Creamy pasta with peas, broad beans and spinach

This recipe for pasta in a Roman-style cream sauce with peas, broad beans and spinach started out life as a make-do solution when a delivery failed to fully materialise. A good thing too. It turns out better suited to hot weather than the original.

Non sono Alfredo

Back during the first COVID lockdown, I had a craving to make that iconic Roman pasta dish known as Fettuccine Alfredo in many parts of the world, particularly the USA, but hardly ever in Rome.

The legend goes that it was "invented" by Alfredo Di Lelio in about 1907, though many food historians point out that practically the same dish had existed for centuries under various names including maccaroni romaneschi, among others. But Alfredo was a smart cookie. When Hollywood stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks visited his first eponymous restaurant in the 1920s and fell in love with the dish and Alfredo's elaborate tableside service, he was quick to capitalise on its association with films stars that continues to this day.

Douglas and Mary shared their passion for Fettuccine Alfredo and its creator with the glitterati and tabloids of Hollywood, ensuring a healthy trickle of visiting Americans to his establishment in the years when cinema was turning into a global influence. But, after WWII, in 1950, Alfredo and his son opened a second restaurant and this time it was to be his own Hollywood epic. On the site where it is still going strong today that quite literally looks directly onto the mausoleum of the emperor Augustus, Alfredo proved himself a wily publicist. As American stars flocked to Rome of shoot pictures on location in the Eternal City or at its famed Cinecitta Studios in the postwar era, Alfredo started a celebrity wall featuring photos of the rich and the famous dining at his chichi ristorante. He instinctively knew that it would be a magnet: which celebrity or film star passing through Rome could afford not to be on the wall at Alfredo?

And, of course, even today, everyone has to try the dish that started it all. I've done so twice over the years. Once it was sublime, the second time, not so much. But that's hardly unusual for such "heritage" restaurants where chefs put in their time as a stepping stone to their own ventures. But, over the years, I'd also been fortunate enough to be taken to places by native Romans that did essentially the same dish without the Alfredo tag, but with little twists I liked perhaps slightly more.

Fast forward to the first COVID lockdown and I had a particular craving for the dish. The problem was that neither the butter nor the Parmigiano Reggiano—or, indeed, the fettuccine—I needed to make it had made it into the grocery delivery during those days of random shortages.

I decided to press ahead, working with what I had available, memories of a few tricks I'd learned in Rome and a decided craving for green vegetables in the warm weather. I half-expected the result to land on the spectrum somewhere between disaster and bland. But, au contraire, the outcome—this creamy pasta with peas, broad beans and spinach—proved not only delicious but far better suited to hot weather and, as I discovered with my ersatz version, works particularly well with rigatoni.

On which note, it's worth mentioning that the average weights in (dried) pasta generally advised per diner may be a bit high where rigatoni or other "meatier" pastas that are very filling are concerned. Make your own judgements.

Also, even if you choose to add a few fresh basil leaves with the green vegetables, it's important that you use dried herbs and not fresh in the first stage, because their deeper flavour adds a good balance to the fresh green flavours in the dish. I'm using a typically "Italian" mix of dried marjoram, basil, oregano and thyme. But if you don't have these to hand, simply use dried oregano.

Another longer term benefit I realise doing it now, having had my gall bladder removed earlier this year, is that I can digest this less fatty version with just about no comeback. Not sure that that would be the case with the real Alfredo these days. Perhaps that's something worth noting for anyone else who loves rich creamy flavours but isn't able to digest fat easily.

The quantities in this recipe will serve 3 to 4 diners. Please note that the images here are from cooking it scaled down and are therefore not indicative of recipe cooking quantities.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• The "pasta water"—the hot water left over from cooking the pasta—is essential in this recipe where it plays a key part in helping the sauce thicken. So make sure that you pour approx. 500ml of it into a heatproof jug or beaker before draining the pasta in a colander, otherwise you will have a problem

• This is actually a very quick dish. But, that also means that you need to be quite deft at timing. In particular, you need to ensure that your green vegetables are all steamed and hot at exactly the right point in the cooking. Frankly, steam them first and reheat in the microwave just before adding to the sauce at the right point

• I'm using Pecorino Romano cheese, which was what was in the fridge when I conjured it up, but it's fine to use other hard cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano, which gives a richer flavour, or Grana Padano. The important thing is that you don't use nearly as much of it as in the iconic Alfredo recipe. The quantity in this recipe provides more than enough flavour, while still keeping a fresh, summery feel

Shopping list

for the creamy pasta with peas, broad beans and spinach

• Approx. 80 to 90g (dried) rigatoni per diner; or equivalent in other larger/thicker pastas

• 500ml "pasta water" from the pot in which the pasta has cooked

• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, finely grated

• 2 tbspns extra virgin olive oil

• 170ml clotted cream (or double cream)

• Approx 80g Pecorino Romano, finely grated (or Parmigiano Reggiano)

• 1 cup of garden peas (or petit pois); fresh or frozen

• 1 cup of broad beans, fresh or frozen

• Approx. 100g young spinach; fresh or frozen

• 1 heaped tspn cornflour

• 1 tspn dried mixed "Italian" herbs (marjoram, basil, oregano, thyme)

• The zest of 1 fresh lemon

• salt and pepper to taste

  
  

for the salad

• Little gem lettuce, washed and drained

• Very ripe cherry tomatoes, quartered

• Thinly sliced cucumber

• Dried purple basil

• Balsamic vinegar

• Walnut oil (or extra virgin olive oil)

• salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Method

the creamy pasta with peas, broad beans and spinach

1. Because the cooking progresses quickly once things are in motion, make sure you steam the peas and broad beans and wilt the spinach in advance of adding to the sauce. Because they have different cooking times and need to be added to the sauce hot, by far the easiest way to do this is to steam them in succession in a microwave steamer. Then add them all to a microwave-proof dish in which they can be reheated from 1 to 1½mins immediately prior to adding to the sauce

2. In a large, deep pan that will also be large enough to hold the cooked pasta, heat the olive oil on a low-medium heat and add the grated garlic. Sauté until it just beings to turn golden, then add the cream immediately

3. Add the cornflour, sifting into the pan with a fine sieve to avoid lumps. Then stir all the ingredients together smoothly. The oil may give a yellowish appearance at first, but as the liquid becomes paler, you know things are heading in the right direction. Add the dried herbs and black pepper (but not salt at this stage) and stir continuously. Increase the heat incrementally until the cream begins to bubble and gently simmer, but ensure that it never boils. After 5 to 7mins it should have notably thickened. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm

4. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until al dente according to the instructions on the package. Before draining, pour off about 500ml of water from the pot into a jug or heat-proof vessel. Drain the pasta, return to the pot and cover to keep warm

5. Return the pan with the cream to the hob on a medium heat. When the thickened cream is hot and begins to bubble here and there, add approx 60g of the grated cheese (set the remainder aside for use at table) and melt into the mixture, stirring constantly to keep it smooth. The sauce will begin to thicken very quickly

6. Add the drained pasta to the pan and immediately add 300ml of the "pasta water" into the pan, increasing the heat slightly. And, reheat your vegetables in the microwave. At first it may look like a horrible mistake as the sauce turns to something like milk. But, keep gently stirring, ensuring that the pasta is being moved around in the pan evenly. When you notice that the sauce no longer runs off the pasta but actually begins to adhere to it, even though still relatively fluid, add the re-heated steamed vegetables

7. Stir continuously to ensure that the vegetables and are evenly distributed through the sauce as it thickens and is absorbed by the pasta. If it becomes too thick at any point, add a dash more pasta water. After about or 5mins, almost all of the sauce will cling to the pasta. If necessary—remember the "pasta water" is salted, season with additional salt

8. Add the lemon zest and stir in and remove the pan from the heat

9. Plate and serve immediately with a simple salad and the remainder of the grated cheese to be sprinkled at table

   
   

Alternatives

This dish is by default lacto-vegetarian but, of course, both cream and cheese are an intrinsic part of this recipe and I've never tried it without it. Maybe there are vegan substitutes out there that could achieve the same effect, but I'm afraid I've not yet cooked with them.

For carnivores, however, I can assure you that this is a great dish with cubed pieces of pancetta. First cook the pancetta in the pan, then remove using a sieve spoon, leaving the pork fat that has cooked off in the pan before adding the olive oil (reduced in quantity by roughly the amount of pork fat). Add the pancetta back into the pan at the end, in the last couple of minutes of cooking.

Pairings

This is one of those dishes that naturally suggests a white wine, even if you're doing the pancetta version, though I wouldn't rule out the right rosé or light red wine. Indeed, I would imagine it would work very well with one of those Piedmontese Marengo wines that are often served chilled in the summer.

One white that I do know that works fabulously is Colli di Luni DOC, Santa Caterina Vermentino. I know, because it's the wine I pulled out of its safekeeping place as a little lockdown indulgence to celebrate the unexpected birth of this dish.

Another is this Sicilian number, Principi di Butera Grillo, where the saltier mineral notes were a nice counterpoint to the cream and cheese, the citrus notes a nod to the lemon and green flavours.

On other occasions I've made the dish, I remember it working well with a muscadet and a Mâcon-Villages number, but I can't remember specifically what they were.