I came across this recipe in Anna Del Conte’s memoirs, Risotto with Nettles. Now, there are so many recipes I could borrow from her, and many I have, but this is the one I have to show you here. She introduces it as “hardly a recipe, but I wanted to include it because I haven’t as yet found a child who doesn’t like it”. The minute I read its title – once I’d got over my crossness that she hadn’t told me about it during many years of friendship – I was charmed. Of course it helps that, being a Marmite-addict, I knew it would work. And how it does. I have recently turned traitor and shifted towards the Vegemite side of the world, and this works as well, unsurprisingly, with the antipodean ointment.
I know the combination of pasta and Marmite sounds odd to the point of unfeasibility, but wait a moment. There is a traditional day-after-the-roast pasta dish, in which spaghetti is tossed in chicken stock, and I have eaten shortcut versions of this in Italy (recreated guiltlessly in my own kitchen) which use a crumbled stock cube, along with some butter, olive oil, chopped rosemary and a little of the pasta cooking water to make a flavoursome sauce for spaghetti. If you think about it, Marmite offers saltiness and savouriness the way a stock cube might.
I’m glad this recipe is here, and I thank Anna for it. But even when it’s not an Anna-recipe, I think of her whenever I cook pasta, remembering her two ordinances: one, that the water you cook pasta in should be as salty as the Mediterranean; and two, that pasta should not be too officiously drained, but rather be “con la goccia”, that’s to say with some cooking water still clinging to it, as this makes it easier to incorporate the sauce. It was she who taught me to scoop out some of the cooking water just before draining the pasta, to help the sauce amalgamate later if necessary.
Serves 4-6, depending on age and appetite
dried spaghetti 375g
unsalted butter 50g
Marmite 1 teaspoon or more, to taste
parmesan cheese freshly grated, to serve
Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water, according to the packet instructions.
When the pasta is almost cooked, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the Marmite and 1 tablespoon of the pasta water, mixing thoroughly to dissolve. Reserve ½ a cup of pasta water; then drain the pasta and pour the Marmite mixture over the drained spaghetti, adding a little reserved pasta water to amalgamate if required. Serve with plenty of grated parmesan.
From Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson (Vintage, £26)
