A few weeks ago, I was at Eataly in NYC—the Roman Circus of Italian food emporium-and like always, I was drawn to the overpriced imported pasta section. There’s just something about expensive, beautifully shaped, dry noodles made from 100% durum wheat that I find hard to resist. On this particular expedition I found a bag of what looked like polka dots. On closer inspection I saw that it was a pasta made to look like communion wafers! There was even a little cross imprint in the middle (Is it a sacrilege to eat a cross? Maybe the Pope makes exceptions for quality pasta?). I had to buy it.
Since then, the wafer pasta has been waiting in my cupboard for the right opportunity. What kind of sauce do you serve with a flat and round noodle? No ridges. No holes. No slinky lines.
Yesterday I finally decided to marry it to the last crop of this season’s CSA peas, along with some crisp pancetta, sauteed sweet onions, pecorino, lemon zest, and lots of freshly ground pepper. The tricky thing is that the circles stick together easily, so I tossed them with a bit of olive oil after draining. But we all found them fun to eat. Not quite a spiritual experience, but who doesn’t feel blessed when eating a delicious bowl of pasta?
So is there any crazy/odd/pricey/bronze-dye shape of pasta that you like?
