Pasta

Pasta has long been a staple of Levantine cuisine, where it has found its way into rice and lentil dishes, and even desserts. It has the ability to lift a humble meal of lentils into a complete protein, and makes it incredibly fun to eat. Rishta bil Adas is one of these dishes. It’s a comforting lentil soup that gets its rich flavour from carefully caramelised onions, a few spices and fresh coriander. By cooking the lentils together in the same pan, they impart their hearty flavour and turn the liquid into a wholesome broth.

This is a scrumptious example of the ingenious cooking of Cucina Povera, Italy’s kitchen of the poor. Thanks to a few simple techniques, it turns a humble assortment of veg, beans and freshly made pasta into a hearty and creamy one-pot dish.

A garlicky onion & miso pasta with wholemeal spaghetti, white miso and slowly caremlised onions.