Beetroot Papardelle

The restaurant was vegetarian, which was unusual in a city full of fish. It was empty it seemed ashamed of itself, hiding down the bottom of a dirty old street in a rough part of town. This was Barcelona, but it didn't feel like it. La Fernandez didn't fit into either camp of Barcelona's eating establishments. Camp 1: paying homage to the best restaurant in the world, that resides close to the city - El Bulli - like the superbly fancy Comerc 24 and then Camp 2: more laid back tapas bar serving olives, cheese, cava, gazpacho, tortilla and patatas bravas. Fernandez should have been in Manchester, in the northern quarter. It was dark and dingy. The meals were slightly formal, though laid back and eclectic at the same time. It was meat front of house, vegetarian 'through the back' and a gay-friendly bar somewhere in-between. My head was spinning by the time it came to ordering.

We'd arrived early, for Barcelona that's about 9pm, and walked past the chef having her dinner on the way in. This big bowl of, what had to be, beetroot pasta, looked amazing. All purple vividness, almost other-worldley. I had to have it. The waiter told us the chef was from Italy and she'd brought the recipe form her home town. Could have been bollocks but I was sold anyway, before the line. It was delicious. The flavours were far from beet-y and just had a creamy sweetness to them that coated the pasta well. I was so busy reveling in beetroot delight that I forgot to ask how she made it. I never forgot the taste and the vivid colours of the dish though and it inspired me to have a bash at something similar when I got home. My picture is here but the recipe is still in the process. It was good but needs refining. My method so far....

Ingredients:
250g papardelle pasta
2 beetroot
2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
juice and zest of half a lemon
3 tablespoons of horseradish
3 handfuls of grated Parmesan
100ml reserve cooking water
salt and pepper for seasoning
Good olive oil for drizzling

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C / 392 F / Gas 6

Clean the beetroot and trim their wild leaves. Wrap in tin-foil and bake in the oven for one hour.

Remove and cool. Peel and roughly chop. Blend with a hand-held blender.

Peel and finely chop the shallots and garlic. Heat a large skillet pan over a medium heat add the shallots and garlic. Cook until soft.

Add the pureed beetroot.

Bring a medium pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook for approximately 12 minutes.

Stir the horseradish and Parmesan in to the sauce. Grate in the lemon zest and add the lemon juice.

Drain the pasta but keep back 100ml of reserve cooking water. Drizzle some good olive oil over the cooked pasta, toss together with the cooking water and pasta sauce.

Serve with some more Parmesan shavings and a little more seasoning.

Serves 2.