Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all shared some love around… or some pasta?

Lady and the Tramp

 Italians are renowned for being some of the world’s best lovers and if there are two things Italians are obsessed with it’s lurrrrrve (yeah, you know what I mean) and pasta. I think Annie Leibovitz captured it perfectly.

Wow!

So if you haven’t already picked up what I’m putting down here, perhaps in order to share a bit more love in our lives, we should share a bit more pasta? After all, for Italians, food IS love.

So with that spirit, I want to share some love. I don’t want to put you off your food, so I will refrain from getting intimate with my pasta here, but while I bubble some orecchiette away on the stove, I’d love to share some of my “pasta lust” moments of 2011.

1. Paccheri con Fiori di Zucca e Zafferano

Osteria behind the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence,  June 2011

I enjoyed this memorable dish in a tiny Osteria with no name in Florence. I must have waited an hour to get into this tiny hole in the wall, but it had a hand written menu with no English on it, so I knew it would be good. I shared a table with the lovely Brett from California, who was extremely well versed in Italian and a very helpful trip advisor. As soon as the plate hit the table the fragrance of saffron was intoxicating. The pumpkin flowers enhanced the saffron or the saffron enhanced the flowers, either way it was like a damn symphony!!  Paccheri are like giant maccheroni, which seemed to match perfectly with the rich creamy sauce.  My travel notes say “OMG, best thing I’ve ever eaten” and to be honest, it just about was.  

2. Testaroli al Pesto

Another Osteria, Santa Margherita, June 2011

 If you go to the Genoa region and don’t try the pesto Genovese, you’d be an idiot, it’s absolutely delicious.

This light lunch was delightful, I sat down with a book, a glass of vino and a cute waiter who brought me everything I desired. Testaroli is a local Liguarian specialty, it’s more of less like a thick crepe (not really pasta) cut into little squares,  made of “Farina, aqua e sale” I’m told by the cute waiter.

“Could you please write that down for meeee…”  *flirtatious eyelash batting*

I couldn’t help but ask…

3. Linguine ai Ricci di Mare

Local restaurant, Brucoli, Sicily,  July 2011

Ale took me to this restaurant for his own selfish reasons, he loves it. But I couldn’t have picked a better foodie, he drove for an hour to a restaurant, on the water, in the middle of nowhere because he loves it. The entire meal was…well nothing short of simplicity, perfected.  The highlight was the Linguine ai Ricci di Mare (sea urchin). So simple, a combination of olive oil and creamy sea urchin lubricate each strand of linguine and are highlighted with just a touch of garlic and parsley. A taste of the sea in every forkful. Like the pasta junkie that I am, I kept trying to get the same high by ordering it in other restaurants only to be disappointed, proving that, simplicity is sometimes the hardest to master.   

4. Linguine al Granchio e Bottarga

Sosta Cucina, North Melbourne, October 2011

Got to love an impromptu mid-week indulgence and that’s why I love Diba. It’s not all the time, but when she wants to indulge the girl does it my way. On this particular evening we decided to join another friend at Sosta Cucina in North Melbourne and what was supposed to be a simple glass of wine on a balmy Melbourne evening turned into a pasta moment worth writing about.  Al dente linguine, coated in flavoursome olive oil with perfectly cooked  pearls of blue swimmer crab, complimented by the crunch of toasted breadcrumbs and accented with bottarga (frightfully expensive cured tuna or mullet roe).  I am sitting there hoovering my linguine while the others banter about booking the “chef’s table” at some $$ Melbourne restaurant.  They can have their chef’s table, I’ll have that spaghetti any day thanks.

5. Mauro’s Penne with Trombette and Shellfish

San Remo, Italy, June 2011

Mauro culminated a Ligurian seafood feast with this pasta he made for my cousin Lisa and I when we were staying in San Remo. Mauro tossed Kamut Penne with a sauce (pictured) of sweet, fresh Ligurian shellfish, ripe cherry tomatoes and trombette (pictured above) – a delicious local vegetable shaped like a long skinny, spiralling zucchini. I could have eaten 2 plates, 7 year old Liam wanted a cheese sandwich instead.   

6. Pappardelle with Veal  Osso Bucco Ragu

Chez Amanda, October 2011

I experimented with cooking this dish after enjoying a meal at A Tavola in Darlinghurst, which climaxed in paper thin ribbons of handmade pappardelle tossed in a light pork ragu, cooked for 8 hours with vegetables, wine and its own juiciness. The pork fell apart and the brothy sauce really just coated the pasta so that it wasn’t too rich or heavy. Mmmppph!  I have always wanted to cook ragu like this, not too wine-y, not too meat-y not too tomato-y. So I decided to give it a go at home with veal osso-bucco, which melted after a few hours and this was the result!  It was good, even if I do say so myself and it tasted even better in Nonna’s old bowls. I will eventually get around to posting the recipe.

I’m all loved out for now so I’m going to leave this post open ended, I still have a couple of months of 2011 left to eat and people have already been giving me ideas. Anyone want to come over for pasta?

Images from: Lady and the Tramp – Babble and Woman in a plate of Spaghetti- World’s Best Ever