Farewell Lunch

Here's my rendition of something we had in a little town near Loreto a few months back called Castelfidardo. You've probably heard of it because it is the birthplace of the accordion! Yeah...we'd never heard of it either but no matter, the pasta was great. This is a pasta that is best with some hard to find (but not impossible) ingredients in the greater Seattle area. The first is freshly made pasta called tagliolini but any fresh pasta would be great. The second is Guanciale (pig cheek bacon). If you really want, you can find guanciale at Armandino's Salumi (www.salumicuredmeats.com) in downtown Seattle near Qwest Field. It's most similar to bacon but it isn't smokey but you could probably substitute it with some nice bacon.


Ingredients for two:

Two whole cloves of garlic
4oz of guanciale
Fresh peas (any type of sweet pea would be fine)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh pasta (or a dried long strand pasta, like fettucini)
Grated Parmigiano
Salt and Pepper

In a large pot, bring your water to a boil, add the fresh peas and cook until they are soft, then pull them out of the water and set aside, leave the water boiling. Add some salt to the water and your pasta. In a saute pan over medium-heat, cook the guanciale for a minute then add the two whole garlic cloves continue to saute but don't let the garlic get any darker than a light brown. Once you've got your bacon (drain off the fat if you like) cooked how you like, toss in the peas and saute for another minute or so. Once the pasta is cooked to nearly al dente, drain it but save a little of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the saute pan and give it a toss maybe adding a little of the cooking water (this isn't a 'saucy' pasta). Saute everything together for a minute in the pan and then drizzle a little oil over the pasta and finish with grated parmigiano. Salt and pepper to taste depending on the saltiness of the bacon.