Italians know how to do summer right, whether they’re splaying on sunloungers next to the sparkling Med, taking an entire month off to luxuriate in the sun or smashing a bowl of pasta incorporating the summer bounty. We can’t increase your holiday leave or jet you off to the Med – but we can offer a clutch of pasta recipes that’ll enliven summer mealtimes. From a Sydney-famous pesto pasta to dishes that go hard on the seafood and simple red-sauce pastas, here are 12 dishes to bring la dolce vita to your dining table.
Monsterella’s spaghetti with spinach and macadamia pesto
Bright, fresh and – crucially when it’s too hot to cook – easy, this verdant spaghetti is proof that much of Italy’s best food is its most streamlined. Plus, it’s an ace way to work some greens and good fats (thanks to the olive oil and macadamia) into your meal.
Danielle Alvarez’s spaghetti alla nerano
While tomato often steals the limelight in Italian cooking, zucchini is also incorporated into plenty of dishes – including this magnificent spaghetti, which is also loaded up with basil, cheese and a good amount of olive oil. Much of its magic lies in the alchemy of pasta water, which helps the rest of the ingredients cling to the spaghetti strands.
A’Mare’s pesto pasta
One of Sydney’s great dining joys is taking a table in A’Mare’s glass-walled dining room and ordering the pesto pasta. An immense mortar will be wheeled to your table for the team to crush the vibrant green pesto before you. Once they’re finished, the zesty and bright result of their elbow grease is gently stirred through trofie pasta. Luckily for us they’re not gatekeeping the recipe – or their tips for making the perfect pesto.
Kaprica’s gnocchi Sorrentina
Tomato, basil and mozzarella are key components of many of Italy’s most iconic dishes. Here, this trio is swished around gnocchi in a dish that’s an indulgent, chewy mess.
Adam Liaw’s tomato and prawn risotto with chilli butter
Much like in Australia, seafood is a summer-diet mainstay around the coastline of Italy. Prawns are the stars of Adam Liaw’s vibrant risotto, which also features other Italian cooking staples such as passata and white wine. Plus, Liaw’s recipe offers a foolproof guide for getting your risotto texture just right.
Gordon Ramsay’s green pasta
Want to boost your intake of greens? Whip up a batch of Gordon Ramsay’s summery pasta, which leans on kale for its bright green colour (though you can swap it out for another cruciferous veggie).
Tristan Rosier’s pork, cavolo nero and tomato orecchiette
Tristan Rosier has received the memo on how to cook good food, Italian-style. “I like to take high-quality produce at its peak, then prepare it quite simply but use interesting supporting ingredients to elevate the hero ingredient.” Here, that takes the form of a simple orecchiette dish bursting with tomatoes. While cavolo nero is in season in the colder months, you can swap it out for a veggie that’s at its peak right now.
Jessie Spiby’s squid and prawn pasta
Having a pasta party? Whip up this spicy, summery dish that’s alive with squid and prawns, and serve it in a big bowl in the middle of table, family-style.
Ellie Bouhadana’s cavatelli with green sauce, pangrattato and burrata
A sphere of burrata perched atop a plate of food signals delicious times ahead. In this crowd-pleaser, greens are whizzed into a silky, vivacious sauce made with plenty of cheese and wine that buries into the grooves of cavatelli, a combination then crowned with textural pangrattato and a ball of the creamy formaggi.
Tipo 00’s rigatoni pomodoro
This pasta dish can be whatever you want it to be: you could make every element (including the rigatoni and the base tomato sauce) from scratch. Or, you could use dried pasta and sauce pulled from the freezer. However you pull together this light and easy dish, it works equally as a hangover-buster and as a midweek meal for the kids.
Armorica’s veggie pasta
Italy doesn’t have the monopoly on pasta – the French have been eating it for centuries, too. This quietly luxe dish from Sydney brasserie Armorica brings together a host of taste-maximising ingredients, like stracciatella, capers and parmesan, and combines them with in-season tomatoes and (naturally), wine. It’s the perfect plate of veg-forward food for hot summer nights.
Bistro George’s rigatoni alla gin
Rigatoni alla vodka has become a cult favourite dish in recent years – but gin also works, and brings to the mix flavour-boosting herby notes, too. The trick to this version’s depth of flavour is the use of fermented chilli, which requires more than a week of fermenting. It’s well worth it.
Looking for cold-weather pasta inspiration? Check out our winter pasta recipe collection.
