Pasta e Patate

Pasta with Potatoes

Ask my wife what her most disliked dish is and she will promptly reply in her Molinarese accent pasta e patate. I simply like to try different variations of the original recipe, if there is one. I do not think for a minute that Pasta e Patate was born from a Michelin starred Chef recipe book but rather from pure necessity and availability.....This is one of my versions, my daughters seem to enjoy it when I cook it.

Ingredients

3 medium potatoes diced small bite size

100gr of pancetta diced small

1 large onion diced fine

½ celery stalk diced fine

100gr diced Italian tomatoes

2 garlic cloves crushed

Basil finely cut

Olive oil

Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Red chilli optional

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the pancetta and cook for two to three minutes, add the onion, celery and garlic. Sauté until all the ingredients are fragrant and tender. Add the potatoes and tomato and cook for a few minutes. Add the basil and freshly ground pepper and cover with water by about 5 centimetres. Bring to the boil and throw in the ditali. Ditali is a small tubular pasta shape or you could use pasta ammiscat, which various shapes of pasta that combined give you an amazing array of texture. Cook until the pasta is al dente; only add a little more water or stock while the pasta is cooking if required. The soup should be dense with hardly any broth at all. Adust the seasoning, add the Parmigiano or pecorino, serve at once.

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