I’ve cooked this simple dish many times, and it’s shown up on this blog three times before. It never fails to satisfy whatever either of us was looking for in a meal at the moment; usually it was when we didn’t have the time or patience to come up with something more complicated.

• approximately 8 ounces of Afeltra spaghettone, from Eataly, boiled, but only until still pretty firmly al dente, tossed inside the same pot in which it had cooked with a very savory sauce (created with 4 plump garlic cloves from Whole Foods, roughly chopped, cooked in about a third of a cup of olive oil over low-medium heat until softened and beginning to brown, 3 salted anchovies, well-rinsed, added to the pan and mashed with a wooden spoon, a tablespoon of Mediterranean organic wild capers in brine (from a Providence, RI distributor), rinsed and drained, half of one dried Itria-Sirissi chili, peperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia), along with several tablespoons of chopped parsley from Eataly, an equal amount of chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and a little of the reserved pasta water, then simmered for another minute or so while the sauce was both emulsified and slightly reduced, the mix distributed in two bowls and sprinkled with another few tablespoons of parsley and lovage
• the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2013
• the music was the remaining part of Aulis Sallinen’s, ‘The King Goes Forth To France’, the scenes which we were unable to hear during dinner the night before.