PASTA!

HOW TO INSULT/APPALL AN ITALIAN

I really didn't mean to do this and, above all, not to my dear friend Maurizio with whom I have had many wonderful food-related conversations! I know a reasonable amount about Italian food, especially Tuscan, and I am aware of the huge importance Italians attach to various aspects of food preparation and consumption, an importance often not reflected in Irish or British attitudes.

For example, one thing that is calculated to make Maurizio grin broadly, if not actually laugh out loud, is my ‘English’ habit of eating bread with a pasta dish, rather than the accepted Italian habit of using a small piece of bread to mop up any remaining sauce when the pasta has been eaten (Alfred: Obviously they say ‘English’ meaning pretty much everyone else, as I know my German friends always like to have bread with their pasta. You didn’t know I had German friends? Well, I do.)

So, we are in D-Mart supermarket where Maurizio has joined me with his pick-up so I can stock up on crates of water, soda water and other bulky objects. As we pass the pasta area, I pick up a pack of bucatini, saying I had bought this by accident the other day thinking it was spaghetti but that it was very nice (Alfred: See photo – think thick spaghetti with a tiny hole in the middle). ‘But’, says Maurizio, ‘you can’t use bucatini for the same recipe as spaghetti. Bucatini is used for all’amatriciana or maybe carbonara.’

So, without thinking I was speaking to an Italian, I said a terrible thing. ‘Maurizio’, I said, ‘I am Irish. For the Irish there are three types of pasta: flat pasta like lasagne, short pasta like penne and long pasta like spaghetti. And then there is sauce. That’s it. Choose a pasta (flat for baking, long if you want to twirl it on a fork, short if you are wearing a white shirt or otherwise worried about flying sauce) and then add the sauce. Any sauce. And lots of Parmesan. And a piece of bread.’

I think I could have shot his puppy in front of his eyes and not had the same effect. (Alfred: Well, there is only one way to know. First, we have to get him a puppy … ).

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

I sometimes think I moved here solely to have more time to read! I got a few queries from people on what I have picked so, for want of anything better to write about today, here are some of them. And please do send me any recommendations! I also have two Star Trek Enterprise novels that my cousin Jay gave me which I am saving for a rany day!

RECENT FICTION

Michael Dobbs, House of Cards trilogy

Reread these because we were watching the US version on TV (which I have to say was absolutely excellent) We tried to rewatch the BBC version after it and it was just too dated in its pacing, its slightly humourous approach – the contrast didn’t favour it). Easy reading and well-written.

John Bermingham, Axis of Time trilogy

SF series where modern warships get sent back in time to 1942 and change the course of history and not the way you would have expected! OK, waded through the last part a bit.

Sarah Rees Brennan, Demon’s Lexicon trilogy

OK, I have only read the first one and half the second one so far! Sarah is a past pupil of  mine which is why I am reading these as they wouldn’t usually be quite my cup of tea. I remember Sarah wandering the corridors in school with her face buried in a book and teachers’ complaints that her homework was late because she ‘claimed to be working on her novel.’ Well, she showed us! Seven books published so far and more on the way, no doubt.

And they are actually good! It took me a while to get into them but I am actually now looking forward to finishing the series. A heck of a lot better than Twilight!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Rees_Brennan

Ken McLeod, The Execution Channel

Dystopian future set mostly in Scotland as the world hovers on the edge of disaster. Wasn’t sure I liked the ending but it was a great trip getting there.

Jo Walton, Farthing, Ha’penny, (Half a Crown)

Britain makes peace with Hitler after Dunkirk and an-increasingly totalitarian regime takes over. I am saving the third book in the series because I don’t want to finish it yet!! Really well written and nt predictable.

Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

Reread because we watched the film. Book was as book as ever, film was also excellent, not sure why the reviews were so lukewarm.

Robinson, Kim Stanley, The Years of Rice and Salt

The Black Death actually wipes out 99% of Europe’s population so the world develops along Asiatic lines. I got one-third of the way through and got tired but I will come back to it.

Jonasson, Jonas, The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Cannot recommend this book highly enough – brilliant piece of work, hilarious, wonderful characters – a literary Forrest Gump I would call it hoping it wouldn’t put people off!

Terry Hayes, I am Pilgrim

Usual modern thriller with a slightly offbeat style and better-drawn characters than most but, in the end, another Clancy/Ludlum/Modern Le Carré clone, if a superior one.

John Le Carré, A Delicate Truth

Good, but a little thin and straightforward when you are used to more intricate and complex plots from le Carré

(RE)READING HISTORY

A. J. Baine, The Arsenal of Democracy

Detroit during WWII and the development of the US airplane industry. Actually have this book in paper!!

Robert Massie, Dreadnought

Halfway through this amazing book again. All my favourite characters – Tirpitz, Edward VII, Holstein, Bismarck and above all Kaiser Wihelm II.

Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower

Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August

The world just before WWI and how WWI broke out. It is always hard for those of us who love history to pick a favourite book but she is undoubtedly my favourite historian!