Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [12]
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound dried spaghetti (De Cecco is very good)
In a good-sized salad bowl, combine eggs, cheese, salt, and pepper to form a mixture heavier than cream but lighter than pancake batter. Cut bacon or pancetta into small pieces and fry slowly in olive oil. Meanwhile, cook pasta in three or four quarts of boiling salted water. When pasta is al dente, drain and quickly add to the bowl with the cheese and egg mixture and toss. Add the hot bacon and olive oil in which it was cooked, and stir to cook the eggs. Serves four.
WINE
The subject of wine in all its aspects is a great, complex field. There are experts as well as true experts and people who know much more than one needs to know. If you like wine, as with anything else, you will learn about it.
There are some simple, fundamental rules that, at the start, are good to know. In general, during a meal, serve white before red, serve a young wine before an older one, and serve a dry before a sweet wine. The rule of thumb—red with meat and poultry, white with fish—may have been useful in the past, but is of less use today with the countless blendings and varieties. Rust Hills, the writer and longtime editor at Esquire, had a rule virtually as good: white wine at lunch, red at dinner.
There are also all sorts of wine sellers, from supermarkets to distinguished merchants. If you are not dealing with the latter, remember that good wine, while not fragile, should not have been mistreated in shipment or storage, or subjected to extremes of temperature. One way to judge this is by the cork. If, beneath the foil or plastic, it protrudes slightly above the lip of the bottle, it means that the wine has been exposed to too high or too low a temperature. Select something else. Also, don’t worry about sediment. In mature wine, it is not a bad sign; in fact, it is the opposite.
If you’re lucky enough to deal with a good wine merchant, you may get some valuable advice. Wine merchants in the past often had a respected position in society. In one twenty-year period in medieval England, 1307-27, four mayors of London were vintners.
WHAT WITH WHAT
There are hundreds of wines from many different countries and regions, and the average person can expect to know only a small portion of them, and with that scanty knowledge answer the eternal question of which wine with which dish.
It is true that white wines are generally more acidic than reds and thus go well with seafood dishes that need lemon. It is safe to say that most chardonnays are good with most fish dishes. Most meat—beef and lamb, particularly, though not veal—marries well with a red wine of medium or full body.
A few bits of wisdom that are helpful:
• Rosé and dry champagne go with anything.
• Red wine is usually not good with cheese, especially fresh cheeses. A dry white is better, especially with goat cheese.
• No wine goes well with chocolate desserts or with salads dressed with a vinaigrette.
• Wine tastes metallic with artichokes or asparagus.
• A simple wine is best with complex dishes. Conversely, a complex wine goes best with simple dishes; certainly the very best wine does.
Among the foods and flavors that may interfere with a proper appreciation of wine with a meal are vinegar, onions, garlic, spices, curry, and mustard.
OUR COOKBOOK · NELL GWYN
OLIVES · TIMING · ONION SOUP · CAVIAR
ROOM SERVICE · CAESAR SALAD · RUSKIN
FORESTIERE · HOSTESS GIFT · BOUQUET
PERFECT DIET · SOFT-BOILED EGG · BEING EARNEST
CHOCOLATE · LE GRAND VEFOUR · RICE · MOLIÈRE
DESSERT · SENSE OF TASTE · PEPPER
TOOTHPICKS · BEAUVILLIERS · LUIS BUÑUEL
BANANA · LEMON JUICE · HAUT BRION
FISH · FOOD AND MEMORY
BREAKFAST · AGED BEEF · ROSSINI
OUR COOKBOOK
The recipes we like best, taken from friends, restaurants, and cookbooks, are all in a book of our own, mostly handwritten and organized by categories, although over the years the salads have drifted into the pastas, and there are hors d’oeuvres among the soups. Only we know, more or less, where to find each one.