My Bad

An order came in for fresh tomatoes with spaghetti, about the easiest dish imaginable, and Antonio handed it off to me. You start by very finely chopping a half of one layer of an onion (no garlic, it overpowers the tomatoes), toss that in the pan with a little bit of olive oil. Let that cook 2 minutes or so until the onion softens, then comes a handful of halved cherry tomatoes, 5-6 leaves of basil and a bit of water. Cover that and let it cook for 5-6 minutes, toss in the spaghetti and you're good. However, I managed to screw this up. Onion and oil, check, tomato and basil, check, water...not exactly. All morning there is a large pot of water that everyone in the kitchen dumps extra veggies to make the veggie broth. At some point fish pieces start going in as well and it becomes fish broth. I didn't see the fish go in and thought it was still just veggie broth and poured a spoonful of it on top of the tomatoes, non va bene (not good) said Antonio. Devi reiniziare dal capo (you need to restart from the beginning). Alfredo, the fish guy who works next to me and is always looking out for me, rinsed the tomatoes for me and we started from the beginning, pasta water this time, no broth.

A few other interesting things happened while I was in the kitchen. An order of tuna with capers and paccheri (big tube pasta) came up. It was pretty slow so the waiter was standing in the kitchen while the pasta was finishing up. Antonio turned to him and asked who ordered it. He said an Italian, to which Antonio replied quindi va bene al dente (so al dente's good then) and he took the pasta out, if it hadn't been an Italian he would have cooked the pasta another minute or two.

Roberto, the owner, came in and asked Antonio for a pasta, and the exchange went something like this:
Roberto: "Antonio, give me a pasta."
Antonio: "Ok, what kind of pasta?"
R: "You're the chef, make a pasta."
A: "How should I know what you want?"
R: "Something fresh, strozzapreti."
A: "We don't have strozzpreti, maccheroni?"
R: "Fine, maccheroni."
A: "Just plain?"
R: "Of course not, when do I ever eat plain pasta?"
A: "So what do you want?"
R: "Something with broccoli."
A: "Just broccoli?"
R: "And some seafood."
A: "What the hell does that mean?"
R: "You know, seafood."
A: "Come on give me something to work with."
R: "Go with clams, mussels and squid."
A: "Ok, now you're being helpful."

This conversation is pretty typical when Roberto orders anything, be it for himself or a friend of his who drops in. He and Antonio must have the same conversation about 5 times a week.

Some other words of wisdom from Antonio...

Mint always with tuna, basil always with swordfish.

Real carbonara and amatriciana are made with guanciale, not pancetta.

When I asked what the difference between the two was, Antonio said guanciale and grabbed his cheek, then said pancetta and poked his ribs. Apparently pig cheek meat is the way to go.