Italian Recipe 3

After an unexplainable pause I am back. Nothing worse than an outdated blog. I'll try to catch you up on the past couple weeks over the next few days.

Highlights of the interim period include the discovery of a great new restaurant here in town, deciphering the local bus system, the lighting of the Christmas lights in downtown, and a four day weekend featuring a visit to Cattolica and Gradara (a real live castle built for real castle reasons and not cartoon princesses).

I met a man today originally from Ghana who went to university in Cuba, married a Cuban woman and now lives with his family here in Ancona. He speaks French, Italian, English and two other languages.

One of my co-workers is a self-proclaimed feminist. She was describing her struggles with her boyfriend. They both work but when she gets home, he is sitting on the sofa and she has to clean the flat, cook dinner, clean-up, etc. She finally managed to teach him how to use the washing machine and wash the dishes but all of those skills are something he never learned. She said something interesting. "The biggest challenge facing the modern Italian woman is the Italian mother." And she is not optimistic much will change with her generation mentioning that sometimes she feels like Italy is still in medieval times.

And now for the food...

Spaghetti with Pistachio and Pepper Pesto

Alice invented this one and it was a pretty delicious discovery. The completed sauce has the consistency and texture of Genovese pesto but a completely unique taste. As always, ingredient amounts are speculative but if you have some fun and experiment a bit you should end up with something quite tasty.

Ingredients for the pesto: maybe a 1/2 cup pistachio nuts, 1-4 small dried red chilies (red pepper flakes can probably be substituted), 1 clove of garlic, 1 medium tomato, 1/4 medium carrot, grated parmesan cheese and olive oil. (Adjust all amounts to taste, especially the chilies.)

The process here assumes the pesto is mixed in your saute pan using one of those hand-held boat motor type mixers. If you don't have one, combine the ingredients first in a blender or even better, in a mortar to be crushed with your pestle the way your nonna used to do it.

Start your pasta water to boil. Meanwhile shell about 1/2 a cup or more of pistachio nuts and roughly crush them with the bottom of a jar or something else sturdy. Place in your trusty saute pan. Remove the paper and mince the glove of garlic and the chili(s) and add to the pistachio. Dice the tomato and shred or finely chop the carrot and add to the pistachio. Add the grated parmesan cheese. Adding oil, use the mixer to combine everything until the pesto reaches your desired consistency. (Some people like it silky smooth, others prefer it to be more rustic.) Adjust ingredients for volume and taste. Place over medium heat and heat through thoroughly. During this time, your pasta water has come to a boil, you added salt to it and cooked the spaghetti to almost al dente. Drain the nearly cooked pasta (reserving some of the pasta water) and while still hot, add to the pan with the pesto and over low heat combine and finish cooking the pasta. Serve.

Hopefully your results match ours.

I wonder what Eric is doing right now.