The fan stopped working on one of the hottest days of the year, though that shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It has been trying to tell us for weeks, stopping unexpectedly, then starting again after a push; unable to stick to its settings and spinning too fast or too slow, and moaning slightly. I was chopping tomatoes when the ribbon tied to the guard cage of the pedestal fan suddenly flopped flat, and the air in the kitchen stopped moving. I hoped it was a power cut, until I saw the wifi light. I tried nudging it, then turning it off and on several times in the hope of jolting it back to life, but nothing. It was gone, broken, dead.
In his short story Scherzi del Caldo (Hot Weather Jokes), Alberto Moravia describes a small apartment in Rome on a hot day: “It seems that everything – furniture, clothes, utensils – has swollen and is falling on you”, and how “Everyone wears shirtsleeves, but the shirts are sweaty and smelly”, and that families “become quarrelsome”. I felt as if I was in Moravia’s story.
What’s more, a pan of boiling water was sending steam into the still air, turning the room into a sauna scented by the rubbish quietly fermenting in the bin. I carried on chopping, ignoring the pale juices running across and off the worktop and down the cabinet door: after all, they may well dry on the way down. Maybe the heat will improve the flavour, I thought, as I turned a heap of parsley into a little, limp pile. At least the sauce didn’t require cooking. It is based, loosely, on a Roman recipe known as pasta alla checca (apparently named after its inventor Francesca – “checca”). What is certain is that pasta alla checca is an improvisational and good summer dish of pasta with raw tomato, cheese and herbs.
You want about 500g tomatoes – I like a mix of large, firm, slightly green salad tomatoes and a handful of firm, sweet cherry or date tomatoes. It is a good idea to quarter and scoop the jelly-coated seeds from the larger fruit, while smaller ones can simply be diced. As for the cheese, you can use mozzarella or cow’s milk fior di latte: either way, make sure it has drained for a couple of hours and is then diced small. Another nice addition to this dish is a few fennel seeds, which are the small dried seeds of the fennel herb – if you like their sweet, anise-like flavour, that is, and don’t mind the fact that one will always get stuck in your teeth.
Some people cook the pasta first and let it cool before adding the condiment. Others, myself included, let the condiment sit while the pasta is cooking, in which time juices form and the garlic and herbs infuse those juices, then add the hot pasta to the sauce, because the heat brings out the flavours. Hot pasta also absorbs the juices better and can then be left to cool, or eaten straight away.
The beauty of this dish is the way the condiment gets caught in the pasta, whether that’s in the ends of small tubes or between strings of spaghetti or, better still, even thinner spaghettini, which tangles together and creates a weave that traps the bits of tomato, cheese and flecks of herbs. Superb – even when fanless.
Pasta with a raw tomato, mozzarella, herb and olive sauce
Serves 4
500g firm and tasty tomatoes – a mix of varieties, ideally
200g mozzarella, or fior di latte
1 garlic clove
60g green, fleshy olives, finely chopped
1 heaped tbsp capers, finely chopped
1 heaped tbsp minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 handful fresh basil leaves, ripped
1 heaped tbsp chopped marjoram
1 pinch fennel seeds
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper
450g pasta – small tubes, spaghetti or spaghettini
Quarter any large tomatoes, scoop out the seeds and finely dice; for smaller and cherry tomatoes, just dice them and don’t worry about the seeds. Finely dice the cheese. Peel and finely chop the garlic. In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes with the cheese, garlic, olives, capers, herbs, fennel seeds and olive oil, then season to taste and set aside.
Meanwhile, Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta, add salt, stir, then add the pasta and cook until al dente. Tip the drained pasta on to the diced condiment, toss really well and serve.
