Pasta is the ultimate winter comfort food, offering a warm, hearty meal that helps to keep the chill at bay. Versatile and inexpensive, January is the perfect time to experiment with rich, indulgent dishes from the comfort of your own kitchen.
One such savoury favourite is a dish called ‘Pasta e Patate’. Made with guanciale or pancetta, rosemary, potatoes and pasta, it’s a simple treat that’s good for the soul.
Tiktok cook and enthusiastic foodie, Corre Larkin, has shared her own recipe for this carb heavy delight with her 400,000 plus followers. As part of her Peasant Food series, the content creator who goes by the moniker @cocolarkincooks focuses her cooking talents on dishes that have passed down through generations.
Speaking about her own version of the dish, she said: “This is another dish you’re only gonna find in someone’s house rather than a restaurant. It’s also my son’s favorite.”
Whipping up a delicious looking bowl of steaming hot pasta she talks her followers through the recipe, made in a traditional Italian way.
She starts by saying: “Dice your guanciale or pancetta and slow cook on a medium to low heat. Little tip I do when I’m cooking guanciale or pancetta, I tip it to the side and let the meat fry in its own fat.”
Carre then talks about adding the meat back the pan along with “your mirepoix” – this is is a mixture of diced vegetables cooked with fat for a long time on low heat.
To make your own perfect Pasta e Potate dish at home, you will need:
Ingredients:
- Guanciale (or pancetta), diced
- Mirepoix (chopped onion, carrot, and celery)
- Tomato paste
- Fresh rosemary (to taste)
- Salt (to taste)
- two cherry tomatoes, chopped
- One to two potatoes (depending on size), diced
- Pasta
- Water
- Parmesan cheese
Method:
- Prepare the guanciale: Dice the guanciale and cook it over medium-low heat.
- Cook in its own fat: Tip the guanciale to the side of the pan, letting it fry in its own fat until crispy.
- Add mirepoix: Once the guanciale is crispy, add in your mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery), stir, and cover the pan. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat.
- Add seasonings and tomatoes: After 10 minutes, stir in tomato paste, rosemary, a little salt, and the chopped cherry tomatoes.
- Add potatoes: Mix in the diced potatoes and bring the dish to a boil.
- Simmer: Once boiling, cover the pan and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft and fully cooked.
- Mash potatoes: Use a masher to mash some of the potatoes for a rustic texture.
- Add pasta: Stir in your chosen pasta, and cover it with enough water to submerge the noodles.
- Season and cook pasta: Add a pinch of salt, then cook on medium heat until the pasta is about 90% done and the liquid has mostly absorbed.
- Finish with cheese: Remove the pan from the heat and stir in Parmesan cheese, allowing it to melt into the dish.
Corre said: “I love this dish cause like, is it a pasta, is it a soup? It’s somewhere in between.”
She suggests serving it up with a drizzle of olive oil, a little bit or parmesan cheese and some celery leaves.