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River Cafe’s Tomato Pasta, recipe below.

The River Café was opened by Rose Grey and Ruth Rogers in 1987 as a staff canteen for Ruth’s husband, Richard Rogers' architecture firm - which tells you something about their baseline for taste. Nearly forty years on, it's still doing the same thing: fresh, seasonal Italian food, famously with very few, very good ingredients. You don't need to be a deeply impressive architect to get a table now - just a special occasion and a good amount of bees and honey.

The carpet is deep sea-blue. The oven, hot pink. The bar, yellow. Renzo Piano's lighting gives more workshop than dining room, all bare bulbs and shiny aluminium. Alberto Meda's Alias chairs sit low and floor to ceiling glass walls give onto the Thames. Then there's Richard's clock.. a giant projection-mapped onto the wall above the open kitchen. You're in the early 2000s.

One of our CHERRYBOY editors worked at the The River Café for 5 years. She pinged Ruth a message asking for a recipe we could publish that everyone should know how to cook. This tomato sauce is that. If you can't manage it, we need to talk. She also let us in on the restaurants where she’s made her fondest memories.

What did you have for breakfast today?: An espresso
Your favourite restaurant?: Da Laura in Portofino, Italy
Your first memory of food?: Borscht in The Russian Tea Room in NYC
A food that you cannot stand?: Pasta salad, also truffle oil
A meal that you will never forget?: Dinner with Richard and our family at L’Ami Louis in Paris after the opening of the Pompidou Centre.

Ruth’s Tomato Pasta

Ingredients
Serves 6-8

3 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers

2 x 1kg jars peeled plum tomatoes, drained

Tomato Sauce

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the garlic until it is soft but not brown.

Add the tomatoes with some sea salt and black pepper and cook fiercely, stirring constantly to prevent the tomatoes from sticking as they break up.

As they cook, the tomatoes will release their juices. When this liquid has evaporated, add the remaining olive oil, the basil or oregano, and more seasoning if necessary.

Serve hot.

@ruthierogers
@therivercafelondon

The River Cafe, Thames Wharf, Rainville Road, London, United Kingdom W6 9HA

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