Pasta with walnut sauce

So simple but so, so good is how best to introduce this recipe. I’ve used orecchiette (‘little ears’) here but any small pasta shapes will do. It’s very rich, so it would be good to serve it with a simple salad of cos lettuce, watercress and a sharp lemony dressing.

Serves 2

Pasta with walnut sauce

Ingredients
175g orecchiette pasta
75g shelled walnuts
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 heaped tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
4 level tbsp mascarpone

Method

Begin this by chopping half the walnuts finely together with the garlic in a mini-chopper or small processor.

Then combine this mixture in a bowl with the Parmesan cheese and mascarpone, adding a good seasoning of salt flakes and ground pepper.

Now bring a pan containing two litres of salted water to the boil and warm two pasta bowls. Add the pasta to the water, give it one good stir and let it simmer for about 12 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the rest of the walnuts (not too finely this time).

Drain the pasta in a colander, return it to the pan and quickly stir in the walnut sauce, keeping the pan over a low heat as you do so to heat the sauce through.

Serve the pasta with the extra nuts sprinkled over and some more Parmesan on the table.

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