The convenience of dried pasta with all the taste of fresh.

Made with 100% UK milled durum wheat and extruded through bronze dyes.

Our slow dried pasta does NOT contain eggs and is therefore suitable for Vegans.

It is so easy to cook and, served with one of our award-winning pasta sauces, makes a great meal from your store cupboard in under 10 minutes. One bag will serve two adults and one child comfortably. It has a shelf life of at least 3 months and does not have to go in the fridge. We now pack our pasta in eco-friendly resealable bags.

FAST COOKING IN 6 MINUTES

Did you know dried pasta is more popular in Italy than fresh pasta?

Sussex Charmer Macaroni Cheese

Ingredients for Roué

1/3rd litre blue top milk

50g flour

10g butter

100g Sussex Charmer

200g Bookhams Amori pasta

Ingredients for flavour

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Method

To create this roué, first melt the South Downs Butter in a heavy saucepan (the heavier the saucepan the less likely your sauce is to burn) when the butter is gently simmering add the flour and whisk into a smooth paste. Add the flavour ingredients and allow infusing. Continue adding small quantities of milk, whilst whisking thus keeping a smooth consistency until all the milk is added.

Reduce the heat and simmer, whilst adding the all magical ingredient grated Sussex Charmer Cheese.

Now you have created your sauce you need to cook the pasta.

Simply put the dried pasta into boiling salted waste, the best shape is Bookham’s Amori. Cook until al dente, this basically means when the pasta is still quite firm to the bite or just before it starts to go soft. Then wash with cold water, as the pasta will continue to cook even when it is out of the boiling water.

Gently fold the pasta into the sauce and transfer to an ovenproof dish.

Place in the oven for 20 mins on gas mark 6 170c

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We offer next day delivery on all orders placed before 10.30am Monday through to Thursday.

All orders placed after 10.30am Thursday, will be dispatched on the following Monday.

We use two forms of delivery; royal mail 1st class for orders up to 2.5kg and for orders over 2.5kg, we use Citylink over night couriers.

Our UK mainland postage and packaging rate is based upon weight. Starting at £2 for a single wedge and rising to £6, however orders over £40 are delivered free. The total shipping charge is automatically calculated as you add each item to your order and is displayed top right of your screen.

We can also deliver overseas, click HERE for European rates.

If you have any special requests, ie. leave with neighbour or sending as gift with a personal message to attach. Place these requests in the comment box as you place your order.

For further questions, please call us on 01323 636110 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

(We regularly check our messages and will endeavour to reply as quickly as possible)

This slow dried pasta has a shelf life of at least 6 months. It also comes in clever re-sealable packs.

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It has been widely reported that the Venetian merchant Marco Polo brought back pasta from his journeys in China. However there is some evidence of an Etrusco-Roman noodle made from the same durum wheat as modern pasta called "lagane" (origin of the modern word for lasagna). However this food, first mentioned in the 1st century AD was not boiled like pasta, it was cooked in an oven. The next culinary leap in the history of pasta would take place a few centuries later.

Like so much of southern Italian life, the Arab invasions of the 8th century heavily influenced the regional cuisine and is the most accepted theory for the introduction of pasta. The dried noodle-like product they introduced to Sicily is most likely the origins of dried pasta and was being produced in great quantities in Palermo at this time. The modern word "macaroni" derives from the Sicilian term for making dough forcefully, as early pasta making was often a laborious daylong process. How it was served is not truly known but many Sicilian pasta recipes still include other Arab gastronomic introductions such as raisins and spices like cinnamon. This early pasta was an ideal staple for Sicily and it easily spread to the mainland since durum wheat thrives in Italy's climate. Italy is still a major producer of this hard wheat, used to make the all-important semolina flour.

By the 1300's dried pasta was very popular for its nutrition and long shelf life, making it ideal for long ship voyages. Pasta made it around the globe during the voyages of discovery a century later. By that time different shapes of pasta have appeared and new technology made pasta easier to make. With these innovations pasta truly became a part of Italian life. However the next big advancement in the history of pasta would not come until the 19th century when pasta met tomatoes.

Although tomatoes were brought back to Europe shortly after their discovery in the New World, it took a long time for the plant to be considered edible. In fact tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family and rumors of tomatoes being poisonous continued in parts of Europe and its colonies until the mid 19th century. Therefore it was not until 1839 that the first pasta recipe with tomatoes was documented. However shortly thereafter tomatoes took hold, especially in the south of Italy.

Today pasta is everywhere and can be found in dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca) varieties depending on what the recipes call for. The main problem with pasta today is the use of mass production to fill a huge worldwide demand. We at Bookhams make our pasta the traditional way.

There are two factors in the production of dried pasta which have a major influence on its quality, cooking and enjoyment: extrusion and drying methods. Dried pasta is designed for grabbing and holding onto sauces. Our pasta has ridges or slight abrasions on the surface to hold onto the pasta sauce as well. These ridges and bumps are created during the extrusion process, when the pasta is forced from a copper mold and cut to desired length before drying. These molds, while expensive and prone to wear are favored for making the best dried pasta. However most producers worldwide use steel molds that produce pasta that is too smooth to hold onto sauce.

After the pasta is cut it must be dried using a process of specific temperature and time. This is another area where mass produced pasta falls short of good quality pasta made the correct way. The mass produced pastas are dried at very high temperatures for a shorter time than quality pasta. Our pasta is allowed to dry slower, it is after the pasta is fully dried that it is packaged. The result is a product with a much better mouth-feel, quicker cooking time, and superior sauce holding ability