You Can Make These Classic Italian Pasta Dishes in 30 Minutes

Finely dice one of the lemons and transfer to a pestle and mortar. Bash the lemon along with the garlic, chilli flakes, olive oil, salt and pepper. When the ingredients are thoroughly mashed together, transfer the mixture to a frying pan and sauté gently in olive oil with the juice of the other lemon.

Add the spaghetti to a saucepan of salted boiling water, but remove and drain the pasta a few minutes before it is completely cooked (reserve some of the cooking water – it will come in handy in the next step).

Put the spaghetti into the lemon mixture in the frying pan, pour in some of the reserved cooking water and stir (‘mantecare’, as they say in Italian). A few seconds before turning off the heat, sprinkle on the mint and basil leaves (if using).

Serve the spaghetti in pasta bowls, adding a drizzle of olive oil to each and enjoy!

A minute to spare?
Here are the first names of some of our Italian chefs so you can choose 1 or 2 of them to bestow on your future children. We don’t want to pressure you, but if you do pick one, your child will be the coolest kid on earth: Virginia, Monia, Stefania, Brenda, Lucia, Andrea, Luca, Alberto, Leonardo, Mattia.

Use a mandolin to cut the courgettes into 3mm (1⁄10 in) thick round slices. Sauté them in piping-hot sunflower oil in a frying pan until they start to turn golden brown, then set aside.

Place the spaghetti into a saucepan of slightly salted boiling water for as long as required. (Be aware that you have to taste pasta to know whether or not it’s cooked.) Stir the spaghetti occasionally (we're watching you!). While the spaghetti is cooking, quickly put the egg yolks, pecorino and pepper into a bowl large enough to hold the entire dish. Once the spaghetti is cooked to your satisfaction, remove it from the heat and drain.

Transfer the cooked spaghetti straight to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Grind some more pepper on top, add the fried courgettes and place the bowl in the centre of the table.

Stir and serve. Don’t dawdle – this dish needs to be eaten hot. And, above all, leave any cream out of sight, well away from this recipe and your worktop, just in case an Italian happens to pass by.

A minute to spare?
Arrange some dried flowers and nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc) in a strip along the entire length of the table. It will look pretty, and the nuts can even be nibbled away at the end of the meal. If you don’t have any flowers or nuts to hand, then opt for some crisps. After all, is there any real difference between a rose petal and a fried potato petal? It’s the thought that counts.

Prepare the stuffing the day before. Shred the cooked rabbit meat and mix it with the ricotta, the grated Parmigiano and half the lemon zest. Chop the red onion and gently brown it in a saucepan in 10g (two teaspoons) of butter. Finely chop half the marjoram and half the oregano. Add the onion and the herbs to the rest of the stuffing, along with salt and pepper. Combine all the ingredients thoroughly, then set aside.

Make the girelle. Roll out the pasta dough so that it is two millimetres thick. Cut into four equal strips at least 50cm long and 13cm wide. Put the stuffing into a piping bag (or a small freezer bag with a corner cut off) and squeeze out a sausage 45cm long and three centimetres wide onto one of the strips.

Take care to leave the last two to three centimetres of all the edges of the pasta free from stuffing so that you can do the following manoeuvres successfully. Join the sides of the pasta strip together to enclose the stuffing. Cut off any excess pasta from the ends (remembering to leave a space of around two centimetres between the stuffing and the edge of the pasta) and from the sides, and then seal the two ends tightly. Most importantly, keep any leftover pasta to make a quick dish of wonderful tagliatelle for lunch the following day. Wind one girella around itself on the worktop, forming a snail shape. Repeat this with all the strips.

When your guests are at their places around the table, immerse the four girelle in hot, bubbling salted water for two minutes. Take them out of the water, drain and transfer them straight to your plates. Set aside. Over a high heat, melt the remaining butter in a saucepan and sauté the olives, pine nuts and oregano, along with a few sprigs of marjoram, for two minutes. When this mixture starts to turn golden brown, pour some of it over each girella in turn. Si mangia! After receiving applause from all your guests, obviously.

A minute to spare?
You can always uncork a bottle of good red wine to let it breathe for a while. Pour yourself a small glass, as you thoroughly deserve it.