Pasta and Magic

Pasta and Magic Pasta & Magic: Oil Sauces, published 2/9/25. Pre-order at www.pastaandmagic.com

Happy Carbonara Day. Today you’ll see thousands of pictures of pasta covered custard. Many of them will include the word...
06/04/2026

Happy Carbonara Day. Today you’ll see thousands of pictures of pasta covered custard. Many of them will include the word ‘authentic’ and ‘traditional’ in their captions. And 99% of them will be utterly wrong…. Because Carbonara was an impromptu experiment centuries before it became codified and purified by the carbonara zealots, beginning a couple of decades ago.

Here’s the closest you’ll get to one of the earliest combinations of the internet’s most posted pasta…. Yolk and pecorino sauce, black pepper and guanciale and Umbrian sausage…. Because one of the first recorded recipes of what we now call Carbonara was born in the town of Monteleone di Spoleto in Umbria. Before it was culinarily appropriated by Rome… and hundreds of years before it was rediscovered and repackaged with the 1944 Liberation of Rome origin story, then the US and Uk cream varieties, and so on. To read the full history of Carbonara, look out for my forthcoming book, Pasta & Magic: Dairy Sauces.

Fettuccine in mascarpone and sage sauce with sausage and green chilli. Fettuccine from , mascarpone from , sausages fro...
23/03/2026

Fettuccine in mascarpone and sage sauce with sausage and green chilli. Fettuccine from , mascarpone from , sausages from

Better than Norma. Bucatini in garlic and anchovies, fried, chopped melanzane and slivers of baby plum tomatoes. Fresh r...
16/03/2026

Better than Norma. Bucatini in garlic and anchovies, fried, chopped melanzane and slivers of baby plum tomatoes. Fresh red jalapeño chillis and loads of pecorino.

More recipes like this in my book Pasta & Magic: Oil Sauces, www.pastaandmagic.com

Happy 2026! Today’s the first ever Amatriciana Day and I’m setting off to well and truly p**s off as many of the puris...
05/03/2026

Happy 2026! Today’s the first ever Amatriciana Day and I’m setting off to well and truly p**s off as many of the purists as I can.

Why? Because one of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to consign words like AUTHENTIC and TRADITIONAL to the dustbin of food writing. I’ll tell you all exactly why in a forthcoming article and video. For the moment, if you’re tempted, think twice. Don’t use those words, ever again.

So before I scarper as a fugitive from the Amatriciana police, enjoy these few snaps of my Yellow Amatriciana - which I’m going to call ‘authentically different.’

Spaghettoni, Yellow tomatoes, pecorino, guanciale and chilli, all of which came from apart from the guanciale which came from

Fettuccine in gorgonzola and black olive sauce with prosciutto cotto. More recipes like this in my forthcoming book Past...
04/03/2026

Fettuccine in gorgonzola and black olive sauce with prosciutto cotto. More recipes like this in my forthcoming book Pasta & Magic : Dairy Sauces www.pastaandmagic.com

Pappardelle in mascarpone, nutmeg and garlic sauce with prawns and spinach. Look out for more recipes like this in my fo...
02/03/2026

Pappardelle in mascarpone, nutmeg and garlic sauce with prawns and spinach.

Look out for more recipes like this in my forthcoming book, Pasta & Magic: Dairy Sauces … www.pastaandmagic.com

Pesto & prawn lasagne. Because I can.
24/02/2026

Pesto & prawn lasagne. Because I can.

Reginelle from in porcini and chestnut mushroom sauce with sausage meat ( ).Find more recipes like this in my book Past...
19/02/2026

Reginelle from in porcini and chestnut mushroom sauce with sausage meat ( ).
Find more recipes like this in my book Pasta & Magjc: Oil Sauces, available at www.pastaandmagjc.com

Tagliatelle with sage oil, artichokes and sausage. Tagliatelle, artichokes and sausage meat from .More recipes like this...
18/02/2026

Tagliatelle with sage oil, artichokes and sausage. Tagliatelle, artichokes and sausage meat from .
More recipes like this in my book Pasta & Magic Oil Sauces, available at: www.pastaandmagic.com

Linguine from with prawns and chilli.
17/02/2026

Linguine from with prawns and chilli.

Tagliatelle alla Renaiola - This is a variation of a recipe that isn’t often found outside the city of Pisa in Tuscany -...
16/02/2026

Tagliatelle alla Renaiola - This is a variation of a recipe that isn’t often found outside the city of Pisa in Tuscany - there it’s cooked with cima di rapa instead of friarielli and smoked herring instead of smoked mackeral, but the differences are negligible, especially if you live somewhere like London and the only thing close to cima di rapa are friarielli. But these aren’t ordinary Friarielli. They’re fresh-frozen friarielli I bought in and are a massive improvement over having to use friarielli out of a jar! No, they don’t taste the same as fresh but this is February in post-Brexit Britain.

Bucatini alla Paolina -a taste relative of Naples’ Spaghetti alla Samorza, I’d call Palermo’s ‘Paolina’ is another monas...
01/02/2026

Bucatini alla Paolina -a taste relative of Naples’ Spaghetti alla Samorza, I’d call Palermo’s ‘Paolina’ is another monastic masterpiece (it’s attributed to the 16th century monks of the lOrdine dei Minimi, founded by San Francesco di Paola, from whom the sauce gets its name).

But here’s the USP - Anchovies, Cloves and Cinnamon (there are variations which also add almonds, broccoli or cauliflower too!)… a handful of flavours that are subtly but characteristically and unmistakably Sicilian.

Tomatoes from

anchovies, oil and panini for the pangrattato and Bucatini (helpfully explained as a form of spaghetti) from

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