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1
Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pot over a medium flame. Add the sliced onion and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent — it must not colour.
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2
Add the diced potato to the pot. Stir to coat in the oil and cook with the onion for 3–4 minutes. Pour over the lightly salted water and bring to a steady simmer. Cook until the potato is completely tender and its edges have begun to break down, thickening the broth naturally — press a piece against the side of the pot; it should offer no resistance and crumble at the edge.
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3
Add all the pasta mista shapes together. From the 8-minute mark, taste a piece of each shape at every minute — pasta mista cooks at varying rates and the cook must judge collectively when the majority are al dente without the smallest shapes becoming soft.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies: with no more than 5 minutes of cooking time remaining on the pasta, stir in the young borage leaves. Longer cooking yellows them and destroys the volatile compounds that give the soup its defining cucumber freshness. They are ready when vivid green and just wilted — no further.
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5
Remove the pot from the heat. Ladle the soup into warm bowls. Place one generous spoonful of fresh ricotta on the surface of each bowl — it should sit proud and not dissolve. Add a few borage flowers and a light drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. The ricotta is swirled in at table.