Random Recipes#7 - Back to Basics

I closed my eyes tight shut, a finger obediently pointed randomly in the direction of a pile of shuffled cookery books. On opening them I was pleased  to see that I was poking a copy of  Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries. 

 even happier serendipity when it opened at page 292 SPAGETTINI WITH PEPPERCORNS, ANCHOVIES AND LEMON. I don't eat a lot of pasts but I do love spaghetti and always have some in the pantry.  I used this instead of spagettini (angel hair spaghetti) and fortunately had all the other ingredients to hand, including some delicious Antica Cremeria butter from Carluccio's, that one of my sisters had just bought for 'A'.  It's an amazing white butter made with the cream of the milk used for making Parmigiano Reggiano cheese...a real treat.

The sauce is made by cooking anchovy fillets in butter until they soften, then adding lemon juice, rind, and crushed green peppercorns.  Letting the ingredients meld together into an unctuous savoury sauce, to serve with cooked pasta, adding some more butter and a little of the cooking water from the pasta.  Topped with grated or shaved Parmesan cheese this is delicious.

I love this kind of spaghetti recipe with not too many ingredients.  It reminded me of spaghetti cooked for us by a friend we made on holiday in Italy...a surprise  supper in a chestnut lodge in the Tuscan mountains. Served  with garlic and olive oil or butter... maybe some fresh herbs I can't remember...simple good food, but delicious.