Robert Frost's Pasta Not Tasted (with shrimp and avocado)
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ROBERT FROST’S PASTA NOT TASTED
“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.”Collected Poems
Ingredients:
6 medium-sized shrimp
1/2 of an avocado
3 tomatoes
Parsley*
Cream
200 grams of spaghetti
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
*NOT cilantro
Serves 2
Two herbs rested on a butcher’s block of wood
And sorry I was that both should not flavor my dish
And have the tasty result I wanted, long I stood
And imagined the finished flavor as best I could
Of each mixed in with the cream and the fish
Until, thinking the shrimp and avocado would be
More original with a little cilantro
Than a usual ho-hum sauce made with parsley,
I chose to use the less tasted spice in the recipe,
Though it was already used a lot in Tex-Mex, I know.
And since West Coast cuisine was all the rage
Cilantro was even by then not really brand new.
Still, wondering if I should turn my own culinary pasta page,
I told myself I could always go back to a simple spaghetti of butter and sage.
So I used it, believing it a culturally hip thing to do.
Years from now I’ll be telling you this with a sigh,
For I already suppose that I must have been dense,
Not to know that cilantro pasta would stain my good taste by and by.
Two herbs remained on my butcher’s block, and I-
I chose the one less tasted, and that has made all the difference.
The real recipe:
Ingredients: see above
After cleaning the shrimp and removing their shells, put a pot of salted water on to boil. Peel and seed the tomatoes and slice them along with the avocado into small cubes, then place all into a serving bowl and mix with a few drops of fresh lemon juice. Finely chop one bunch of parsley. Heat a sauté pan with a couple tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Reduce to medium. Put the shrimp into the heated sauté pan. Cook for 2 minutes as the spaghetti finishes boiling, adding a little cream to the shrimp. Once finished, incompletely drain the noodles and place them into the sauté pan. Toss with salt and fresh pepper a few seconds, then pour into the serving bowl containing the avocado and tomato, mixing in the chopped parsley. Then dribble a few drops of olive oil over top and serve immediately. Serve with a light white wine.