Summer Linguine with Aged Pecorino

I've actually got organised and put in an order from Ocado (25% off? Yes please) which is going to turn up til Monday night.  So a storecupboard supper using up the bits and bobs left in the fridge definitely seemed the way to go tonight. One of those bits was a hunk of glorious aged Pecorino that I picked up on a visit to Borough Market a couple weeks ago - I'd love to tell you which stall it was from but I've no idea, and besides - half the fun of Borough is exploring and trying so I invite you to go and find out for yourself is you get the chance!  I'd not used Pecorino before, but it has the deep, salty umami taste of a parmesan but with more of an earthiness to it and a less crumbly texture.  As my housemate noted - its also quite pongy for a hard cheese so you might want to lock it up well!

Also the diet seems to have gone a bit haywire again - I blame multiple hangovers and a lingering bout of flu that's been hanging on for over a week.  I mean its AUGUST - WTF???  So carbs have sneakied back into my diet this week - sometimes only the comfort derived from a bowl of steaming pasta will do.  Today was such a day.

For once this isn't a bastardisation of a known recipe - but these ingredients are such natural bedfellows that when you combine them you know it by instinct anyway. Its not startlingly original, but its fresh and satisfying, and great for a cool summer evening with a nice crisp white.

Ingredients

Linguine - or other pasta, but preferably something long like spaghetti, Tagliatelle or Pappardelle.
Good Olive Oil - several glugs
Garlic - 2 or 3 cloves grated or crushed
4 spring onions - the whites chopped quite small, the green left bigger
handful of ripe cherry tomatoes
peas - frozen are fine, just pour some boling water over them to defrost
some fresh basil
A squeeze of lemon
Aged Pecorino (finely grated)  - Parmesan is great instead.
1 egg (optional)
salt and pepper

Equipment
1 large saucepan
1 other large pan - sauce pan or frying pan is fine - what ever you have
Garlic crusher or grater

Method
This is a quick recipe, so you should be able to make the sauce in the time it takes to cook up the pasta

1. Put the water on to boil and cook the linguine according to the instructions on the pack.  Drain, and reserve a little of the cooking water to loosen the sauce if necessary.
2. Warm a couple of glugs of olive oil in the other pan over a low/medium heat. Add the crushed garlic and spring onions. If you crush the garlic rather than chop it takes less time to cook and distributes more evenly through the sauce.  You don't want any of it to colour or over cook - just take away the harshness of the raw.  2 or 3 minutes should do it.
3. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the onion and garlic, along with the basil and the peas.  Cook for another couple of minutes to heat the peas and cause the juices from the tomatoes to start to run.  
4. Add a squeeze of lemon - this really helps to lift the flavours and lightens the whole dish. Taste and season - remember you still have the salty cheese to add, so don't go too wild with the salt.  Add a little more lemon to your taste - but go easy, you don't want to over power it, so add a little at a time and taste after each addition.
5. Add the drained linguine to the sauce, drizzle a little more oil over if you like and a few more basil leaves.  If it looks a bit dry, then add a little of the cooking water to get it moving.
6. Serve with a generous sprinkle of the grated Pecorino and a grind or two of black pepper.

Optional extras
There are a couple of tweaks that work well with this sort of recipe that you might find works better for you.  The recipe above is very light, fresh and clean.  The two following options make for a deeper, richer and thicker sauce.

Option 1: Cheesy Linguine... This gives the dish a much more intense flavour from the cheese.

Once you've drained the pasta, toss it in some of the grated Pecorino.  The residual heat will cause the cheese to melt and cling to the pasta instead of melting into the sauce as it does when you add it at the end.  Then add the pasta to the sauce as before. I'd love to claim this as my idea but i actually heard about it in a book - Frances Mayes' "Everyday in Tuscany".  I've got all of her books on audio - perfect for some vicarious daydreaming on my dreary commute along the Metropolitan line.

Option 2: Eggy goodness - for a richer, thicker, creamier sauce - without using cream.  I never have cream in the fridge - but I've almost always got an egg to hand.  Its the same idea as for as a carbonara, and would work very well if you are using one of the broader, flatter pastas like Tagliatelle of Parpadelle.

Follow the main method right up until the point of serving. Once you've mixed in the linguine to the sauce - turn off the heat and break an egg in on top.  Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to mix up the egg, but try not to bash the tomatoes around too much (tricky).  The heat from the pan and the other ingredients will cook the egg and with it give the whole lot a lovely silky texture.  BUT only if you don't have too much heat or cook it for too long. If you do that, you will probably end up with pasta and scrambled egg!  So keep stirring and watch the consistency as it changes.  Then serve as before.

And that's it - to quote a Meerkat (ahem) - Simples!

Have fun making it your own!