The ultimate comfort food. Tagliatelle are a comfort to make and a comfort to eat. Nothing beats the satisfaction of rolling out the pasta by hand to a wafer thin sheet, folding it up, cutting into ribbons and hanging up to await cooking.
Last night we had the tagliatelle with tomato sauce and some sautèed courgettes, plenty of butter and parmesan. Augusta made the sauce in September when plum tomtoes are at their ripest and cheapest. She cooked them down with celery, onion, carrot and basil. Then she passed everything through the vegetable mill and portioned the sauce into plastic bags which went into the deep freeze. Traditionally such a sauce should be bottled, but sterilising jars is too much bother! Freezing works very well for us.