Papardelle is one of those lovely large pastas and is lovely dressed with this creamy sauce. If you wish you could add a pinch of chilli flakes with the tomatoes to give some background heat to the dish and a scattering of toasted pine kernels is also an option. Skin tomatoes first piercing then placing in a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes.

Ingredients - serves 4

500g fresh papardelle
4 shallots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and finely chopped
6 tomatoes, skinned and diced
25g butter
175ml white wine
4 tbsp crème fraiche
generous bunch of fresh basil
salt, pepper

Method

Add the butter to the frying pan and sauté the chopped shallot and garlic over a low heat to cook without browning (garlic becomes bitter if browned). Add the wine to the pan, raise the heat and reduce to a syrupy consistency and then add the tomatoes. Cook for 2-3 minutes only, you don’t want them reduced to pulp (if you do you may prefer to take the easier route of substituting a can of chopped tomatoes to save on preparation time). Now stir in the crème fraiche, season with salt and pepper and warm through. Add torn basil leaves immediately before serving, reserving some young tips for decorative effect.

Whilst cooking the sauce have a large pan of salted water brought to the boil. Fresh pasta will generally take a mere 2 minutes to cook (check packaging) so timing is of the essence. Plunge the pasta in, cook and drain immediately. Divide the pasta between warmed pasta bowls and spoon creamy basil sauce over. Top all with a basil tip.