Skip to main content

Summer's best pasta dish.

First the intense heat went away and then the rain came and then that went away and another morning dawned on a big blue six-o'clock-in-the-morning sky as fresh and innocent as a day in 1960.

A sea breeze hummed softly to itself all day and picked up a few leaves and dropped them somewhere else.

Mid-morning, we took a stroll through the shady titree-lined streets to the beach. Far out on the water, but not too far out to be heard, half a dozen jet-skis buzzed around in incoherent circles like demented blowflies on a windowsill, except that you couldn't swat them.

Outside the Blairgowrie cafe, people sat under big umbrellas eating late breakfasts - plates variously piled high with doorstop sourdough toast, clouds of eggs, bacon, mushrooms, smoked salmon, halved fried tomatoes, piles of spinach and sometimes all at the same time; while their dogs lolled around in the sun snapping at flies or waiting for tidbits. (We are no longer accompanied by Goldie, she is now too unwell to go for an extended walk.)

William, bonnetted, sat in his pram waving his arms like windmills. Later, a stroll back up to the house, retracing our steps under the ti-tree. Through the early afternoon William had his longest daytime sleep - almost three hours. He had slept fitfully during the recent heat.

A quiet afternoon, then evening.

Pasta with two cheeses and fresh tomatoes.

Nice and easy. Cook your pasta - I used Da Vinci fettucine (don't you just love their logo!) - then slice a couple of very ripe tomatoes and fold them through the pasta along with some very fresh ricotta. Then shave or grate some parmesan over it, drizzle it with olive oil and give it a good shake of salt and pepper and eat.

Add torn basil leaves if you have any.

Comments