Although you may not agree with me, I feel that August is a great month for the Southern Hemisphere. Frankly, what’s not to enjoy? It is in August that the best seasonal fruits and vegetables drop in price, culminate, force you to salivate over their colours, their variety. Some articles of wonderful produce greet the shelves like cherries, oranges and pineapple, that for months before, have known only pickles, preserves and candied forms. Most importantly, August means a time for embracing the limbo of seasons, desiring the incredible and exciting experimentation with recipes given to you; embrace the variety of life. After all, Mother Nature didn’t invest in four seasons in a single year for nothing!
The air, although warm and sympathetic to Spring, remains weeping for Winter with some chilly nights and southerly breezes, that have forced us to hold on to those raincoats, gumboots and unsightly leather jackets for just a while longer. Some of us are even brave enough to greet the sandy surf with our bleached-white toes and ankles. While this is all well and good in passing speech and perhaps a muse for the poet, what does it all mean for the culinare? Perhaps, just like me, you are shaking your head in disappointment, rubbing the soil from your hands on your cooking apron and looking and feeling utterly lost for ideas.
The Wild Thyme and Sweet Pea philosophy is that, with all things gastronomic in August, it all starts with a handful of fresh, late-Winter herbs, some finely sliced garlic, a healthy helping of sea salt and a pot of steaming pasta cooked to perfection. August marks a crossroad between seasons and also represents a heartening adventure. Soups, pickles, sweets and treats are ready to waft from your kitchen, making use of all that is left over and all that is new.
As is typical of the harvest of late-August and the near beginning of Spring, I am often left with the garden bounty of a myriad of herbs, vegetables and fruits, that are so lovely and yet so difficult to integrate into something filling and enticing. The Winter months are so easily and so often left to soup and legumes — which, on their own, are a great way to go. But seldom do we here of pasta dishes being made and eaten without a warm liquid accompaniment (Okay, I lied. We all have our scarlet, smooth vino to sip) in the cold, or the occurrence of pasta in a soup or legume base.
As an Italian adjective on its own, this recipe takes it name from the word arrabiatta, which means ‘angry’ or ‘irritable’, though in its use in English, it has become associated with any variety of pasta dishes incorporating only hot chilli, olive oil and salt. Here, we have made the best possible use of our seasonal herbs through basil, parsley, oregano, marjoram and thyme, simmered in fresh, home-made tomato puree, sun-ripened and sweetened with a pinch of caster sugar and bodied by simmering in a dark red wine. Above all else, a pungent, biting fresh chili that is incorporated, either through a paste with a pinch of lime or through a straight cut pepper.
The trick? Cooking the chili pepper (seeds included) in the frying garlic and salt will coat the oil in the natural pigment of the chili, adding a wonderful crimson colour and imparting the spicy heat into the dish. Use only as much as you can handle, though the vinegar-essence of the chili is the highlight of the meal. Parsley and the other herbs are diced up finely, and added first through the pasta once it has been cooked and strained. Remain a bit of the pasta water carrying the starch-rich suspension for integration with our chili oil.
The variety and true diversity of your arrabiata pasta dish is the compliment of fresh, sweet grated zucchini (or squash) and a few finely sliced florets of broccoli. Add parmesan cheese as a garnish and serve, piping hot, with either a chilled crisp dry white, a clean-finish beer or a full-bodied red, fruity and easy on the palate.
INGREDIENTS
250-500g spaghetti, bunched and snapped in half
2 tablespoons pure olive oil
bunch fresh parsley and basil
sprinkle fresh or dried marjoram, thyme and oregano
1 cup red wine (either cask wine or Cabernet Sauvignon)
chili paste or 2 long red chili peppers, finely sliced (seeds included)
pinch of sea salt
pinch of black pepper
1 small fresh grated zucchini
bunch broccolli, cooked and sliced finely
canned or fresh diced tomato
The Wild Thyme and Sweet Pea project found its roots when it was plucked excitedly from the garden, washed briskly in a basin of water and lovingly left out to dry in a soothing marinade of vision and ambition ... More »
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