If you want to learn how to make perfect pasta, ask an Italian (Tony Turnbull writes). Or if you are feeling really ambitious, ask a Polish chef. Specifically, ask Mateo Zielonka, known as the Pasta Man, whose colourful and unorthodox way with dough — think striped ravioli twisted into sweet-wrapper shapes, or spinach-coloured pasta shaped like cannabis leaves — has brought him 170,000 followers on Instagram. “I find inspiration everywhere,” he says. “Social media, sculptures at Tate Modern, patterns in wood, the veg patch . . .”
Zielonka, 31, fell in love with Italian cooking reading The Sopranos Family Cookbook as a teenager, but learnt his craft after coming to London on holiday nearly ten years ago. He worked first at Polpetto with Florence Knight
