Thursday, August 18, 2005
Spaghetti lunghi
So a great breakthrough in physics has been made - something that puzzled Richard Feynman himself - namely why spaghetti breaks into more than two pieces:
"Richard Feynman—maverick physics genius, Nobel laureate and father of modern quantum theory—could not work out why, when a strand of dried spaghetti is snapped, it almost never breaks in half but instead fragments into three or more pieces." (from the Economist Web edition)
A much more important question is surely - where did all the long spaghetti go? Over the years it has gradually been disappearing. I never found it in French supermarkets, but it was sold in Swiss ones until recently. I sincerely doubt that it was all bought up by physicists for their experiments. Certainly the shorter stuff - 24.1 cm apparently - is easier to shift about. But it doesn't 'taste' as good. At least not to me. Even scan barilla.com and pasta.it Just seems to have been wiped off the face of the earth.
Anyway, here's a sauce with a difference... Make your arrabiata sauce as you normally do (I tried kumatoes once - I guess this is the correct plural - but they were pretty mince). I currently use a spice mix I bought in Rome airport - previously I used dried chillis from Arizona :-) Just toss in a few not-overripe figs. Greatly softens the taste so that you can use more chilli :-) :-)
As its stuffed full of garlic, guess it wasn't the kindest thing to eat before going to the dentist. Talking of which, why is it - no matter how late or early you turn up - you always have to wait for a few minutes in the waiting room, reading the same magazines that were there the first time you ever went to said dentist?
Back to my spaghetti quest - I'll track it down sooner or later. Just like Dominic Hide... And the book about Turks & Caicos with the most unfortunate title (ask me...)
(One of my searches uncovered a description of how to build a toad-proof frog pond!)
"Richard Feynman—maverick physics genius, Nobel laureate and father of modern quantum theory—could not work out why, when a strand of dried spaghetti is snapped, it almost never breaks in half but instead fragments into three or more pieces." (from the Economist Web edition)
A much more important question is surely - where did all the long spaghetti go? Over the years it has gradually been disappearing. I never found it in French supermarkets, but it was sold in Swiss ones until recently. I sincerely doubt that it was all bought up by physicists for their experiments. Certainly the shorter stuff - 24.1 cm apparently - is easier to shift about. But it doesn't 'taste' as good. At least not to me. Even scan barilla.com and pasta.it Just seems to have been wiped off the face of the earth.
Anyway, here's a sauce with a difference... Make your arrabiata sauce as you normally do (I tried kumatoes once - I guess this is the correct plural - but they were pretty mince). I currently use a spice mix I bought in Rome airport - previously I used dried chillis from Arizona :-) Just toss in a few not-overripe figs. Greatly softens the taste so that you can use more chilli :-) :-)
As its stuffed full of garlic, guess it wasn't the kindest thing to eat before going to the dentist. Talking of which, why is it - no matter how late or early you turn up - you always have to wait for a few minutes in the waiting room, reading the same magazines that were there the first time you ever went to said dentist?
Back to my spaghetti quest - I'll track it down sooner or later. Just like Dominic Hide... And the book about Turks & Caicos with the most unfortunate title (ask me...)
(One of my searches uncovered a description of how to build a toad-proof frog pond!)
