Dinner would be at home. Wanted something nice to eat. Didn’t want to order in. Didn’t want to work too hard. Didn’t have a plan. Looked in the fridge and checked the kitchen shelves. Saw a bit of Donna Hay on TV in between and the picture in my head got reaffirmed though her dish was rather different.
These are my notes from what followed this Saturday night:
Boil linguine. Set aside.
Pound garlic (5 cloves), halved cherry tomato (there were 3 in the fridge), halved olives (5) & black pepper (1 teaspoon), which friends got from Kerala, in the mortar and pestle that you lugged back from Chiang Mai.
Heat olive oil (3 tablespoons) in a pan. Add the pounded aglio olio mix to heated olive oil. Add chopped Czech sausages (200 g) which your vegetarian friend got you from Prague. Mix.
Add linguine (spaghetti would do too). Mix. Add salt.
Add some Greek cream feta. Gently mix. Take off after not more than a minute after you add the feta. I pick this feta from Sante at Pali Market.
Plate.
Top with some balsamic which another friend got you from Sydney.
Click.
Eat.
Sit back and take in the synthesis of flavours…garlic, olives, tomato,pepper, meat, feta, balsamic…all distinctive contrasting flavours which came together in perfect harmony…
Who said that you have to sweat it out to rustle up a complex meal
PS Talking of Donna Hay struck me that the duration of all Australian food shows would become a third of what they are now if they ban the use of the word ‘beautiful’
