Today Bari’s chillies arrived.
He has been growing them for about a year and they seem to thrive on those long sunny days you get in Somerset with of course a lot of loving care and attention.
Now for me there is only one way to cook them and that is spaghetti aglio,olio e peperconcino.
Now my Silver Spoon Cook Book says I should just fry the garlic and chillies in some olive oil and add the spaghetti.
But I prefer using linguini and throwing in some chopped tomatoes and a little tomato sauce. Once this is done you pull the pasta out with a fork rather than draining it.
This keeps the pasta moist and just softens the dish.
I have cooked it at home, eaten it at a restaurant and had it made for me by Rosa. Rosa is just a wonderful cook who comes from Naples and has that knack of taking raw ingredients and making them into perfection.
I know which one I prefer but Rosa is in Italy and so I have to fall back on my own. This is not to rubbish the version served up to me in Florence.
We had spent the morning doing what all tourists do, a mix of watching the city whizz by on a sightseeing bus, trying to match the scene in front with the guide book description and getting lost in the narrow side streets.
The restaurant was in the Piazza di Santa Croce.
This is one of the large piazzas with a fountain at one end the Duomo at the other and in between a mix of shops and eating places.
Ours was less grand than the others and the chairs a bit rickety, but we it was full and no one seemed in a hurry to leave so I guessed we had chosen wisely.
Now not everyone gets to sit where they want and it fell to me to be on the outside just out of reach of the sunshade. Midday in the Piazza di Santa Croce with no umbrella could have been uncomfortable but there was a bonus. When that dish of pasta, tomatoes, garlic and chillies arrived the bright sunlight combined to make it look just perfect.
Pictures;\Barri's chillies before and after, 2011
Now for me there is only one way to cook them and that is spaghetti aglio,olio e peperconcino.
Now my Silver Spoon Cook Book says I should just fry the garlic and chillies in some olive oil and add the spaghetti.
But I prefer using linguini and throwing in some chopped tomatoes and a little tomato sauce. Once this is done you pull the pasta out with a fork rather than draining it.
This keeps the pasta moist and just softens the dish.
I have cooked it at home, eaten it at a restaurant and had it made for me by Rosa. Rosa is just a wonderful cook who comes from Naples and has that knack of taking raw ingredients and making them into perfection.
I know which one I prefer but Rosa is in Italy and so I have to fall back on my own. This is not to rubbish the version served up to me in Florence.
The restaurant was in the Piazza di Santa Croce.
This is one of the large piazzas with a fountain at one end the Duomo at the other and in between a mix of shops and eating places.
Ours was less grand than the others and the chairs a bit rickety, but we it was full and no one seemed in a hurry to leave so I guessed we had chosen wisely.
Now not everyone gets to sit where they want and it fell to me to be on the outside just out of reach of the sunshade. Midday in the Piazza di Santa Croce with no umbrella could have been uncomfortable but there was a bonus. When that dish of pasta, tomatoes, garlic and chillies arrived the bright sunlight combined to make it look just perfect.
Pictures;\Barri's chillies before and after, 2011
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