Tuscan pasta with kale, leeks and sausage, traditionally served with pappardelle, is another great dish for those who like pasta but can't eat or don't like tomatoes. I'm doing it here according to the recipe my father recorded in his journal in the 1960s, though it's easily turned lactovegetarian. It's neither slow-cooked nor a quick dish, but easy to cook with relatively few ingredients.

This dish of pasta with celery and basil sauce, served here with broad beans, is an amalgam of a fondly remembered dish from childhood via what happens when you start nosing around in the British Library. Highfalutin bibliographic japes aside, it's also easy to cook.

This pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon is one of my favourite summer dishes for when you're hungry but want something a little refreshing. It's certainly filling, but it is also light with the flavours of warm weather; citrus and green things. Better still, it takes very little effort to cook.