Rachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with Marmite

‘Exquisite’, maybe. Simple? You bet! – Rachel Roddy’s Marmite spaghetti. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The GuardianView image in fullscreen‘Exquisite’, maybe. Simple? You bet! – Rachel Roddy’s Marmite spaghetti. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The GuardianRachel Roddy’s recipe for spaghetti with MarmiteAn umami-packed dish for when you need a flavour hit in a hurry

Here is a simple, practical recipe that I trust will be useful to many who don’t have the time for lengthy kitchen preparations. Boil the spaghetti as usual, drain it, and toss it with a little butter and parmesan. Then, for four, take a spoonful of meat extract and dissolve it in a small saucepan with just a few drops of boiling water. Pour the meat extract over the pasta, stir and serve. You will be pleasantly surprised by the exquisite flavour the pasta acquires – achieved with such a negligible investment of time.

This is a roughly word-for-word translation of an Italian recipe for spaghetti con l’estratto di carne (spaghetti with meat extract). It is another dish from Ada Boni’s Il Talismano della Felicità (The Talisman of Happiness), which was published in English for the first time last month and, according to the food writer and editor Angela Frenda, is “still considered one of the most precise and accurate of all cookbooks”.

I was alerted to spaghetti con l’estratto di carne by the food historian and author of A Brief History of Pasta, Luca Cesari. I recently met Luca for dinner at St John in London and, over bone marrow on toast, kidneys on toast, welsh rarebit and fried tripe, we talked about many things, including recipe outrage. Spaghetti with Marmite came up as an example, and Luca pointed out that, in terms of approach, taste and spirit, it was more or less identical to Ada’s iconic and “exquisite” recipe.

He also noted that using a spoonful of meat extract as a pasta sauce is in the spirit – and a short-cut version – of pasta al sugo d’arrosto (pasta with sauce of the roast). That is, the pan juices, and those fat and tasty, crusty bits left at the bottom of the tin when you’ve roasted a joint of meat, are lengthened with a bit of water or wine, maybe more rosemary (or whatever you fancy) added, before being used as a pasta sauce. Pasta with gravy, if you like. (When I make braised chicken with rosemary, garlic and wine, I particularly like the last of the congealed pan juices as a pasta sauce.)

It was the great Anna del Conte, who was born in Milan in 1925 and moved to London in 1949, who first wrote about spaghetti with butter, cheese and Marmite, noting in her autobiography Risotto and Nettles that this was a dish she herself made (and that was loved by her children). I wonder if Anna knew Ada’s version? She certainly mentions pasta al sugo d’arrosto in her writing. And Anna inspired Nigella Lawson to make her own version of spaghetti with Marmite, which is the recipe I followed, although it is hardly a recipe.

Marmite is, of course, a dark, sticky, salty-savoury spread made from concentrated yeast extract. What yeast extract and meat extract have in common is glutamic acid or free glutamates, an amino acid that provides a savoury, lip-smacking umami flavour. Tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese are high in free glutamates, too, so in the Ada-Anna-Nigella recipes all provide a double dose of umami by adding parmesan; butter is vital for adding fat, flavour and slippiness to the final dish. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised by the exquisite flavour this pasta acquires, and all achieved with such a negligible investment of time.

400-500g spaghetti Salt 1-2 tsp Marmite, or Bovril or Vegemite 60g unsalted butter, cubed 2-4 tsp grated parmesan, or grana padano

Boil the spaghetti in plenty of lightly salted water, because both the Marmite and the cheese are already salty.

Meanwhile, in a very small saucepan on a low heat, warm two tablespoons of water with the Marmite until it has dissolved.

Once the pasta is cooked but al dente, lift it into a warm bowl (reserve some of the pasta cooking water), then add the cubed butter and cheese, and toss well. Pour the dissolved Marmite over the spaghetti and stir again, adding a little of the reserved cooking water, if you think it needs it, until the sauce is soft and slippery. Serve immediately.