Kitchen Kind #14
Kirstyn Tate
Super Yummy, Super Easy Pea Pasta
Small Axe Kitchen is a Brunswick institution beloved for its breakfast pasta just as much as its warm hospitality from co-owners and husband-and-wife Adam Pruckner and Kirstyn Tate. Following the cafe’s eighth birthday, we speak to Kirstyn about the role food plays at home and the dish she cooked to win Adam over when they first met.
What meal or ingredient speaks of love to you and why?
Lasagne! You would think I would be completely sick of lasagne, but I’m just not. For me this is the ultimate gesture of love. It’s comfort food at its best – ragu, pasta, bechamel and cheese, it’s all of the comfort foods in one.
It’s also a labour of love. It takes hours if not days to make a good lasagne. For me, I make a ragu and let it cook for at least four hours, but eight is preferable. Then I let the sauce cool overnight and assemble the lasagne the next day. I put soft boiled eggs in mine, so the process of cooking those, cooling them, taking the shells off and everything takes time. But I do it because I love it, I love the people I am feeding it to, and I can’t wait for them to eat it and tell me how great it makes them feel.
Lasagne was actually the first meal I cooked for my husband when we first started seeing each other. Some might say this was a bold move considering he is both Italian and a chef, but it was my gesture of love to him. I wanted to impress him… and it did. He always says I cook the best lasagne and I love him for that.
When you think of tradition or ritual what dish, or ingredient, comes to mind?
Christmas. I am a massive Christmas nerd. I love everything about it – even the full roast lunch in the heat of summer. Every year the menu will differ slightly, but there are some traditional staples that appear yearly without fail. Between the two sides of our family we have a huge festive few days and a lot of food. It’s the best! Each year, the must-haves on our combined Christmas tables are turkey, ham, porchetta, stuffing balls, tiramisu, plum pudding and a strawberry white chocolate trifle. And everything tastes just as good as leftovers for the following week.
When a friend or family member comes over, what is a dish you like to cook for them?
When I don’t have time to make lasagne, I usually make my super yummy, super easy pea pasta. It all goes into one pan, I use whatever pasta I have on hand and whatever herbs are in my garden and every version of this recipe is delicious. I like to serve it with a green salad, because I love that the whole meal is green, so bright and gorgeous.
Would you share the recipe?
Absolutely, recipes are for sharing!
Pasta with Peas (serves 4)
Ingredients
Brown Onion, diced
500g pasta*
600g frozen peas
Olive Oil
Sage (or oregano, or parsley.. whatever you have around)
Mint (or use frozen peas with mint, or leave it out all together)
60g Parmigiano – grated
40g Pecorino – grated (if you don’t have this, just use more parmigiano or some cheddar)
Chicken Stock (if you don’t use this just use salted water)
Salt and pepper
*Ideally you want to use a small short pasta like ditalini or baby shells, but I have also made it with fussilli, rigatoni and penne and they all worked well.
Method
In a large pan cook the onion in a glug of olive oil on low for a few minutes until soft. Add peas, some salt and pepper and your chopped herbs and cook for about 5 minutes until the peas are soft.
Take about half of the pea mixture out and put into a blender with some of your stock or water, blitz into a loose puree.
Pour the pea puree into the pan and add pasta, then cover with stock or water. Stir to make sure there aren’t any air bubbles or pasta without pea puree through it, and bring to boil.
Once boiling, give everything a good stir and reduce to a simmer.
You want to keep stirring to make sure the pasta doesn’t stick on the bottom, and depending on the pasta you may need to add more water slowly like risotto.
Once the pasta is cooked al dente, and the pea mixture has coated it like a sauce, it’s done.
Stir through the cheese, even add a knob of butter for some shine and you are done. Add some chilli at the table if you like, serve with a crunchy green salad.
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