pancetta, radicchio and lemon linguine

i have dozens of cookery books but still love nothing more than having the opportunity to root around someone else’s collection. ideally i have a piece of paper to hand and i’ll make notes about recipes or ingredient combinations which i want to try.

i recently had the opportunity to do this with sarah raven’s garden cookbook which my friend julia has, and i now have a small piece of notepaper with a dozen different ideas scribbled on it. there are no quantities listed but hopefully that won’t be a problem!

the first dish i tried was her radicchio and lemon linguine. radicchio is something i love raw as part of a salad, but have not had much success with i’ve tried to cook it – braising in stock resulted in a bitter inedible dish which was binned rather than eaten.

the linguine was much more successful so i am sending it over to ruth at once upon a feast for the 100th round of presto pasta nights! happy 100th ruth!

pancetta, radicchio and lemon linguine* (serves 2)

40-75g smoked pancetta pieces

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely sliced

linguine for 2

100-150g radicchio, shredded

100ml white wine

10g knob of butter

zest of a lemon

100ml double cream

a handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley

put your pasta on to cook. fry the pancetta in a non-stick pan over a low heat. as it releases its fat, add the garlic and shallot cook gently until they soften.

add the radicchio to the pancetta and onion mix with the white wine and sauté until the radicchio wilts. add the butter, lemon zest and cream and toss with the pasta. add the parsley, season to taste and serve with parmesan.

* based on a sarah raven recipe