I love this pasta.

It’s a very serious color, whether behind the cellophane window of the box as a very sophisticated dark grey, on the counter, where it lightens somewhat, or in the pasta bowl, where it looks more olive. But that’s only the start. The flavor is seductive, subtle yet pretty intense; if I had to describe it, I’d say nutty, grassy, and with a bit of the taste of green olive, although the last may be a function of what I see in the color. So how can I love the color of green olives, or even artichokes, but prefer to it when I’m working with sorrel?

• eight ounces from a box of Sfoglini hemp reginetti, boiled until just before it would have reached the point when it was al dente (that was about 10 minutes last night), drained and tossed into a large antique high-sided copper pot in which one sliced ‘yellow shallot’ from Norwich Meadows Farm and one sliced section of a scallion from Phillips Farms had first been allowed to soften in a little olive, the pasta stirred, with the addition of cut up pieces of larger sections of several celery stalks from Phillips Farms that had been rolled in olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of a lighter orange-colored dried habanada  pepper before they were pan grilled long enough to  acquire grill marks and soften, the pasta mix stirred, along with almost a cup of reserved pasta water, over a pretty high flame until the liquid had emulsified, a handful or oil-cured Moroccan-type (there was no identification in the store) black olives that came already mixed with small red chili peppers, also from Whole Foods tossed in, the reginetti and its sauce served in shallow bowls, a handful of pine nuts from Buon Italia, toasted, and some chopped leaves and smaller stems from the celery stalks tossed on top, a bit of olive oil drizzled around the edges
• the wine was an Italian (Campania) red, Mastroberardino Aglianico Campania Mastro 2015 from our neighborhood shop, Philippe Wines
• the music was the album, ‘En Hollande’, by the contemporary Dutch composer Leo Samama

 

[the images of the dried pasta are from the Sfoglini site itself]