Carluccio's Recipe: Pennoni con Salsa di Sedano Rapa

Antonio Carluccio, of eponymous restaurant fame, has released a new cookbook of Italian pasta dishes, soups, main courses, salads and desserts for the first time in twenty years.

Antonio Carluccio pasta recipes

Not surprisingly, the focus of Antonio Carluccio’s Pasta is Italy’s most iconic dish. The chef gives us a step-by-step guide on how to make fresh pasta, offering a masterful blend of traditional (spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino) and unusual (chocolate fettuccine) recipes.

This classic pasta is tossed with slices of ham to make a hearty dish.

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Large Penne Pasta with Celeriac Sauce

This is a new recipe. I have used celeriac, which I like very much, reduced to a pulp to form the basis of the sauce. The addition of ham in small strips (or smoked ham) lifts the sauce and makes it very appetising, though for a vegetarian version this can simply be omitted.

INGREDIENTS

Serves four

300g dried large penne, pennoni, with ridges (rigate)
60g Parmesan, freshly grated
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the sauce
50g unsalted butter
1onion, peeled and finely chopped
100g cooked ham, cut into matchstick strips
600g celeriac, peeled and cut into small cubes
About 50ml milk

METHOD

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the ham, and warm through. Set aside.

In a separate pan, cook the celeriac cubes in boiling salted water until very soft, about 10 minutes. Drain and add to the pan with the buttery onion. Squash it down a bit. Add the milk to make it more liquid, and warm through gently.

Cook the pennoni in plenty of boiling salted water for 8–10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and mix with the sauce in the pan. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and parsley, and lots of black pepper.

ALTERNATIVES

You could use macaroni, sedani, elbows or rigatoni.

Recipe extracted from Antonio Carluccio's Pasta by Antonio Carluccio (Quadrille Publishing, Hardback £20)