- Date
- Tag
- Kitchen
- Length
- 6 min read
What My Kitchen Smells Like at Nine in the Morning
A pot on the stove, the shutters half open and the day’s sauce.
A Table in the Town
One family recipe every Thursday, with the story that goes with it.
Free, every Thursday · 9,400 readers
What My Kitchen Smells Like at Nine in the Morning
A pot on the stove, the shutters half open and the day’s sauce.
The Lemon Tree in the Courtyard
What we do with forty lemons, from granita to preserved peel.
My Mother’s Recipe Notebook
A stained notebook, a lemon beside it and four pages I still use.
Nothing Moves Between Two and Five
A street in the afternoon heat and a lunch worth waiting for.
Washing on the Balcony, Sauce on the Stove
How a small flat feeds six on a Sunday.
Fish From the Harbour at Dawn
What the boats bring in and the three ways I cook it.
Why the Pasta Board Is Never Washed
Flour, a wooden board and a habit of sixty years.
Tomato Sauce for the Whole Winter
A day of jars, and the one rule about salt.
Recipe
Busiate With Pesto Trapanese, Rolled by Hand
- Prep
- 1 h
- Cook
- 10 min
- Total
- 1 h 10 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
For the busiate
- 320 g semola rimacinata (fine durum flour), plus extra for dusting
- 160 ml warm water
- A pinch of fine salt
For the pesto
- 500 g ripe tomatoes
- 60 g blanched almonds, lightly toasted
- 1 small garlic clove
- A large handful of basil leaves (about 30 g)
- 70 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 40 g aged pecorino, finely grated
- Salt
Method
- Mix the flour and salt on a board, add the warm water and knead for 8 minutes until the dough is smooth and firm. Wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
- Pinch off pieces of dough and roll each into a rope about as thick as a pencil. Cut into 6 cm lengths.
- Wind each length around a thin knitting needle or skewer, press down and roll it back and forth, then slide off. It should be a loose corkscrew. Dust with flour and leave on the board.
- Cut a cross in the base of each tomato, cover with boiling water for 30 seconds, then peel and halve them. Squeeze out the seeds.
- Pound the almonds and garlic with a pinch of salt in a mortar, or pulse in a food processor. Add the basil and tomatoes and crush to a rough sauce.
- Stir in the olive oil and pecorino. Taste and add salt if it needs it.
- Boil the busiate in plenty of salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until they rise and are tender. Drain, keeping a cupful of the water.
- Toss the pasta with the pesto in the warm pan, off the heat, adding a splash of the cooking water to loosen it. Serve at once.
Digital downloads
Downloads
- PDF · 48 pages$12
Everyday Sicilian Recipe Booklet
Thirty family recipes from the letters, all in grams.
- PDF · 20 pages$9
Pasta Shapes Handbook
Busiate, cavatelli and four more shapes, rolled by hand.
- PDF · 2 pages$5
Lemon Kitchen Card
Twelve uses for lemons from the courtyard tree, on one card.
- PDF · 6 pages$7
Sunday Lunch Planner
Plan a table for six with the order to cook each dish.
About
About me
I crossed the strait twice a day for most of my working life, and I ate at my mother’s table before and after every shift. When I retired I started writing down what she cooked, in the order she cooked it, because nobody had done it before me.
These are plain recipes for a small kitchen: pasta, tomatoes, lemons, fish when the boats are in. I give the quantities in grams and tell you where I cut corners. Readers write in, and some Thursdays the letter is an answer.