Giovanni Pilu's trofie alla Carlofortina (twisted pasta with tuna, tomato and basil)

The executive chef at Sydney's Pilu at Freshwater shares a simple tuna and tomato pasta dish from a village on San Pietro, an island off the coast of Sardinia. Tip: if you don't want to make your own pasta, fusilli is a good substitute.

INGREDIENTS

• ½ quantity fresh pasta dough (see recipe below), passed through pasta machine 5 times
• tipo 00 flour, for dusting
• 50ml extra virgin olive oil
• ½ brown onion, finely chopped
• 200g yellow grape tomatoes, halved
• salt flakes, to taste
• fine sea salt, for pasta water
• 300g sashimi-grade tuna, cut into 2cm cubes

Crema di basilico

• 20 basil leaves
• 2 garlic cloves
• 50g pine nuts
• 100ml extra virgin olive oil
• salt flakes, to taste

METHOD

1. Lay the pasta sheets out onto a clean, lightly floured workbench and cut into strips about 4cm long and 5mm wide. Roll each piece between the palms of your hands to form a thin spiral. Put on a tray and sprinkle lightly with flour.
2. To make the crema di basilico, put all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until well combined and creamy. Set aside.
3. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat, add oil and, when hot, cook onion until soft but not coloured. Add tomatoes and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon, until the sauce thickens slightly. Season with salt.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add fine sea salt, then the trofie and boil for about 6 minutes, until tender. Strain well, retaining some of the cooking water.
5. Place tomato sauce over a low heat. Add pasta and toss for a minute or 2 to coat well, stir through a couple of tablespoons of reserved cooking water, adding a little more if necessary to give a glossy appearance.
6. Remove from heat, add the tuna and toss through the pasta for about 1 minute, until the outside of the tuna just turns opaque.
7. Serve in flat pasta bowls and top with a spoonful of crema di basilico.

Serves 6 as an entree

Fresh pasta dough

This dough is used for long pasta and shapes such as stracci (which literally means 'rags').

INGREDIENTS

• 500g tipo 00 flour
• 2½ tablespoons fine sea salt
• 8 egg yolks
• 2 eggs
• tipo 00 flour, extra, for kneading

METHOD

1. Sift flour and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer.
2. Lightly whisk egg yolks and eggs together.
3. Mixing with a dough hook, slowly drizzle most of the egg mixture into the flour and mix until absorbed. Then start adding remaining egg, a little at a time, to form a firm dough – you may not need it all; towards the end it doesn't take much extra liquid for the dough to become too soft.
4. Tip the dough onto a clean, lightly floured workbench and knead with the heels of your hands for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
5. Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for about 1 hour.

Makes about 800g

This recipe is from episode eight of Good Food's new TV show, Good Food Kitchen, screening on Channel 9 at 1pm on Saturday, November 27, or catch up on 9Now.