arrangement. It’s so, so good. Hot, charred tomatoes in a pomegranate molasses dressing are tumbled on top of cool yoghurt, straight from the fridge. A plate of glorious contrasts.

You may not want to use all the dressing, but personally I love the way it pools into the yoghurt. Obviously, you will want fresh flatbreads or toasted sourdough to really make the most of this.

Setup: Direct cooking

Equipment: Tongs

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Serves: 4

1 garlic clove, crushed

300 g (10½ oz/scant 1¼ cups) natural full-fat yoghurt

1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) cherry tomatoes on the vine

handful of mint leaves, chopped

large handful of basil leaves, torn

handful of pomegranate seeds

Dressing

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

2 teaspoons za’atar (there's a recipe in the book if you want to make your own)

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

3 tablespoons lemon juice

sea salt

— Prepare a barbecue for direct cooking over medium heat.

— Combine the dressing ingredients with a pinch of salt in a clean lidded jar or bowl and shake or whisk to combine.

Set aside.

— Combine the crushed garlic, yoghurt and a pinch of salt in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

— Grill the tomatoes over direct heat for about 5 minutes until charred and soft.

— To serve, spread the garlic yoghurt on a plate. Remove the grilled tomatoes from the vine and combine with the herbs in a bowl. Add two-thirds of the dressing and mix gently.

— Top the yoghurt with the tomato mixture and pour the remaining dressing on top. Add another drizzle of olive oil, a scattering of pomegranate seeds and some more salt, if you like.

To Cook Indoors: Preheat a cast-iron griddle pan over a high heat for at least 5 minutes and use it to char the tomatoes. You could also cook them under the grill – just make sure they get nice and black in places.

What to drink: You'd be unlikely to be having this on its own I suspect but a crisp white like a sauvignon blanc, a dry rosé or a light red like a frappato would all work well.

From Live Fire by Helen Graves, published by Hardie Grant at £26. Photography by Rob Billington