Wormy Spaghetti

It was Roald Dahl Day yesterday, and we got thinking about our favourite books. Then, being foodies, we started thinking about all the weird and wonderful, incredible edible foods in Dahl’s stories that we could recreate.… Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstoppers and Three Course Dinner Chewing Gum seemed a little too ambitious, George’s Marvellous Medicine could potentially have health risks. So we challenged Freya to make worm-less Wormy Spaghetti (from The Twits)… and it looks disgustingly delicious! 

For the Tomato Sauce: 

• 1.5tbsp olive oil  
• 1 onion 
• 1 carrot 
• 1 celery stick  
• 1 garlic clove 
• Optional: bay leaf 
• 2 tins chopped tomato

For the worms (spaghetti):

• 520g Flour (00 is preferable but if you have Plain Flour that will work just fine) 
• 200ml water- plus a bit extra, it will depend on the type of flour you are using  
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• Extra flour for dusting and kneading 
• 6-8 tbsp. of tomato paste  
• Salt for the cooking water 

1. Finely chop the vegetables 
2. Heat the oil in the pan and add the veg, and the bay leaf if using.  
3. Allow to soften for 10-15 minutes- get someone to keep and eye and stir this occasionally. Add a pinch of salt if using.  
4. When tender and slightly golden, stir in the tinned tomatoes- add about 75ml of water and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes or until thickened making sure to stir occasionally so that the sauce doesn’t stick.  
5. While you’re waiting for the sauce to thicken you can get started on your worms. 
6. Sieve flour into mixing bowl and make a well in the middle for the oil and water.  
7. Add oil to the flour and add lukewarm water to the mix and blend together using a fork/your hands.  
8. Once the mix has started to take form, don’t worry if it’s a bit dry or crumbly at this stage, split the dough in two. 
9. Add 6tbsp of the tomato paste to one half. If the mixture is still a little dry you can add the 7th and 8th if needed. Mix this in with your hands, as you knead the dough it will mix to be one colour.  
10. To the other half add some more water if needed.  
11. Sprinkle some flour over the work surface and knead the dough until the mix has blended completely. Do this for both your white and red dough.  
12. All hands on deck! Now we need to make our worms. Pinch off balls of dough from your main ball, about the size of £1 coin.  
13.  Roll this in your floured hands to make a tube shape, once the tube is as big as the hand continue rolling on the floured surface until the tube is about ½ cm thick.  
14. Place each tube on a floured chopping board until you’re ready to cook. Do this for both the white and the red dough.  
15. Boil some water in a pan and add a pinch of salt to the water. Cooking time varies depending on the thickness of the pasta you have made, this averages between 30 seconds and 1 ½ minutes. If you taste the pasta, you want it to still be slightly chewy but making sure the flour has cooked.  
16. Once the pasta is cooked, drain the water, save about 2tbsp and add to the tomato sauce and stir. Add the tomato sauce to the pasta.  
17. Serve on the plate and add a small sprinkling of cheese.  

TOP TIPS

• You could add a little dried chilli, oregano or olives to give your sauce a bit of a kick 
• Add in some extra veg to your sauce to get another 1 of your 5-a-day to bulk up your plate. You could add frozen peas or broccoli in when the pasta is cooking to make it even easier.