Eat My Words goes on tour

Spaghetti with sweet onion, ‘nduja, and tomato.

Lisbon has our hearts (and our money)

This week the dynamic duo (Fraser and Ben to avoid any confusion) behind London’s best comedy-food-music newsletter (yes it has its own genre) went on tour to Lisbon.

Cultural highlights included watching the Chelsea game in an Irish pub. Food highlights included pastel de natas, salted cod fish, more pastels, octopus, and more pastels. Delicious.

Almost as delicious as this week’s dish for spaghetti with sweet onion, ‘nduja, and tomato…

This week’s album: 
Because Of The Times by Kings of Leon

The Tennessee band’s third album and their only one to reach number one in the UK album charts. I think it’s their best, although the album that followed won a Brit award. It has a great energy and unique vocals. ‘Knocked Up’, ‘On Call’, ‘Ragoo’ and ‘Fans’ are personal highlights.

The queen of onions

This week’s recipe is inspired by a humble onion. Not just any old onion though. A Tropea Onion.

For those not aware, Tropea onions really are quite special. In fact they’re so highly regarded that many refer to them as ‘la regina rossa’ (the red queen). They have an amazing flavour and are incredibly sweet.

That’s the good thing about onions... They provide sweet and savoury notes to a dish while creating a great depth of flavour. Ideal for a pasta dish like this week’s.

Tropea onions are available in some specialist greengrocers and online from Ocado, but don’t worry if you can’t get hold of them. Sub in any high-quality onion that you can find. The way we’ll cook them - low and slow - means that all onions will provide the sweet, savoury, and aromatic combo we’re after.

The town of Tropea is in southern Italy in a region called Calabria. Calabria is also famous for - a spicy spreadable pork sausage/salami - so we’ll add that to the onions, along with tomato, to create a fiery sauce.

Finally, right at the end we’ll scent the sauce with basil to add another sweet and fragrant dimension.

Aforementioned dynamic duo.

What you need

The below serves 2. It takes 5 mins to prep, then 30 mins to cook.

200-220g dried spaghetti
3 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tropea onion (or any high quality onion)
50g ‘nduja (or more if you want an extra kick)
200ml tomato passata (best quality)
4 whole sprigs of basil
10g parmesan or pecorino (finely grated)
Sea salt

Ready, steady, cook

1. Half, peel, and finely slice the onion. Add a saucepan to a medium heat and put in the olive oil. When hot, add the onion along with a generous pinch of salt. Stir well to mix through the oil. After a minute or so, turn the heat down slightly and leave the onions to cook slowly for about 15 mins (or until they’re completely cooked, soft, and sweet).

While the onions cook, bring a pan of salted water to the boil.


2. Add the ‘nduja to the onions. Stir through until completely combined, keeping everything on a low heat.


3. Put your pasta in the water and set a timer for a minute less than the packet suggests for ‘al dente’.


4. While the pasta cooks, add the passata to the ‘nduja and onion mixture. Then turn the heat up slightly and let the sauce bubble for a couple of mins. We want the tomato flavour to remain fresh and vibrant so we’re not going to cook it for very long.

After that, take the basil stalks and rub gently between your hands. Mix through the sauce, turn the heat off, and allow the basil flavour to infuse.


5. When the pasta’s almost ready, remove the basil stalks and put the sauce back on a medium-high heat.


6. When the pasta’s ready, transfer it directly to the sauce using tongs. Stir through the sauce. Leave to cook in the sauce for a minute. Stir occasionally and add some pasta-cooking water (a little at a time) until you get a wonderful velvety sauce consistency.


7. Transfer to warm plates and finish with a generous grating of parmesan or pecorino.

Final thought

Nothing to add this week.

While in Lisbon I converted the back of my neck into a solar panel - which is now producing 1 kWh of energy per hour - so I need to go moisturise.

Enjoy your time in the kitchen.

Fraser

Painting a pretty picture? 

Tag your dishes with #eatmywordslondon, or hit reply to this email with a photo.