From Our London Allotment to My Parents’ Table: Sage, Erişte and a Turkish Twist on an Ottolenghi Pasta

There are recipes that you cook exactly as written, and then there are recipes that naturally become your own. This one falls into the second category.

When we planned this year’s allotment, we planted sage and thyme alongside our red cabbages. The idea was simple: the herbs would have plenty of sunlight while the cabbages were still young, and by the time the cabbages spread their leaves, the herbs would already be established.

Thankfully, our little experiment worked perfectly.

The thyme flowered early in the summer, attracting bees for weeks, while the tiny sage plant we put into the ground in spring grew into a beautiful bush. Before flying to Turkey for the summer, I picked a generous bunch and packed it alongside the vegetables from our allotment.

That sage ended up over 2,500 kilometres away, on Mum and Dad’s dinner table.

Sage Means Tea in Our Family

Growing up, I never remember eating sage.

In Turkish, we know it as ada çayı literally “island tea” and it’s something we drink rather than cook with. One of my earliest memories is visiting my dad’s office as a little girl and seeing him with a glass of sage tea. To this day, that’s still the flavour my parents associate with sage.

So serving it as the star ingredient in a pasta felt like introducing them to a completely different side of a familiar herb.

The Recipe That Inspired It

The inspiration came from Ottolenghi’s One-Pan Orecchiette with Sage and Hazelnuts.

It’s one of those wonderfully clever recipes that uses very few ingredients yet creates something far greater than the sum of its parts. Sweet caramelised onions, crispy fried sage, toasted nuts and pasta cooked directly in the pan until all the liquid is absorbed.

I loved it the first time I made it.

Giving It a Turkish Twist

Being at home in Turkey, I couldn’t resist adapting it.

Instead of dried orecchiette, I used homemade erişte, the egg pasta that’s found in so many Turkish kitchens.

I also replaced the hazelnuts with walnuts. While hazelnuts work beautifully with sage, walnuts are much more common in Turkish cooking and are often paired with erişte anyway, making the substitution feel completely natural.

I also found beautiful local pink onions from my hometown of Karacabey, which slowly caramelised in the fragrant sage-infused olive oil.

My Version

I first fried the sage leaves until crisp and set them aside.

The onions were then cooked slowly in the same oil until sweet and deeply golden.

Instead of boiling the pasta separately, I poured water directly into the onions, added the erişte, and cooked everything together. This is a traditional way of cooking erişte in many Turkish homes, the pasta absorbs all the cooking liquid rather than being drained.

I simmered it gently for around 15 minutes, then switched off the heat, covered the pan and left it to rest for another 15 minutes. The pasta finished cooking as it absorbed the last of the liquid.

Finally, I topped everything with walnuts and the crispy sage leaves.

Simple ingredients.

Simple techniques.

A meal that quietly brought together our allotment in London and my parents’ kitchen in Turkey.

Recipe

Adapted from

Ottolenghi – One-Pan Orecchiette with Sage and Hazelnuts

Ingredients

100 ml olive oil

20 g fresh sage leaves

2 large onions (about 320 g), thinly sliced

250 g homemade erişte (or dried orecchiette for the original recipe)

500 ml water

1½ tbsp lemon juice

50 g walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped (or hazelnuts for the original recipe)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over a medium heat. Fry the sage leaves until crisp, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

   
   

2. In the same oil, cook the sliced onions gently for 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft, sweet and golden.

   
   

3. Add the water, season with salt and black pepper, and bring to the boil. Stir in the erişte, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

   
   

4. Turn off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, cover the pan with a lid and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan until lightly golden.

   
   

5. Fluff the pasta with a fork, then top with the toasted walnuts and crispy sage leaves. Serve immediately.

I used homemade Turkish erişte and walnuts in place of the orecchiette and hazelnuts from the original Ottolenghi recipe, but both versions are equally delicious.