All summer green brothy pasta

A hardly-any-cooking soupy pasta for hot days

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Last weekend we went on a camping trip with 26 kids (and their parents) in what was a shining June weekend. Kids swimming in streams. Strawberries that taste of something. Really really cold fizzy wine on a hot day. Hair that smells of campfires, which I’ll admit is only charming for a couple of hours. No phone signal. Treasure hunts. It was a couple of days that felt like it was taken right out of the pages of Swallows and Amazons (with the exception of the wine).

There are many, many reasons I will remember this weekend. Esca eating his first a campfire toasted marshmallow, the delight, I have a thousand pictures. The feeling of community that surrounds us and and how lucky we are to have that.

It will be hard to forget the feeling of relief and escape I felt when I realised we’d have no phone signal for two days. Sure, I could put my phone in a box every weekend, but do I, no. Perhaps I’ll start.

That relief made me realise in an instant quite how overwhelmed I’m feeling. I think we are all feeling it. The overwhelm of the events unfolding in the world feel so huge, especially for my friends with families in places where war is real and unfolding.It’s at times like these I need comfort food.

Which got me thinking about summer comfort food. What’s comforting to eat when it’s really hot and my answer is this brothy pasta. This is what I make, often just for myself or for me and John when all I feel like eating is a very cold cucumber but I know we need a friendly, spoonable dinner.

This is an easy broth with greens, pasta, some brightening spice and a final (essential) layer of parmesan to transform the clear broth into something altogether better. Italian friend told me that broth with parmesan is one of the first foods she was fed as a baby, then small pasta and veg was added to the broth day by day. This broth has that like that same comforting nursery food, but for summer. Gentle food to build an appetite, a soul.

I used cute little hoops of pasta here, Anelli Sicliani to give them their real name. I think they are chic but there is also a kids teatime feeling to them, which adds to the charm of it all. Any small(ish) pasta would work here, I often use the ends of a couple of bags or some spaghetti broken into little lengths. Orzo would be good too.

Spooning comforting food from a bowl is something that we, in the UK at least, associate with winter, but when I tought about some of my favourtie spoonable foods lots of them are cols - Shrikhand, the sweet cold Gujatati saffron yogurt, Cold udon with broth and tofu (my favourite is from KOYA KO), Ajoblanco - an ice cold soup made from grapes, bread and almonds which perform a culinary miracle when blended. I’ve eaten brothy beetroot borscht cold before and loved it. I’m very keen to try sour cherry soup, it's on the list.

We sit at the crossing of spring and summer though London is summer HOT today. I most often eat this broth at room temperature, I think you can taste everything better. The greens taste greener and the flavours more pronounced. This is, of course, great steaming hot in the winter but on a scorching day I’ve even eaten it cold from the fridge, as you might cold udon, I recommend it.

This new green brothy pasta is for the people who pay for my newsletter, thanks so much if that's you. If not, then I don’t want to leave you without some recipe inspiration, especially for the times when its hot and life feels a lot, so here are a couple of other very easy and very friendly recipes for easy food for hot days.

Chard + ricotta pasta for Dylan
Asparagus + coconut soup
Lemony lentil + crispy kale soup
One-pot pasta a limone

All summer green brothy pasta