This pasta dish is literally as simple as it sounds and the results are bonkersly good! Anchovies are the secret ingredient in lots of dishes that have that umami sensation. They are meaty and salty and oh, so good in this quick sauce. You can add lots of different things to this dish like halved cherry tomatoes, fried smoked pancetta or wilted spinach. That’s why I’ve done it as a blank canvas so that you can tweak it as you like. The key is the sauce and that takes literal minutes to make.

I like a little heat at the back of this salty sauce

INGREDIENTS
serves 4
300g tagliatelle
1 tin of anchovies
100g creme fraiche
2 garlic cloves
pinch of chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 ladle pasta water
8g fresh parsley (stalks included)
juice of 1/2 large lemon
parmesan and chilli oil to finish

• Put your pasta into salted, boiling water and whilst it’s cooking, make the sauce.
• Put the parsley, peeled garlic, anchovies and oil and pinch of chilli flakes into a small blender along with the olive oil and pasta water then blend until smooth.
• Add the lemon juice and creme fraiche then blend again for a few second.
• Stir the sauce into the drained, hot pasta, on the same hob ring you cooked the pasta, with the heat turned off so that it’s only residual heat thickening the sauce. Stir until the sauce thickens, a minute or so, then serve and grate over parmesan, grind over with black pepper and add a drizzle of chilli oil.