Lone Linguine With White Truffle Nigella Lawson Food

LONE LINGUINE WITH WHITE TRUFFLE OIL

Steps:

• Put on water in a pot to boil (for the pasta); when it comes to a boil, salt it generously before adding the linguine; cook for 2 minutes less than directed by the instructions on the package.
• In a bowl, whisk the egg with the cream and Parmesan, a few drops of white truffle oil and a good grinding of white pepper.
• When the pasta's had the time you've allocated, check to see if it is al dente; just before draining it, remove 1/2 cup of cooking liquid.
• Return the drained pasta to the cooking pan and , on the stove, but off the heat, add the butter and about 1 tablespoon of the cooking water and stir to mix.
• Stir in the egg mixture and keep stirring so that the pasta becomes smoothly, softly and lightly coated; taste to see if it needs any salt or truffle oil and add as desired.
• Serve in a warm bowl.

LINGUINE WITH GARLIC OIL AND PANCETTA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
• Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil. While it's heating up, put the garlic olive oil in an ovenproof dish; I use an enamel Le Creuset one, measuring 12 by 8-inches. Remove the rind from pancetta and put it in the dish (to render down: you want as much bacony juices as possible), then dice the rest of the pancetta and add these cubes to the oil, smooshing them about with your fingers to make sure they're equally, if lightly, coated. When the water's boiling, put the dish of garlic-oiled pancetta in the oven, then salt the boiling water and add the linguine; these should need about 10 minutes to cook. When the pasta's ready, drain it, reserving a scant cupful of the cooking water and take the pancetta dish out of the oven. Tip the drained linguine into the dish and toss well, adding some of the pasta, cooking water, drop by cautious drop, for lubrication as you need it.
• And that's it: I like this without Parmesan, but a sprinkling of roughly scissored parsley, should you feel inclined, is always a good idea.

WHITEBAIT

Steps:

• Heat the oil for frying in a deep-fat fryer to about 375 degrees F.
• Put the whitebait and the seasoned flour into a plastic bag, and toss everything around to coat the fish.
• Shake the excess flour by turning out the whole bag into a metal sieve, and then plunge the little fishes into the oil. Cook for about 3 minutes or until they look crispy and tempting - though I can see that for a squeamish generation, the idea of eating baby fish, whole, might not tempt. How wrong they are, if that's the case.
• Turn them out onto paper towels, and while the fish are losing any excess oil (we want desirable crunch) throw in a small handful of parsley leaves to deep-fry; watch out, it will spit. (A splatter guard is useful. Not charming, but useful.) When they have turned a very dark green, drain and serve with the whitebait, well sprinkled with sea salt and surrounded with lemon wedges.

LEMON LINGUINE

Steps:

• Fill just about the biggest pot you have with water and bring to a boil. When friends are coming for lunch, get the water heated to boiling point before they arrive, otherwise you end up nervously hanging around waiting for a watched pot to boil while your supposedly quick lunch gets later and later. Bring the water to the boil, cover and turn off burner.
• I tend to leave the addition of salt until the water comes to a boil a second time. But whichever way you do it, add quite a bit of salt. When the bubbling's encouragingly fierce, put in the pasta. I often put the lid on for a moment or so just to let the pasta get back to the boil, but don't turn your back on it, and give it a good stir with a pasta fork or whatever to avoid even the suspicion of stickiness, once you've removed the lid.
• Then get on with the sauce, making sure you've set your timer for about a minute or so less than the time specified on the package of pasta.
• In a bowl, add the yolks, cream, Parmesan, zest of the whole lemon and juice of half of it, the salt and good grind of pepper, and beat with a fork. You don't want it fluffy, just combined. Taste. If you want it more lemony, then of course add more juice.
• When the timer goes off, taste to judge how near the pasta is to being ready. I recommend that you hover by the stove so you don't miss that point. Don't be too hasty, though. Everyone is so keen to cook their pasta properly al dente that sometimes the pasta is actually not cooked enough. You want absolutely no chalkiness here. And linguine (or at least I find it so) tend not to run over into soggy overcookedness quite as quickly as other long pasta. This makes sense, of course, as the strands of "little tongues" are dense than the flat ribbon shapes.
• Anyway, as soon as the pasta looks ready, remove a cup of the cooking liquid, drain the pasta, and then, off the heat, toss it back in the pot or put it in an efficiently preheated bowl, throw in the butter, and stir and swirl about to make sure the butter's melted and the pasta covered by it all over. Each strand will be only mutely gleaming, as there's not much butter and quite a bit of pasta. If you want to add more, then do; good butter is the best flavoring, best texture, best mood enhancer there is.
• When you're satisfied the pasta's covered with its soft slip of butter, then stir in the egg mixture and turn the pasta well in it, adding some of the cooking liquid if it looks a bit dry (only 2 tablespoons or so - you don't want a wet mess - and only after you think the sauce is incorporated). Sprinkle over the parsley and serve now, now, now.