I thought I would try making another Ottolenghi recipe this evening. Ignacio was working so I was making dinner. I thought I would revisit the pasta recipe with capers, rose harissa and olives. The one I made before, I think was quite nice but I did wonder if it might benefit from more tomatoes. The recipe I managed to put together this evening was based on the food I had left in the cupboard. There was no pappardelle, so I used a bag of vermicelli. There were no cherry tomatoes so I used 2 cans of plum tomatoes. I had no yoghurt and there was no parsley.

The cupboard (and fridge) contents

The result was OK. I think I’m going to have to admit that I’m not a really big fan of capers. I’m not sure they really excite my palate and perhaps the way they are meant to. They don’t bring anything to the table for me. They certainly do not “spark joy”. I think I’m going to admit that I am done with them for now. I will make sure that we finish off the jar in other recipes but that’s it for now. If I made this again I might substitute the capers for anchovies, more to my taste and liking.

I feel like, at some point I will have to actually brave the outdoors and go out to eat, not just a quick snack, but I full on meal. And I feel like that might have to be at and Ottolenghi/Ottolenghi inspired restaurant. I’ll have to check whether they are open now. It has not until this moment occurred to me that perhaps that might be Where I could explore different tastes. Although with the R number slowly creeping up I wonder how long it will be before we will have further restrictions on going out. We are currently a day away from the mandatory, law enforcible “rule of 6”. Lockdown by stealth, but we need to reduce spread of the virus through communities especially for those in whom their inherent vulnerabilities means that this is a high risk situation for them.