Tony's Spaghettini

I used to eat this pasta dish several times a week when I worked as a waitress at a small Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. I never wanted the penne vodka or the puttanesca or any other myriad choices on the menu. The restaurant was owned by two brothers from Naples. Tony was a big bear of a man who wore smudged glasses and chef's clogs. Bruno, his physical antithesis, was wiry, had long hair, and wore cut-to-fit suits and piles of gold.The brothers would fight about whether or not to take the Christmas ornaments down after the holidays. One day I came into work and half the ornaments were hung up on the back half of the ceiling, as a compromise.

These matters were crucial at the time because although the place had a modest following, it suffered greatly from being hidden in a strip mall. It just could not compete with the ritzier Italian joints around town. Benicio Del Toro would come every so often to dine alone, his burly, post-Fear and Loathing figure looking like a giant at a kid's table. So, did Sylvester Stallone's brother. You knew these things when you lived in LA.

Tony was the chef and Bruno ran the front of the house. Tony was in love with Lynn, the veteran waitress, but she had a man already. They would bicker when he was in a foul mood and wasn't feeling up to the task of working with her, unrequited-like. At some point, he thought he should date a Japanese woman, so whenever any of the sort came in to dine (and there were a lot, due to a positive write up in a Japanese newspaper), he would shower them with two, three, four extra dishes on top of what they already ordered.

Bruno taught me to write an order for cheese pizza by writing "Pizza margherita, no basil". Where he was from, you ate margherita, not this stupid American cheeze peeza. He ran a tight ship and would stand watch at the counter, his eagles eyes letting no detail go by. I had tremendous respect for his methods but was always a little scared of him. At the end of the day, he was just another softie in disguise. When I told him I was quitting, his face stiffened and I could make out a faint film of moisture in his eyes. "Mee-chelle, you can always come back here, whenever you like," he said quietly.

The restaurant moved to Beverly Hills and changed their name, and by the time I got over my guilt about having left, I couldn't figure out where Bruno and Tony ended up. This pasta dish is a very humble affair, but I often find the simplest pasta dishes to be the most delicious. For a long time, I tried to recreate it in vain, feeling like it could never match up to Tony's. I would grill Tony and Juan, the line chef, about the timing, try and watch the movement of their wrists as they moved the pan around. It's really not hard to make, I'm pretty sure I was just being neurotic about it.

The shiitake mushrooms are preferable here. They are more expensive than white button or crimini, but the taste is so much nicer and they don't give off as much moisture, so they're not as slimy. If you haven't eaten them before, let me say that fresh shiitakes have no relation taste-wise to their dried version. They are much more mild and refined. Also, I find that white button/criminis/ portabellos color the pasta a muddy brown whereas the shiitakes don't at all.

Spaghettini with Shiitake, Tomato and Parsley  (Serves 1)

2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon of good olive oil.
1-2 cloves of minced.
2 roma tomatoes chopped or equivalent any other tomato
5 shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (I use curly but flat leaf is fine.)
3-4 ounces all natural chicken broth
coarse sea salt
2 shakes of red paper flakes
thin spaghetti (spaghettini) noodles
a tablespoon of Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)

1. Boil water. Put put pasta in.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan on moderately high heat.
3. Throw garlic in. Stir. Throw shitake mushrooms in. Stir around until cooked down a bit.
4. Throw tomatoes in. After one minute, add chicken broth.
5. Stir until tomatoes are cooked down a bit, but still have some shape. Strain the pasta and put in the pan.
6. Add salt, pepper flakes,1 teaspoon oil and stir. Add parsley, stir. Plate and add cheese, if you want.

Comments

[Lydia]

Love the story of Tony and Bruno, and this recipe looks delicious, too.

[Mallika]

Lovely recipe for an after work dinner. I enjoyed reading about your experience at the restaurant.

[Michelle]

Hi Lydia,

Thanks! It was fun to dig way back there in the memory bank.

Hi Mallika,

Yes, it'd be perfect for a lazy weekday thing.