Recipe of the month

Try this recipe from food writer Lucy Young …

SPAGHETTI VENETO

Ingredients:

50g (2oz) pine nuts

250g (9oz) baby spinach, washed and coarsely chopped

150g (5oz) dolcelatte cheese

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

150ml (f fl oz) single cream

225g (8oz) sun-blushed tomatoes, coarsely chopped

350g (12oz) spaghetti

Salt and pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

Dry-fry the pine nuts in a non-stick frying pan until golden all over – watch them like a hawk! Set aside.

Wilt the spinach in a large non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Mash the cheese and garlic together in a bowl and gradually mix in the cream to make a paste, until just blended. Add the cheese paste and sun-blushed tomatoes to the spinach and stir until hot.

Boil the spaghetti in a large pan of salted water until just tender, about 10 minutes, or according to the instructions on the packet. Drain well.

Add the spaghetti to the frying pan, and stir briefly over a high heat. Season with black pepper and nutmeg, and turn into a warmed serving dish. Sprinkle the warm pine nuts over the top and serve at once.

To cook in the Aga

Fry in a large non-stick frying pan on the boiling plate. Boil the spaghetti in salted boiling water on the boiling plate.

Tip

Sun-blushed tomatoes are a huge improvement on the sun-dried ones – the colour, texture and flavour are all better. In different supermarkets they are called different things – sun-ripened, half-blushed, sun-softened – but they are all similar.