I love pasta. I love it so much that I make my own, having picked up an Atlas pasta roller/cutter a short while ago. Ive had other retry much the same over the years but they always got left behind when the relationships ended.

After a trip for groceries, I decided to make up some pasta. This time it was fettucinni, which is the easiest to make and work with. I started with the dough: a mix of unbleached and whole wheat flours, olive oil, a couple eggs, and water.

When the dough had sat for long enough l started on the sauce, Id given it a bit of thought while the dough sat and decided on a lemon sauce as wed just bought a bag of lemons. By he time I was ready to cook, I had a rough outline of the sauce.

First sauté some finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Add a couple tablespoons of capers, and the zest from 2 lemons. Sautéed that for a while over low heat while you make the pasta.

While the pasta boils add the juice of 3 lemons and a tablespoon of butter to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

When the pasta is ready, add it to the sauce. I use tongs and/or a Chinese fishing net to transfer the pasta to the pan with the sauce. Dont bother draining it, and whatever you do dont rinse it! The starch on the surface of the pasta and the bit of starchy water will help the sauce thicken and cling to the pasta. Stir to coat and add some chopped basil and grated parmesan.

Serve.

Suzanne found a nice looking recipe a while ago on Epicurious: Pan Stew of Scallops, Peas, and Pearl Onions. I thought it looked good so I gathered ingrediants and made it one night our friend Derrick was over.

Give it a try if you like the look of it. It’s tasty.

This afternoon we discussed heading into downtown to pick up an Apple TV and grabbing dinner somewhere. “Oh wait,” said Suzanne, “It’s Valentine’s Day. Everything will be packed.” Having eschewed the occasion… really, pick one day to be nice to each other? Fuck, people, Bill & Ted had it right “be excellent to each other”. And that means all the time. Not just one arbitrary day a year picked by a greeting card company. Anyway, I digress. We decided to go out on Monday instead (see tomorrow’s post).

So that left us with dinner to make. Improvisation time. I knew there were anchovies left from a previous meal. And we had green olives (ok.. we had kalamatas as well.. unknown to me). And capers. Oh! @daksis gave me some Faro pasta to try. It’s starting to sound something like Linguine alla Puttanesca. No tomatoes. No problem: use some tomato paste. Garlic, onions.

So that’s what I did. Very close to a classic puttanesca: