Pasta with creamy sweet red pepper and pancetta sauce

I came across the recipe for pasta with creamy sweet red pepper and pancetta sauce with notes of fresh basil in Genoa. It is simple and fairly quick to make, but delivers way beyond expectations if you pay attention to a few small details.

Pasta with a view

Not one of the recipes from my father's journals from his travels in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s, rather this is one I encountered myself on a trip scouting for a photography shoot. I came across it in Genoa in a little hipster eatery run by a young couple in the charming neighbourhood of Spianata Castelletto, with its sweeping views out over the harbour, reached by an amazing art nouveau lift to the top of the old citadel.

The art nouvea lift to Spianata Castelletto, Genoa

At that time, it was something of a hub for trendy young things. I'd gone there to try the artisanal wines at a hip local enoteca on the recommendation of a friend, later finding my way to a tiny osteria run by a young couple. I happily accepted being seated at the bar as a single diner so as not to impact on their limited table space. It was a blessing in disguise despite perching on a stool. With its open plan kitchen, I was perfectly placed to chat with Angelo and Olivia as they cooked everyone's supper. They'd lived in London for a while, working in various restaurants there—they weren't impressed by what was passed off as Italian food in the places they worked—before settling in Genoa, whence Angelo hailed, to open their own place. Olivia was originally from a small town outside Florence and the small menu reflected their respective Ligurian and Tuscan roots, sometimes combining both.

Though stylish in a modest, back-to-roots contemporary way, this wasn't a fancy place, but a local restaurant serving up simple—and importantly, affordable—food done well to a mostly trendy, younger crowd of regazzi, who clearly loved the place as their local haunt. There wasn't a tourist in sight.

Perusing the menu and watching as they cooked, I quickly worked out the strategy. With only Angelo and Olivia cooking and one person—Angelo's cousin—covering tables and front-of-house, their focus was on good food that could be pulled together quickly and without too much fuss. Being the only person sitting at the counter that evening, I didn't even have to ask about the recipe. They talked me through it as they tag-team cooked it, working pretty much in front of me.

Olivia explained that the pasta, pappardelle, was typically Tuscan, while the strong basil notes were very much Ligurian—just think of pesto alla Genovese.

This has become one of my go-to pasta dishes when I have cream in the fridge that needs to be used. No surprise then that I'm knocking it up to make use of ingredients bought for seasonal festivities before heading into New Year resolutions. So, no, not a low-fat dish.

Flavour is in the details

When I first cooked this dish myself in Antwerp shortly after getting back from Genoa, I was again reminded of just how delicious it is, almost disproportionately so given how simple it is to cook. But, as I messed about with it a bit on later occasions, I soon realised that its secret lies in not ignoring what might seem small details—using sweet red peppers and not red bell peppers, cutting the onions smaller than usual and softening them slowly in wine, etc. `With this recipe, the small details add up to a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Above all else, one of those details that it is cooked entirely on a low or low-medium heat, apart from the brief period when cooking in the pancetta. This slower cooking at a lower heat makes all the difference in this case.

Cheese savvy

You use the hard cheese—Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano—in two distinct stages in this recipe. The first is in the cooking and the second is as an optional addition at table. The relatively small quantity that goes into the cooking—and it really should not be too much—should be finely grated, but does not need to be the best quality. I find it a great way to make use of those "hard bits" of slightly dried out cheese you end up with at the end of a good piece of parmesan, for example. Use the better stuff at table, if using it at all. I rarely do, finding this rich sauce does not need it.

Salad daze

When I first had this dish in Genoa, it was served with a very simple, classic green leaf salad. The slightly more flamboyant fare with which I am serving it is pretty much for the same reason that I've even cooking this dish tonight: I had things in the fridge I did not want to go to waste. You can serve it with either. Or, indeed, none at all.

This version is for 2 to 3 diners, but you can do the math if you want to cater for a larger group. It scales in a a fairly straightforward way.

Please note that some of the photos reflect this dish cooked in slightly different quantities from those in the recipe below.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• This is one of those Italian sauces where you take your time to soften and cook the onions and sweet red peppers on a low-medium heat. Similarly, don't be in a rush to cook the pancetta. This one of those dishes where slow and steady really wins the race.

• In this recipe, you want to cube the onions smaller than you might ordinarily since the onions are a background flavour rather than an overt ingredient. I am using a variety of very small organic red onions I only recently discovered that aren't much bigger than echalion shallots (hence using 5 rather than 4) but are ideally suited to being cut into small cubes. Similarly, you want to chop the sweet red peppers into smaller pieces than you might for other sauces.

• I'm doing it here with tagliatelle, more usually associated with cooking from Emilia-Romagna, mainly because I also had some fresh tagliatelle that needed to be used. The original dish was with pappardelle, reflecting one of the chef's Tuscan roots. I have tried it with many types of pasta and anything larger or more "wide gauge" works really well; anything with a surface big enough to which the sauce can cling.

Shopping list

for the pasta with creamy sweet red pepper and pancetta sauce

• Approx. 80 to 90g (dried) tagliatelle per diner (or pappardelle, or other "ribbon" pasta)

• 4 small red onions (or brown); finely diced

• 2 large pointed sweet red peppers (aka Romano peppers), finely cubed

• Approx. 125g smoked pancetta; cubed

• 3 cloves of smoked garlic, (or fresh) finely chopped, not grated or crushed

• 4tbspns virgin olive oil

• 1.5tbpsns Italian anchovy sauce (or 2tbspns Worcestershire sauce)

• Approx. 350ml dry white wine

• 100ml single cream

• Approx. 2tbspns Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, finely grated (for cooking)

• 2 tspns of freshly ground black pepper

• A generous clutch of fresh basil; leaves plucked from the stems

• salt to taste

• Additional grated Parmigiano Reggiano for use at table (optional)

for the side salad

• A classic green leaf salad is standard

• But here I am doing a salad of mixed leaves, avocado and lightly roasted small tomatoes

Cooking Method

the pasta with creamy sweet red pepper and pancetta sauce

1. In a reasonably deep pan with a lid, heat half of the olive oil on a low-medium heat. Add the onions and sauté, stirring regularly. When the onions first show signs of softening, season with salt and ground black pepper and stir in. Add approx. 100ml of the wine, stir in and cover. Allow it to cook in the liquid for 4 to 5mins

2. If notably softened by that time—cook for a few minutes longer if not—remove the lid and allow the liquid to cook off

3. Add the sweet peppers and the rest of the olive oil. Stir in as you sauté the combination. When the sweet red peppers start to soften, add the (smoked) garlic and stir in. By now, the pan should be fairly dry. Before the garlic burns, add another 150ml of wine and stir in. Re-cover and simmer very gently for at least 6mins, longer if needed

4. Once both the onions and sweet red peppers are notably very soft, uncover and allow almost all remaining liquid to cook off.

5. Add the pancetta cubes and stir in, initially turning up the heat a little. Ideally, you won't need to add any additional oil as its fats cook into the pan. However, at any sign of sticking, add a few additional dashes of olive oil to prevent sticking/burning

6. Cook, uncovered, stirring almost constantly. When the fatty parts of the pancetta appear less "white", add the anchovy sauce and stir in. When the fatty parts of the pancetta are notably opaque and slightly browned—i.e. "cooked"—pour in another 100ml wine, stir, cover and reduce to a low-to-very-low heat. Be patient as this cooks down—usually about 8 to 10mins. The most important thing here is that the heat in the pan reduces so that the cream does not boil when you add it in the next stage

7. When the liquid is largely cooked off, add the cream and stir in. Continue to stir as you cook it on a low heat, ensuring it does not boil. When it shows signs of thickening, add the parmesan cheese and stir in, seasoning with salt and pepper as needed

8. When nearing optimal consistency, add the basil leaves and stir in as they wilt

9. When the sauce is near optimal consistency (it should slightly cling to the spoon, running off at a slow pace), reduce to a minimal heat, and cover to keep warm, while cooking the pasta, stirring occasionally

10. Cook your pasta—how long it takes will depend on whether it's fresh or dry. When cooked al dente, drain, holding back three or four tablespoons of the "pasta water" to add to the sauce (depending on how thick the sauce has become while keeping it warm)

11. Increase the sauce to a medium heat, stirring in the "pasta water". Then add the drained pasta, working it in to ensure it is coated on all sides—I find tongs best for this. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to rest for a minute or so

12. Plate and take to table with additional Parmigiano Reggiano to sprinkle on top, and any side dishes, such as salad or bread

Alternatives

Apart from the pancetta and the anchovy sauce, this is a lactovegetarian dish. The anchovy sauce is easily substituted with mushroom ketchup that brings the same kind of depth. I have tried various substitutes for the pancetta—such as diced mushrooms—and while these produce a perfectly tasty sauce I find that their own flavours can overshadow the true star of the show: the sweet red peppers. Thus, these days I tend to not add anything additional other than a little extra parmesan to pull up those umami notes. Incidentally, if you don't have mushroom ketchup, add one tablespoon of light soy sauce instead.

It would be a lot more challenging to make it vegan: as I've stated on numerous occasions, I don't have the knowledge of what plant-based substitutes for cream or parmesan cheese may or may not work well and I have never tried them. I would simply do another sauce.

Because of the parmesan cheese, I've never attempted a pescatarian version because I find that the combination of hard cheese and cream don't work well with fish or seafood, individually, maybe; together, no. Thus, if creating a seafood version, I would leave out the parmesan and add prawns or small scallops, once the cream is already thickening given that they only take a few minutes to cook.

Pairings

When I had this dish in Genoa, it was served with a brilliant white wine from Cinque Terre that Angelo took great delight in telling me is made in such small batches, you can't find it anywhere outside of Liguria, so scratch that option.

What this did underscore is that, despite the pancetta, this dish does seem to work more naturally with dry white wines. And, since I've generally made this dish—as here—not on special occasions, I've usually had it with workaday wines that don't particularly linger in my memory, though I know that I've reached for a Pecorino, Sauvignon Blanc or Bordeaux.

On this occasion, I paired it with a Casal Thaulero Fenaroli Pecorino Superiore Abruzzo (2024) that proved quite a little winner, especially given its youth and value-for-money. One of the reasons for this was that while the expected wild flower and fruit notes worked well with the basil and peppers, the less expected heavier notes of nuts and flint did a nice little dance with the smoked pancetta and smoked garlic.

I have never paired it with a red wine, and doubt I would be tempted to do so. But, if forced to do so, I imagine I would head in the direction of lighter pinot noirs, Marengo or a lighter-end Barbera d'Asti. By contrast, though I have not tried it yet, I could definitely see this dish working with rosé, with those more primal rosatos from Puglia, Abruzzo or Sicily or a decidedly chilled Spanish rosado from Navarra.