A $5 vanilla milkshake, a buttery grilled cheese sandwich, a plate of spaghetti doused in syrup, expired cans of pineapple, pizza in Naples, a danish pastry breakfast eaten outside Tiffany’s: name that film? (See the end for the answers – no peeking.) Scenes in the films we love that involve food often acquire an iconic status. Are we all just fascinated by the logistics – is Will Ferrell’s Buddy really eating all that sweet spaghetti in Elf? – or do such moments simply make us hungry to recreate the dishes at home? Either way, here is my tribute to three classics.
Mushroom carbonara (pictured top)
The movie Heartburn is peppered (sorry!) with references to food, and this dish is a meat-free take on one shared in the film by Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. They eat it in bed and from the same big bowl, imagining a life where they will eat this once a week for the rest of their lives. Every time I see it, I always wonder how many takes it took to get that scene right – and how many times that big bowl of silky-sauced pasta had to be made.
Prep 10 min
Cook 35 min
Serves 2
For the fried shiitake
1 tbsp olive oil
150g fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps chopped into 1cm pieces
½ tsp mirin
½ tsp soy sauce
For the soy shimeji
1 tbsp olive oil
300g shimeji mushrooms, trimmed, or oyster or king oyster mushrooms, shredded
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
For the ‘carbonara’
5 egg yolks
50g parmesan, finely grated
1½ tsp mirin
1 tbsp soy sauce
Fine sea salt and black pepper
250g dried bucatini, or spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Start with the shiitake. Put the oil in a large saute pan on a medium-high heat, add the chopped shiitake and cook, stirring often, for about seven minutes, until golden all over. Mix the mirin and soy in a small bowl, pour into the pan and cook, stirring quickly for another minute. Tip the shiitake mix on to a plate and set aside.
Wipe the pan clean and put it on a high heat. Pour a teaspoon of oil into the pan, then add a third of the shimeji (or oyster or king oyster mushrooms) and cook, stirring often, for two to three minutes, until lightly golden all over. Tip into a large bowl, then repeat with the remaining shimeji, cooking them in two more batches and adding a teaspoon of oil. When the last batch of shimeji is cooked, return them all to the pan. Mix the mirin and soy in a small bowl, pour over the top of the shimeji, stir to coat, then tip out into the large bowl and set aside.
Now for the carbonara. Put the egg yolks, parmesan, soy and mirin in a bowl, add a few good grinds of pepper, mix well and put aside.
Put 1.3 litres of water and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt in a large pan and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium-high, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Two minutes before the pasta is done, return the saute pan to a medium heat and, once it’s hot, add the oil and garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
Using tongs, lift the cooked pasta out of the boiling water and stir it into the garlicky oil. Measure out 200ml pasta water into a bowl, quickly stir in the egg mixture, to combine, then pour the lot into the pasta pan and stir vigorously for a minute, just until the mix thickens into a sauce that coats the pasta.
Take the pan off the heat, stir in the shimeji until well combined, then use tongs to transfer the pasta to two bowls. Scatter a quarter of the fried shiitake over the top of each bowl of pasta and serve with the rest of the shiitake on the side.
Inglourious apfelstrudel
You don’t normally feel hungry when your stomach’s in knots, but in the gutwrenchingly tense strudel scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, I found myself distracted by the sheer perfection of the apfelstrudel: the precision of the slice, the crisp pastry, the swirl of cream on the side. I had to make my own. Try to get hold of Turkish filo pastry: it has a robustness that makes it easier to roll, plus it lends itself to extra-crunchy layers. Don’t worry if you can’t, though: use any good filo and take a bit more care when handling it, because it’s more delicate; use 30g less each of icing sugar and butter, too.
Prep 15 min
Steep 30 min
Cook 1 hr 20 min
Rest 15-20 min
Serves 8
6 sheets Turkish filo pastry (37cm x 47cm), or regular filo (170g)
110g unsalted butter (80g if using regular filo), melted – set aside 15g for later
80g icing sugar (50g if using regular filo) – set aside 1 tbsp for dusting
50g hard amaretti biscuits, roughly crushed
50g toasted pecans, lightly broken
50g dried soft prunes, stoned if need be, then cut into 1cm pieces
For the filling
5-6 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1½cm pieces (600g)
50g soft light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom, from 15-20 pods, bashed open, pods discarded and seeds ground
¼ tsp flaked sea salt
1 large lemon, zest finely grated, to get 1 tsp, then juiced, to get 1 tbsp
To serve
Whipped or squirty cream (or custard)
Put all the filling ingredients in a large bowl, mix to combine, then set aside for about half an hour, so the apples release some of their juices. Drain, then discard the liquid.
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Put a large, slightly damp, clean tea towel on a worktop: this is to help you roll the strudel later. Lay a sheet of filo on top of the tea towel, brush it generously all over with melted butter, then, using a sieve, lightly dust it all over with about a tablespoon of icing sugar. Repeat with the remaining filo, melted butter and icing sugar.
Leaving a 4cm border around the edge, scatter the crushed amaretti over the top of the filo, top this with the apple mixture, followed by the pecans and, finally, the prunes. Fold over one of the shorter borders to the other side, so the pastry completely encloses the filling, seal the edges, then do the same with the longer borders. Starting from the longer side and using the damp cloth to help you, carefully roll up the strudel like a swiss roll until it’s completely sealed and the seam is at the bottom.
Again using the cloth to help you, carefully lift the strudel on to a large oven tray lined with greaseproof paper. Brush with the reserved butter, then dust with the reserved icing sugar. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut six evenly spaced 7cm diagonal slashes across the top of the strudel to reveal the filling inside. Bake the strudel for 45-50 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and deeply golden, then remove and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes.
Slice and serve warm with cream.
Bubba’s prawns
Bubba was Forrest’s best friend. They saw only the best in each other and the good in everyone else. They fought together, fished together and ate industrial quantities of shrimp together, and their partnership is one of the most memorable features of Robert Zemeckis’ 1994 masterpiece, Forrest Gump. In honour of that, here’s a nod to Alabama and another great partnership: shrimp and grits – or, in this case, king prawns and polenta. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Prep 15 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 2
For the polenta
250ml whole milk
Fine sea salt and black pepper
200g quick-cook polenta – we use the Valsugana brand, which is widely available
50g unsalted butter
50g parmesan, finely grated
For the prawns
60g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 tsp chipotle chilli flakes
½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp dried oregano
500g raw king prawns, peeled and deveined
½ lemon
10g picked flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Put the milk in a medium saucepan for which you have a lid, add 250ml water and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium-high, pour in the polenta and cook, whisking constantly, for about two minutes, until it thickens to a loose porridge consistency – depending on the brand of instant polenta you use, you may need to add a fair bit more water to get it to the right consistency, in some instances almost twice as much. Take off the heat, cover and set aside.
Now for the prawns. Put the butter, oil, garlic, chilli and paprika in a medium saucepan, add a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, then put on a medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often, for two minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and the spices are just starting to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the Worcestershire sauce, maple syrup and oregano, and cook for another two minutes, until the sauce reduces and thickens slightly. Add the prawns and cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes, until they’re cooked through and well coated with the sauce. Take off the heat and squeeze over the lemon half.
Stir the butter and cheese through the polenta, then transfer it to a lipped platter. Top with the prawn mix, sprinkle the parsley on top and serve at once.
This article was edited on 1 November 2023, to clarify that the amount of water needed to cook the polenta for the prawn recipe to the desired consistency will depend very much on the brand you use.
In case you’re still wondering about the quiz question in the introduction, those films are Pulp Fiction, Chef, Elf, Chungking Express, Eat, Pray, Love and Breakfast at Tiffany’s
