Paccheri with red and yellow tomato, buffalo mozzarella and chaource

On our European road trip with Katya we stopped off in Como for lunch (as you do).  Actually we were amazed with Como.  I thought it’d be a sleepy town in January but it was PACKED.  I think it might have been the fact it was a Saturday and the end of the Italian school holidays.  But it seriously was as packed as it is in summer.

Everyone was lunching too.  We had to hunker out under one of the outside heaters to wait for a table to become availabile inside the place we chose but it ended out worth the wait.  I'll just take this opportunity to say how it was a bit of a relief to be in Italy for a few days after lunching through France.  The hours are so strict in France, if you're not in the door by 1.15pm you're out of luck and of course all bread and pastry shops are closed for lunch during lunchtime in France.  

Anyway back to the restaurant in Como.  It was a lovely little place inside, cosy and busy and serving up bowls of delicious pasta.  Andy and I chose pumpkin ravioli with a cheese sauce and shaved truffle which was indeed delicious but it was Katya’s that took centre stage if nothing other than for the gorgoues colours.

It was Paccheri pasta with two tomato sauces, one red and one yelllow, served simply with torn burrata on top.  It really looked absolutely gorgoues and she reckoned it was the best pasta dish she’d had on this trip (and we sampled a fair few, believe me).

So I decided to try and recreate it at home.  I made a rich red tomato sauce with a spash of sherry vinegar and sugar for an extra kick of sweet acidity.  Just onion garlic and tinned plum tomatoes, a touch of chilli cooked down to a lovely rich thick sauce. 

I roasted yellow tomatoes with a little salt, sugar, garlic and olive oil and then deskinned them and broke them up for the yellow tomato component.

Cooked up some pacceri, mixed it with the red sauce and topped it with the yellow roasted tomatoes, parsley and torn buffalo mozzerela (I couldn’t get buratta) and for an extra extravegence spooned on some of our crazily delicous Chaource cheese purchased the other day from the local supermarket which when I googled it comes from a town located one hour drive from our house in Sig.  Bloody deliciuos cheese, so runny a spoon is required.  It’s literally like cheese sauce, it’s that runny.  Yum.  I'm buying some in France next time for sure. 

Anyway this dish wasn’t the exact replica.  I didn’t taste Katya’s but this was a very very very delicious bowl of pasta.  The flavours were absoltely outstanding ..... and it was ... drum roll... vegetarian!!