The Hungry Gap and One Flame Pasta

For those unfamiliar with the term, the hungry gap is the time of year when the winter crops have pretty much ended and the spring plantings not reached maturity. We have shops to get round the starvation problem these days, but for food gardeners it's an annoyance.

There are things like the pea-shoots mentioned the other day that will grow under cover year round, but you really crave fresh stuff smelling of outdoors if you love veg. Yesterday we had a dish that we made in our first home in Norfolk in the mid-eighties, when we had even less spare cash than today. It's just pasta (ideally penne or similar with a bit of substance) cooked al dente then drained (but leave a spoonful or two of liquid behind) and mixed while still hot with a good serving-spoon of butter and a load of freshly picked herbs from the garden.

We gathered little leaves of new-growth sorrel, a few sprigs of rosemary, some crispy tubes of Welsh onion, plus chives, sage and marjoram and a handful of over-wintered parsley, cut them fine with a mezzoluna, mixed into the pasta along with the butter and a good grating of Parmesan (Sternest Critic asked the other day is there any vegetable that doesn't go with Parmesan?), seasoned with crunchy salt and wolfed it. Still cheap, still good, still very quick and easy, ideal after a tiring day.

On Sunday a similarly rapid restorative dish met with approval, pasta puttanesca - pasta whore-style, so called apparently because it could be made on one burner (hmm) in minutes as trade allowed, though the strong flavours and smells masking others is an alternative explanation. This for me needs spaghetti or linguine, cooked until right at the point of being ready, then well drained. To the pasta pan add a few good glugs of basic olive oil (extra virgin somehow inappropriate) that has had a load of crushed garlic and a finely chopped chilli or two infusing in it for a few minutes or an hour if you think ahead. Stir together over a very low heat (don't fry the spag) until the garlic scent rises and the chilli fumes make your eyes water, then season with plenty of salt and lots of pepper. It is coarse and satisfying and the perfect thing to serve with a glass of ropy red wine - you could be drinking the finest Barolo for all your taste buds will be able to tell.