I Am Not Worthy

I mean, I might as well give up now. Disband the E-mail recipe service and just tell everyone to watch "The Italian Kitchen," Weds, 20.30, C4.

Those lassies from the River Cafe (Tony and Cherie's favourite eaterie) sure can cook. This is food at its best. Never mind faffing around with filo pastry and spun sugar and fancy words like concasse and coulis. The essence of their stuff is simplicity itself. There's nowt to it! Last night they were making pasta dishes, and nothing they did took more than 10 minutes - including all the chopping and spaghetti boiling. Their skill is in putting together the right combination of ingredients....and doing as little to them as possible. Often they will be perfectly ordinary ingredients that you just hadn't thought of combining before - just as the best rock n' roll involves exciting combinations of a limited repertoire of chords. (Quote from Hank Hill - "It's OK only knowing three chords, but Jeez! Play them in the right order!"). Collectors of this cut-out-and-keep series may remember my spaghetti and rocket recipe which was inspired by them. (They did a better rocket recipe last night! Bastards!.).

Here is an example.

Spaghetti agli limone.

(Mike - have I got the gender right?) As I say - there's nowt to it.

Take some spaghetti. Boil.
Squeeze some lemons.
Mix with good olive oil.
Add lots of freshly grated parmesan to make a creamy sauce.
Drain spaghetti.
Toss in sauce.

******
On the theme of simple combinations of ingredients - here's a new game. What is the worst drink you can mix, using only standard ingredients that one might expect to find behind a normal bar? Suggestions please. So far, I have come up with:
Whisky and tonic.
Gin and tomato juice.
Vodka and milk.