I LOVE STORMS AND PASTA

In half of our planet it is going to be winter soon. As winter lover I will envy you a lot but… I am going to enjoy the sub tropical summer here which means: very hot temperature without sweating because Johannesburg is 1.700 m. above the sea level. The feeling is that your skin is burning but you don’t sweat. You become sun block addicted because the sunrays are very dangerous  (bronze medal after Australia and California) and spend half of your day looking for the shade at least myself. But Mother Nature gives us a treat. Summer is the time of the most raging storms I have ever experienced in my short life. They usually announce themselves in the evening, when it is time to water the garden I tell you Mother Nature is perfect and to start collecting the kids from the pool who play the game “mussel and rock: I want to live in the water”.

So, after the heat of the day, the sky starts to change colours. Big grey clouds elbow to come over us, ten minutes and there is no brightness in the sky anymore. And then…

The fury of the elements. Lightening in the sky have you ever seen horizontal lightning? I have, only here, tons of water sometimes mixed to hailstones come down from Heavens to our heads. It does not usually last long I guess it would destroy everything around between 10 minutes and half an hour but it is enough to:

 

1. Be grateful for what we have, mainly because we live in proper houses; nearby there are informal settlements where most people dwell in boxes of corrugated sheet iron, sized 2sqm by 2. They have NOTHING except what comes down from Heavens, including the lightning and the hailstones.

 

2. Thank Mother Nature because tonight the temperature has dropped down and we can sleep well without fighting for the best fan’s position.

 

3. Enjoy the show of the blossoming nature. After 5 months of dryness, everything starts to be green again and it is a pure joy for the spirit and the eye.

 

4. Realise that this is a blessed country, where the water is not really lacking unless the human stupidity plays its role

 

5. Feel that we are witnessing something special and primordial.

 

I love the rain so I know I am not impartial, and when there is no evening storm I look a little disappointed at the sky enquiring if I should have sung louder today.

 

My four children love these storms they are nuts like me and roam around cheerful and excited every evening, smelling what’s for dinner.

Pasta! I don’t feel like cooking Indian tonight. The storm inspired me for a winter lovely pasta recipe.

 

So it is going to be PENNE WITH DRIED PORCINI MUSHROOMS.

 

500 GR PENNE (consider 80 gr. per person)

LOTS OF ITALIAN PARSLEY

GARLIC (1 clove per person)

OLIVE OIL (3 table spoons)

250 ML OF COOKING CREAM

DRIED PORCINI MUSHROOM (2 handful)

 

Before explaining I want to tell you that I learnt this easy recipe from a chef.

 

Heat the crushed garlic in a pan with the olive oil but don’t let it burn. Add all the finely chopped parsley and let it warm up with the garlic only for a few minutes.

Add the mushrooms (cut them in small pieces with the scissors) that you have softened in a cup of warm water and keep the water on a side.

Switch off the stove and add the cooking cream, salt and pepper. Stir in well.

 

If you think the sauce is not liquid enough, add some of the mushroom water.

 

Cook your penne, AL DENTE please, season with the sauce and eat immediately. Something important in our culture is to honour your food eating it immediately. There is no point in cooking perfectly a dish of pasta if you park it for 10 minutes in the kitchen before serving it.

 

Let me know how it was…

 

Happy winter and happy pasta to everybody.

 

Love & Rainbow