Recipe of the day

11 April 2012

Preparation: 20 minutes. Cooking: 20 minutes. Serves 4-6

Franco Taruschio is one of my food heroes. I got to know him when he and his wife Ann ran The Walnut Tree Inn near Abergavenny. Opened by them in 1963, this seminal restaurant set a style and standard embraced by many of this country's best known chefs, and it's still going strong under new ownership.

Franco was born in the Marche region of Italy and trained as a chef in Bellagio. These days he spends his time giving weekend residential cookery courses specialising in his native cooking (call 01989 562353 for details). He also acts as consultant chef to The Phoenix in Putney and writes cookbooks.

His latest is appropriately called 100 Great Pasta Dishes (Kyle Cathie, £14.99). It's a godsend for pasta lovers and includes his famous interpretation of vincisgrassi (an ancient, lasagne-style assembly made with fresh pasta and a rich meat sauce) and other elaborate baked dishes, as well as everyday dishes like this one.

Franco makes his version with fresh tomatoes but if you resort to canned tomatoes as I did, it makes a superb store-cupboard supper to eat at any time of the year.

Traditionally, says Franco, it's eaten on Christmas Eve. Do not, he warns, be tempted to serve it with grated Parmesan cheese. Franco, incidentally, is cooking at The Phoenix (call 020 8780 3131 for details) every day during the week of 4 November. Don't delay, book now.

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves
500g ripe plum tomatoes or 400g can Italian peeled tomatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
200g can tuna in olive oil
8 oil-preserved anchovy fillets
1 tbsp salt-cured capers
8 green olives
8 black olives
salt and coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
pinch of dried chilli flakes

To cook

Peel and finely chop the garlic. If using fresh tomatoes, cover them with boiling water, count to 20, drain and peel. Remove the core, quarter the tomatoes, scrape away the seeds and coarsely chop the flesh. If using canned tomatoes, strain and coarsely chop them.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the garlic gently, stirring constantly until golden. Add the tomatoes, stir well, then leave to simmer and thicken for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, drain the tuna and flake into pieces. Drain the anchovy fillets and chop into little pieces. Rinse the capers thoroughly to remove all the salt, then chop them coarsely. If resorting to "normalî capers preserved in vinegar, rinse them under running water and squeeze dry before chopping. Slice the flesh off the olives in big chunks, then slice thinly.
Add the tuna, anchovies, capers and olives to the pan, and season well with pepper. Check to see if salt is required, bearing in mind the anchovies are already very salty. Stir thoroughly and allow all the ingredients to heat through, then stir in the parsley and dried chilli flakes.
Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to packet instructions until al dente. Drain, turn into a large, warmed serving dish, pour over the sauce and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately.

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