angel hair pasta, Sottocenere

Capellini d'angelo con formaggio di sottocenera al tartufo. That there's Italian for "hair of angel with cheese of 'under ash' to truffle".  In the pasta world, you got your capellini, 'hair' pasta, which is thin, and you got your capellini d'angelo, 'angel hair' pasta, which is even more thin. So this pasta is extremely thin. Do you understand how tricky it is to achieve al dente angel hair pasta? The cook has to stand there and test it every 5 seconds. <--- Possible exaggeration in excess of 100%. 

The rind of the cheese is a gray ash mixed with spices, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, and truffle oil. The ash coating conveys these flavors into the cheese. The rind itself is edible if a bit gritty and also mild so hardly worth it. The cheese also has bits of truffle inside. It is very good, and I do recommend it if you happen to see it around, go for it.  

This is a very small plate of pasta. It might look large in the photograph but the pasta is very thin, the plate small, and the tomato a single small Roma type diced finely. The only flavorings are salt/pepper, and herbs. The pasta is rolled in mild olive oil. There is no sauce. The cheese is soft and tends to congeal. I suppose a bit of pasta water could have been used to form a thinner sauce with the olive oil and the cheese, but I wanted to be careful not to goof on the cheese. This small plate of just a few ounces of pasta amounts to a light snack. It stood for dinner tonight.  

Aerogarden herbs, mostly lemon basil, a sprig of mint, and a few thin weak strands of  oregano. Everything is bolting so their tiny flowers too. 

scallops and angel hair pasta

An unusual ingredient there, anchovy paste in a tube. I know about 20 people who would have objections to one ingredient or another in this simple dish. I dated a woman who couldn't have garlic. "Oh, don't put any garlic in mine. I'm serious. I'll have heartburn for days if you do. Leave it out please." Gimme a break. Now I ax you, how am I to make a standup marinara without garlic? Puhleeze. Fussy eaters piss me off.

"Waaaah, I don't like anchovies. My whole body breaks out in hives for two weeks every time I see one."

"Waaaah, I can't have Parmesan because I'm lactose intolerant and cheese gives me heart attacks whenever I get within five feet and then I have to be hospitalized for weeks on end in a tent with a respirator."

"Waaaah I can't do scallops because shellfish make me bleed out my bum requiring a full transfusion, and I don't like that."

"Waaaah, I can't eat pasta because gluten causes my throat to close up entirely and I can't breathe and EMT's have to come and perform an emergency tracheotomy on the spot."

Finicky eaters always turn up their noses at the best things to eat for the lamest reasons.

My parents wouldn't have it. Too much expense, time, and energy went into meal preparation for them to brook a table of fussy children. They insisted we at least try something. Everything.

"SHUT UP an eat it!"

"BECAUSE I SAID SO! That's why."

"STOP CRYING, or I'll give you something to cry about."

Such cogent reasoning, how could we refuse?

How I do recall fondly those gentle ministrations, that tender careful loving guidance.

But I'd like to talk about the sauce -- the way it magically comes together so mysteriously. The thing is, butter is like sauce already that's waiting for you to help it along. It's open to several approaches including vino if you happen to have a little extra. In this case, I heat olive oil and butter in equal portions in a medium-size saucepan. Add garlic to flavor the oil careful not to toast or burn it. Then squeeze in less than a teaspoon of anchovy paste. It spatters. Mix it together. Now your fat is flavored and already it begins to thicken. Add black pepper, and red pepper flakes for kapow. Add the scallops. They release some liquid and the sauce is appears complete. Drain the pasta reserving a cup of the pasta water. This water has starch from the pasta and sufficient salt for it to taste like sea-water. The starchy salty water is used to adjust the sauce after the pasta is added to the pan. Make it thinner than you imagine it to finish because the grated Parmigiano will thicken it even further and it will naturally thicken more as it cools. No additional salt necessary because the anchovies have their own intriguing fish/salt flavor, the Parmigiano is salty, and the pasta water is also salted. So right there you have your Federally Suggested Monthly Salt Requirement for a bull elephant -- adding more would be painting the lilly, innit, gilding the already golden, as it were. Reserve some Parmigiano to finish the plate.

It's a shame to cut up giant sea scallops like this but it is necessary for this angel hair pasta dish.