You’d be hard pressed to find an adult who hasn’t rustled up one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes. But do you know what I miss? Devouring his food without lifting a finger. Thankfully, he’s back at it, but this time we needn’t even leave the house. His new food venture with Taster, Pasta Dreams, is delivering Italian-inspired food straight to our front doors.
Wholly comforting, delicious and somehow still warm and al dente, it’s the product of much trial and error, says Oliver. ‘A lot of it is about the pasta shapes and the sauces we’ve paired them with. The casarecce that we use in one of my favourite dishes, the Cacio x Carbonara, is a great example. Casarecce is short and twisted, so it’s perfect for holding oozy sauces without clumping together.’ And when it comes to Italian inspiration, there’s one person he still looks up to. ‘When I was at catering college, I really wanted to learn how to make the perfect pasta and one of the teachers told me that there was only one man to learn this from: Gennaro [Contaldo]. I managed to get a place in the pastry section and wangled my way in to meet him. I honestly don’t think there’s anything about Italian cooking that he doesn’t know — he’s an absolute legend.’
When he’s not eating his own pasta he says Padella and The River Café, ‘where it all began’, are his favourites. And his top tip for making the fresh stuff at home? ‘All the nonnas I met while travelling around Italy rolled pasta with their trusty rolling pins, so get stuck in and roll away until it’s nice and thin,’ he says.
Can’t be arsed? There’s always delivery… (taster.com)
