Yesterday I cooked something that I’ve been longing for for a long time.
Spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino. Easy as it can be, garlic, oil and chili pepper. I threw in also a bit of ground bread. We never cook it because my wife doesn’t like spicy food and while I can always add spices later on most of the dishes, it makes absolutely no sense for this one.
Wonderful. Simple as hell, and delicious. But not super easy. You can spoil it in a second.
I often order spaghetti aglio e olio - is it much different to that? I’m guessing with the addition of sweet chilli peppers?
I like it because most pasta dishes over here are smothered in sauce, and nice as that is, sometimes I want something more delicate, but still flavoursome.
I think it’s basically the same, with no chili pepper. Which shouldn’t be sweet but hot.
Anyway, I think I posted somewhere my home recipe for that…
EDIT: found!
Some people love to fry peppers with garlic. I do that only if I have fresh peppers. With dried peppers, i just crumble them into the oil as soon as I turn off the flame. If you let it rest for a few minutes, they will release their flavour anyway. If your pasta seems too dry, you can add a little bit of leftover cooking water, or some raw oil.
Please, do note that this is one of the few pasta dishes that has to frankly taste like garlic. I’ll repeat myself, but one of the most common error of italian cuisine abroad is to put too much garlic. Usually in recipes you should only slightly guess its presence, or it would cover the other main tastes.
Conversely here, in aglio olio e peperoncino, garlic is a main taste.
Which is another common mistake, that I tend to forgive if the sauce is really well done.
Here’s another Franconian classic (though it is not exclusive to Franconia): beef with horseradish. With a soup for starters (apologies for misusing pasta plates for soup bowls; we eat way more pasta than soup, normally).
Like so many hearty dishes, it’s perfect for the colder time of the year; and this one also clears your sinuses.
Beef with Horseradish
For the soup, add carrots, leek, celeriac, pepper, salt and a bay leaf to 2l of water and bring to a boil. Add the beef and turn the heat down. Let it simmer for 1,5 to 2 hours.
For the sauce, start with a blond roux, add ¼l milk and freshly ground horseradish, some salt and a trace of nutmeg. If it’s too spicy or thick, stretch with a bit of soup. But you really want it hot and spicy. (That’s why I would not recommend getting that dish in a restaurant: the sauce is often diluted past recognition. If it’s not burning in your nose, it’s not the real thing.)
And that’s it. Eat the soup, slice up the meat and serve with pappardelle and lingonberries (though we usually forgo latter).
That has been the norm for all my life 
Yum 
I love cheesecake, though I prefer classic New York cheesecake - baked with no topping.
What she said.
Oh hiiiii!!! 
This one is baked. But I added topping because I had berries 
Those berries look like they make the whole thing twice as yummy. My grandmas were both baking cheese cake without berries, and for my taste it was always too rich, and also somewhat dry and dense. I imagine a layer of berries would have made it much more palatable for me. Luckily, grandmas usually were not content with serving only one kind of cake 
.
Italowedish dinner?
Yeah, whatever. 
I just wanted noodles, meat and something spicy.
And I want it
…in disguise?
It does look a Mr Potatohead doesn´t it? 
Maybe I cook with a fake moustache.
I actually have one - in case you need one …
Yeah of course you would have one!
Köttspiranelli!
