A delicious pasta dish combining dried tomatoes, crispy pancetta and crunchy turmeric croutons with a turmeric infused dressing.
Pre-heat the oven to low around 130 °C, 250 °F or the lowest setting on a gas cooker.
To make your own dried tomatoes, halve each of the tomatoes and place on a baking sheet cut side up. Sprinkle with Salt and drizzle lightly with oil, place in the oven for approximately 4 hours until they are dry, but still very flexible.
To make the croutons, pinch the bread into rough pieces (around 1cm across). Place into a bowl and drizzle with 1 tbs of the olive oil, sprinkle over 1 tsp of the Turmeric and toss to coat. Place in the low oven for around 30 minutes until crispy.
Meanwhile, to make the dressing combine the white wine vinegar, 6 of the dried tomatoes, 4 tbs olive oil, the remaining Turmeric and the water, and blend together using a hand blender. Set to one side.
Heat a large pan, add the pancetta and fry for 4-5 minutes until crispy, turn out onto kitchen towel to absorb the excess fat then set to one side. Drain off any excess fat from the pan, then return to the heat, add the shallots and Garlic and fry until softened. Add the tomato passata and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
Cook the pasta in boiling water according to the pack instructions then add to the passata with a little of the cooking water, add the spinach and stir through along with the pancetta, croutons and dried tomatoes.
