Three Jars Deep

The rain came in the afternoon and stayed, drumming on the roof, darkening the doorstep and bringing up that smell stone gets when it’s wet — cold and mineral, better than anything I could have cooked. I’d had a small errand in mind and gave it up without much of a fight. So I stayed in and took everything off the shelf by the window, the one where the jars stand three deep and the sugar is always behind the flour, wiped the boards, and put the everyday things back at the front where my hand goes. Twenty minutes, and at the very back, behind the lentils, a jar of dried mushrooms I’d forgotten I ever bought.

The neighbour came across to get out of it, and stood dripping in the doorway while the kettle went. That’s when I noticed — my table always has a chair pulled out a few centimetres. My mother kept hers like that, and I never once heard her explain it. It isn’t set for anybody in particular. It’s so that when someone does sit down, nobody has to go hunting for a chair and turn it into an occasion. I’ve done it for years without ever saying why, which I suspect is how it’s supposed to work.

Supper was the mushrooms, which is a fine thing to find on a wet day. Soak them in warm water, then cook them slowly in oil with garlic and a little parsley, and use the soaking water to finish the pasta in the pan — strained first, because the grit sinks and stays behind. It tastes like something that took hours instead of twenty minutes.

There’s a command that does to a hard drive what I did to that shelf: find . -mtime +365 lists everything in a folder you haven’t touched in a year. Most of it you keep. Some of it you’d forgotten you had, which is a different and better kind of discovery.

Recipe: Pasta ai Funghi Secchi

Ingredients

• 30 g dried porcini, or mixed dried mushrooms
• 300 g pasta (tagliatelle, or a short shape)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
• 1 small dried chili (optional)
• a handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• salt and black pepper
• grated parmesan or pecorino, to serve

Preparation

1. Soak the mushrooms in 300 ml warm water for 20 minutes. Lift them out, squeeze gently, and chop. Strain the soaking water through a fine sieve or a paper filter and keep it — that’s where the flavour is, and the grit stays behind.
2. Warm the oil in a wide pan with the garlic and chili and cook gently for a minute, then take the garlic out while it still smells sweet.
3. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook 5 minutes, then pour in the strained soaking water and simmer about 10 minutes, until it has reduced a little. Season.
4. Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente, drain it, keeping a cup of the water, and toss it in the pan with the mushrooms, adding pasta water as needed so the sauce coats every strand.
5. Stir in the parsley, grind in pepper, and serve with grated cheese.