You’d know by now that Pasta et Al is all about mindful food. We source locally and seasonally, and buy all things grass-fed, free-range, unpackaged, and covered in soil. And when we’re not making pasta, we grow things, ferment things, jar things, and spend a lot of our time talking about things like permaculture, aquaponics, silvopasture, microbiomes, and the flow of energy through the biosphere. In fact, Little Al has recently (proudly) come up with his own nifty five-year old take on cellular respiration and photosynthesis that he loves to use in explanations of how much we need trees. We ..read more

Disclaimer: This post is a paid partnership with Pastalinda. Like everything that we recommend on our blog, we use and love their products, and hope that you will too! The Story We’re back, and we’re better than ever! After a lengthy cookbook-related creative hiatus, I’m so excited to share with you one of our most delicious recipes yet. South America has always been one of Pasta et Al’s most enthusiastic audiences, so I jumped at the chance to test out a gorgeous Pastalinda machine, with our Argentinian-inspired take on the classic tortellini in brodo. This dish is built on the flavours of t ..read more

Buongiorno! It’s that time of year again… Just. Truth be told, Tomato Day this year only happened because I’m notoriously bad at reading and responding to messages. Life had spun out of control and it was suddenly the end of March with no sauce to be seen, when I received a message from my brother Adam about Tomato Day. I had assumed from the general radio silence that we’d all decided to give it a miss, but there he was asking if it was happening. So I reluctantly spun up some energy and spent the day clearing the garage, unpacking the sauce equipment, and badgering the family into discrete t ..read more

The Story Happy Sunday! We’ve had a few questions lately about double-sided striped pasta. It is a little trickier than laying stripes on top of a second sheet of pasta, but satisfying when you get it right (and of course more versatile in that you get your pattern on both sides). Working on our book over this last year or so, I’ve focused on pairing more complicated pasta with simpler sauces, and vice versa. It just allows you to save a little time on one element, and use that to create something special with another. So the dough and pasta is the focus here, although the confit purée is dece ..read more

This week’s pasta is a quick little dish built on pantry staples. We’ve mixed our pasta dough up with a hit of smoked paprika, turning the typically green foglie d’ulivo into a more autumnal colour (for our northern hemisphere friends). They’re served in a warming but understated brown butter sauce flavoured with garlic, saffron, fennel, pepper berries, and rosemary. One of the easiest doughs to make, turned into a forgivingly rustic pasta shape, served in the easiest of sauces. A perfect short notice treat. To make the dough, mix the dry ingredients together, stir in the water, and then knea ..read more

Disclaimer: This post is a paid partnership with Mutti. Like everything that we recommend on our blog, we use and love their products, and hope that you will too! Print Cavatelli in Sugo with Pine Nuts and Ricotta Salata Course Main Course Cuisine Italian Keyword cavatelli, eggless, passata, Pasta, pine nuts, recipe, Ricotta, ricotta salata, Sugo Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Resting Time 30 minutes Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes Servings 4 Ingredients Pasta 480 g semolina fine 270 ml water Sauce 80 ml olive oil extra virgin 2 cloves garlic minced 700 ml Mutti Passata Toma ..read more

Disclaimer: Our new pettine comes from our generous friend The Coastal Italian. We use and love everything that we recommend on our blog, and hope that you will too! The Story Spinach and ricotta was really my Nonna’s trademark pasta filling, stuffed generously into huge batches of ravioli and cannelloni. With a little Romano cheese, maybe some minced garlic, egg to bind it all, and salt and pepper. Simple perfection, and to this day my favourite filling. Well, this week, we’re turning things inside out. With the help of our gorgeous new pettine, we’re making garganelli, and tossing it through ..read more

Disclaimer: Ziggys Fresh set us up with almost all of the ingredients that we cook with in this post. We use and love everything that we recommend on our blog, and hope that you will too! The Story Pasta, for me, has always been more about an approach to food than a favourite dish. Don’t get me wrong, we make and enjoy it at least once a week, and it is a passion bordering on obsession, but tacos truly vie for my heart. Or my stomach, as it may be. It was only a matter of time before we stuffed some Mexican into our pasta. Because, porque no los dos? This week it’s (admittedly leftover) p ..read more

The Story Though perhaps a little late in life, and unhelpfully complicated by its realities, if I could choose someone to be when I grow up, without a doubt I’d be Inspector Montalbano. Aside from pleasantly relatable traits, such as his warranted, weary grouchiness and exaggerated hand gestures, Montalbano is a man who pays food the respect that it deserves. The novels, and closely-adapted television series, feature a veritable dreamscape of food, and aren’t shy of lengthy pauses in crime-fighting for the sake of a fragrant sun-drenched meal. Even if we can’t all find a few hours in the midd ..read more

Disclaimer: Our pals at Rio Vista Olives sent us the incredible oil that we cook with in this post. Like everything that we recommend on our blog, we use and love it, and hope that you will too! The Story A couple of weeks back I was enjoying a good glass of Montepulciano with a light pork ragu and a side of charred radicchio. How far I’ve come from Fruity Lexia and chip rolls. Anyway, I’d paired it so uncharacteristically well that it occurred to me I should probably stick it all into some sort of tortelli. And so this weekend’s pasta turned out to be a little ode to wine, pairing the dish to ..read more