Sublime

‘Before you do that, could you sprinkle that stuff in the little ceramic jar into the pot?’ ‘All of it?’ ‘All of it. Scatter it all over, then give the soup a good mix with the ladle. Then whack the heat up. Simmer everything for a bit, crack the egg in, then turn the heat off and pop the lid on right away. Not tightly, though – leave it a little a

Oh, and so many of them have a special bolognese recipe. And it’s never good.’ Usually when this happens the husband has an Italian ex-girlfriend from whom he learned a supposedly authentic yet surprising recipe, with one special touch: anchovies (twice), Worcestershire sauce (three times), coffee (once), buttermilk (once, particularly bad).

The way pasta is cooked in Campania and Naples is beautiful choreography. Often, pasta is removed from the boiling water – usually with a spider sieve – before it reaches the desirable point of al dente. This means that the last minutes of pasta cooking are done in with the sauce. In these last minutes, usually in a pan large enough to really jolt