birds eye view

Follow ontheten on Twitter

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

cooking with love



i did a little cooking on sunday and i decided to try my hand at this pasta. i made enough to share with coworkers for lunch and have leftover for me as well. another bonus is i will make it again on friday and take to my advisory board meeting and to the recovery support group that starts this friday. i was able to taste this one and it made me smile. i'm sure i missed out on some of the nuances- i changed the recipe slightly. i used asiago, parmesan, and reggiano, and i used peppered bacon in lieu of pancetta, added roasted pine nuts. but it seemed to work beautifully.

i was reminded again just how much i love food. i love to cook. i love to eat as well, but i'll focus on cooking here today. there is a meditative quality that wraps its arms around me when i am in the kitchen. i lose sight of the repetetive thoughts that usually circle in my head, and i feel i am able to become part of what i am doing. i don't cook because i have to, but i cook because it brings me joy. and when i cook for others, i am able to give them something of myself. the part of me that became connected with what i was doing.

but the best part is that once in awhile, a big smile will come across somone's face as they are eating and i know that i have done something worthwhile.

Rigatoni alla carbonara

Ingredients for 4 persons
400 gr pasta ?Rigatoni
120 gr. Bacon (Pancetta tesa)


3 eggs (uova)


50 gr. Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano)


50 gr. Pecorino Romano cheese


2 gr. Black pepper (pepe nero)


4 spoons extra virgin olive oil (olio extra vergine di oliva)



Cut the bacon in cubes and browne them in a pan with a small quantity of olive oil. Take off the bacon from the pan and put it aside. Beat the eggs in a bowl with two spoons of oil olive, the parmesan and pecorino romano cheese and the black pepper. With this sauce you will dress the pasta and only at the end you will add the bacon so that it will remain crisp.


Curiosity
The difficult things in preparing this recipe are essentially two: choose the right type of bacon and mix rapidly the pasta so to avoid that the eggs curdle. To choose the right bacon trust a roman dealer and ask for ?pancetta tesa? explaining for which recipe you need it. You will find many kinds of ?pancetta? which are not to be confused with the typical english bacon!!! As far as the pasta choice is concerned, we advise the ?rigatoni of Gragnano?.
Gragnano is a place not a trademark, all the pasta made in this village near Naples can be considered the best in the world! If you can?t find it, remember never to buy a pasta with less than 9 minutes cooking time even for spaghetti. These times are synonimous of quality, otherwise the percentage of hard wheat inside the pasta will be so low not to guarantee a good result of your recipe even if the price of the pasta could seem interesting.
 recipe from rome central

today's sound choice is from my next pic in the "back to mine" series-this one from talvin singh. i am an avid lover of acid jazz, and this is a fine example of such. it totally transports me and i firmly believe this composition was made with love. here is dZihan and Kamien with "after".  i believe this particular disc has been discontinued.








Share


href="http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=" onclick="return fbs_click()" target="_blank" class="fb_share_link"<>Share on Facebook


Documents

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I like the music; I'm not familiar with acid jazz but I really like this piece. Thanks for sharing.

I enjoyed reading about your joy in cooking. I can tell that you are a good cook because you infuse your dishes with love. Than ks for sharing the recipe.

Related Posts with Thumbnails