Shrimp & Scallop Pasta with Saffron Cream Sauce

Saffron is a spice from the stigma of the crocus flower. The work needed to produce the spice saffron makes it the most expensive spice in the world, but a little saffron goes a relatively long way. If you don't have saffron and you don't care to buy it, you can substitute ground turmeric, as both spices will give a yellow/golden color to the sauce. 

Bay scallops are smaller than sea scallops and so is the bill for them, as they are cheaper.

 

Pappardelle is a type of pasta that is wide and flat, similar to many types of noodles, except that pappardelle is in long strands or ribbons. As with many types of pasta, you can get it fresh or dried. 

 

Neither Italian restaurant cooks nor Italian home cooks add cheese to sauces with seafood, nor do they sprinkle it on top of finished seafood dishes, but I'm of the feeling that a little cheese can't hurt anything, and I only put a couple of tablespoons of grated cheese in the sauce, which also helps to thicken the sauce.

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

To cook the shrimp:

 

2/3 pound raw shrimp, cleaned, shells saved

2 cups water

1 bay leaf

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt 

Bring 2 cups water to a boil, add 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt and shrimp shells, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer for 5 minutes; then add the shrimp and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until opaque; remove the shrimp to a separate plate temporarily. Strain the broth and return it to the pan.

 

For the overall dish:

 

2/3 pound raw shrimp (prepared with the ingredients above)

2/3 pound bay scallops

1 pound pappardelle

4 tablespoons butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup shrimp broth from cooking the shrimp (see preparation above)

1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads in 1/4 cup dry white wine

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan cheese)

2/3 cup heavy cream

pinch of ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

In a cup or a small bowl, add the white wine, and crush the saffron threads in the palm of your hand, then add them to the wine, stir to mix, then set it aside temporarily. Melt the butter in a large skillet over low heat; add the scallops, season with a pinch of ground black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt; saute for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, remove skillet from the heat and let scallops sit in the skillet for about 30 to 60 seconds; remove scallops individually to the separate plate with the shrimp temporarily, leaving the seasoned melted butter in the skillet. Put the skillet back on low heat, add the minced garlic and saute for about 1 minute. Sprinkle the flour over the garlicky butter and mix it in to make a roux and keep cooking the roux over the low heat for a total of about 2 minutes (it's okay if the roux acquires a little light tan/golden color, but you don't want it to be dark at all). While stirring constantly and steadily, add about 1/2 cup of the shrimp broth to the roux and as it thickens, add another 1/2 cup of broth, while continuing to stir. Add the saffron/white wine and stir to mix it through, then stir in the lemon juice and grated cheese. Continue on low heat for about 1 minute, then stir in the heavy cream. The sauce should have a nice pale yellowish tint to it. If you use fresh pappardelle, add it and gently mix it around in the creamy sauce. It only takes like 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes to cook fresh pappardelle al dente. If using dried pappardelle cook it separately as per the instructions on the box/bag, drain it very well, then add it to the sauce. Add the cooked shrimp and scallops and mix them through the pasta and sauce (be sure to add any juices that may have collected on the dish). Let the shrimp and scallops come up to temperature, then remove the skillet from the heat and serve.    

WORD HISTORY:

Arrest-This word is used as both a verb and a noun and the "rest" part of it is related to the verb "stay" (with the meaning :"to halt, to stop movement," also, "to hold back"), a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, to another verb "stay" (with the meaning: "to support, to secure, to steady"), also borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, to another verb "stay" (meaning: "to halt some process, usually in legal matters, to halt legal proceedings"), and to the noun "stay" meaning "support," borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, and which overlaps with "stay" meaning "rope or cable supporting a ship's mast," a word and meaning from the Germanic roots of English. "Arrest" goes back to Indo European "ad," which had the notion "at, to, toward" (it is also the ancient ancestor of English "at"), which gave Latin "ad," with the same meanings, but also, "having a connection to, in relation to;" thus also, "regarding, with or in regard to." The main body of the word goes back to Indo European "sta(h)/steh," which meant "to stand, to be stable, to be firm or in place," which gave Latin "stare" meaning "to stand," and with the prefix "re,"^ which meant "back, again, against," with the combined parts "re" and "stare" giving Latin the verb "restare" meaning "to halt, to stop, to stay back, to stay behind." "Restare" was then given the prefix "ad" with the shortened form "a," to produce Latin "arrestare" (yes, double 'r;' why, I don't know), meaning "to stop, to cause to stop;" thus also, "to hold back or restrain." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "arester/" with the meaning "to stop, to stay" and English borrowed this in the late 1300s as the verb "aresten" (then "arresten" under the influence of Latin spelling) meaning "to cause or to make someone or something to stop, to make stop for legal reason(s)." The noun had been formed in Old French from the verb as "areste," meaning "a stopping, a stoppage;" thus also, "a delay," which became "arest" in the Anglo-French used in England and English also borrowed this in the late 1300s as "arest," with the "stopping," "stoppage" meaning, and it then too came to be spelled "arrest," under the influence of Latin. The first part of the 1400s saw the word used for "a stopping and detaining by some legal authority to determine liability, if any, for some criminal act." That is by far the main meaning in modern times, although occasionally you might hear something like, "The doctor prescribed some medication to arrest the woman's hay fever." German has the noun "Arrest" (all German nouns are capitalized), "seemingly" from medieval Latin "arrestum," and meaning "to seize or confiscate, to take into custody (person or goods/property), the verb "arrestieren," borrowed from Dutch in the 1300s, which had it from either French or medieval Latin (from "arrestare," see above) and another noun, "Arrestant," meaning "one taken into custody, one put under arrest" (I didn't spend a lot of time on this, but one source says it came from a participle form of medieval Latin "arrestare," "apparently" used as a noun for "prisoner, one in custody"). Regardless of how German acquired these forms, the main noun, "Arrest," is pronounced very similarly to the pronunciation in English, and I have to believe English has influenced the pronunciation. I initially thought German may have borrowed the word from English, but that does not seem to be the case at all. When using "Arrest" in German (it is 'der Arrest,' by the way), the way to say "You are under arrest" is, "Sie stehen unter Arrest," literally, "You stand under arrest."        

^ The prefix "re" has an uncertain origin, although Indo European forms such as "ure," "wret" and "wurt/wert," have been suggested, all with some relationship to the meaning "to turn, to turn around."

Pasta alla Gricia: Roman Pasta Specialty

This is a simple dish and one of the common pasta dishes of Roman cuisine. Guanciale (like gwahn-key-ahlay by some, like gwahn-chee-ahlay by others, I've heard both) is cured fatty pork jowl, unsmoked, it is not always easy to find, although if you live near an Italian grocery store or like ordering online, give it a try; otherwise, you can use pancetta (unsmoked, cured Italian pork belly/bacon), which is much easier to find. I don't recommend using regular bacon, because it is smoked, and that will give the dish a very different taste.

 

Ingredients:

 

3/4 pound rigatoni 

2/3 cup chopped guanciale

(optional) 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano 

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper (to be used in 2 stages)

pasta cooking water, 2 cups, plus a little more, if needed

 

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the chopped guanciale and immediately turn heat to low (before adding the guanciale or pancetta, you can add like a teaspoon of olive oil, if you feel the need, but I doubt you'll actually need it). Let the fat render from the guanciale by sauteing over low heat for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning or stirring around the guanciale periodically. Remove the guanciale to a plate. Still over low heat, add 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, saute for about 45 to 60 seconds. Heat salted water in a separate pan over high heat and when boiling, add rigatoni. After about 5 minutes, remove pan from heat and take 2 cups of pasta cooking water and add it to the skillet. Turn heat to high to bring water and peppered guanciale fat to a boil. Transfer the pasta to the boiling water in the skillet, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium and cook rigatoni for a total of 6 minutes in the skillet, then return the guanciale to the skillet and mix it in with the pasta and sauce. Add small amounts of remaining pasta water to the skillet, but only if the rigatoni and sauce are too thick. Once the rigatoni is al dente, add half of the Pecorino Romano and mix it in, then add the remaining cheese and combine, along with other 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper.     

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Magnum-This word is related to quite a number of words, for example: to "master," a word from Germanic that had been borrowed from Latin, to "magistrate," "magnify" and "mayor," Latin words borrowed by English from Latin-based French (although "magistrate" came with heavy reinforcement from Latin itself), to the prefix "mega-," which is from Greek, and to "maestro," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from Italian.  "Magnum" goes back to Indo European "meg," which meant "great;" thus also, "big, large." This gave its Old Italic offspring "magnos," with the same meaning, and this gave Latin "magnus," with the same main meanings, but with extended meanings like "strong, mighty, grand." "Magnum" was the neuter form of "magnus," and English borrowed the word as "magnum" in the 1780s, meaning "larger than normal bottle of wine." American gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson had the registered trademark for a powerful handgun in the mid 1930s they called the "Magnum." "Magnum opus" means "great work" and is directly from Latin (seems in the 1790s?).

Spaghetti with Scungilli Sauce

I must admit, scungilli is pretty expensive. "Conchiglia" (plural: "conchiglie") in standard Italian means "conch," and the word "scungilli" developed from Neapolitan (Naples) dialect "scuncigli" (singular: "scunciglio"), a term for the edible meat from a conch. A conch is a type of sea snail in a hard, often colorful and interestingly shaped shell. Its texture is similar to clams, in my opinion. Scungilli is sold in cans of about 30 ounces, with the sliced scungilli in a briny type of broth that is used in the preparation of this dish. One can costs about $30, and it can be found in "some" supermarket specialty sections, Italian grocery stores and online.

This dish is spicy, but naturally you can regulate the spiciness. Please don't be afraid of anchovies, as they will melt and then easily combine into the sauce, but they will NOT provide the strong taste like the first (and perhaps, last) bite of anchovy pizza you had in your life.    

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings):

 

1 can sliced scungilli in broth (about 30 ounce can), drained and broth retained separately

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 anchovies, chopped

2 small fresh red chili peppers, chopped, or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato

2 1/2 cups tomato puree 

1 cup scungilli broth (you probably won't need all of it)

1 teaspoon dried marjoram (or oregano)

1 teaspoon ground black pepper 

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound spaghetti

chopped parsley for garnish 

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet (or pan) over medium heat. Saute the garlic, chopped anchovies, chopped chili pepper (or chili flakes) and chopped fresh tomato. The anchovies will begin to dissolve, so keep stirring everything around. Saute these ingredients for about three minutes, then add the tomato puree, 1/2 cup of the scungilli broth, teaspoon of marjoram (or oregano), ground black pepper and salt. Bring the sauce to a steady, gentle simmer and adjust the temperature setting to maintain this simmer (I use "low"), cover with a lid or foil and gently simmer the sauce for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring the sauce every few minutes. Add and stir in the sliced scungilli, cover again and cook for 6 minutes, adding a little more of the scungilli broth, if the sauce is too thick, after 3 minutes. Remove the lid/foil and cook 2 or 3 minutes more. Garnish with chopped parsley. Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions of the brand you buy. I often, but not always, use fresh spaghetti, so it only takes a couple of minutes to cook. 

 

  

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Travel/Travail-"Travel" and "travail" are compounds and they are really the same word. "Travel" is by far the more common word in English; but in fact, "travail" actually entered English first. Relatives of the first part of the words are "three," "third" and "thirty,'' all words from the Germanic roots of English, and to "trivial," a Latin word borrowed from that language. The second part is related to "page" (the noun meaning 'sheet of paper'), "pact" and "pale" (the noun with the most common meaning "stake, a part of a fence"), all Latin words borrowed by English from French. "Travel/travail" goes back to Indo European "pag," which had the notion of "fasten, join." This gave Latin "tripalis," which meant "held or connected with three stakes." This gave Latin "trepalium" (initially as "tripalium"), "a device (seemingly) of three pales used for torture," which spawned the verb "tripaliare," meaning "to torture," used figuratively to mean, "to labor, to toil." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "travailler," which meant "to torture, to toil," and this spawned the noun "travail" meaning "labor, difficult work;" thus also, meaning, "hard journey." The noun was borrowed by English in the middle part of the 1200s meaning, "toil, labor;" thus also, "child birth." The verb was borrowed as "travailen" circa 1300 meaning "to toil, to labor," but by the mid 1300s the "hard or difficult journey" meaning had also been added, which by the late 1300s had simply come to mean "to journey," and the spelling had changed to "travelen," which dropped the 'en" ending as English began to conjugate verbs differently. The noun developed circa 1400 from the verb. "Travel" eventually overtook the native English word "faran" (also spelled "feran"), which came from the Germanic roots of English, although numerous forms of the native English word are still used; for example, "wayfare," "farewell," "farebox," "warfare," "fare" (price for travel, but other meanings too).  

Pasta Dish From the Rome Area: Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Amatrice is a town in the Italian region of Lazio, the region of Rome, and the town is about 65 to 70 miles northeast of Rome. (Amatrice is pronounced like: ahm-ah-tree-chay) This rustic dish passed into the cuisine of Rome itself, where "seemingly" some Romans added onion and/or dry white wine to the original Amatrice ingredients (note: I don't use onion).

 

Guanciale (like gwahn-key-ahlay by some, like gwahn-chee-ahlay by others, I've heard both) is cured fatty pork jowl, unsmoked, it is not always easy to find, although if you live near an Italian grocery store or like ordering online, give it a try; otherwise, you can use pancetta (unsmoked, cured Italian pork belly/bacon), which is much easier to find. I don't recommend using regular bacon, because it is smoked, and that will give the dish a very different taste. This dish is not supposed to be smoky tasting at all. I like to often mix in some fresh tomatoes with canned tomatoes in a lot of dishes, so I've done that here, too. Bucatini is a spaghetti-type pasta with a hole in the middle. It is sort of like a drinking straw. If you can't find bucatini, you can certainly use spaghetti. The tough part to this recipe is initially cooking the bucatini in the water to a point that it is not quite done, because then it is added to the sauce to briefly cook some more. The best thing to do is to read the cooking instructions on the packaging of the bucatini you use to see the cooking time, but then to stop cooking the bucatini about two minutes before the recommended cooking time and then add the pasta to the recipe. By cooking the pasta in the sauce briefly, it has a chance to take on the flavors of the dish. 

Oh ... THIS IS SO GOOD!

Ingredients:

1 pound bucatini (or spaghetti)

2/3 cup chopped guanciale (or pancetta)

1 small red chili pepper, chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes) 

1/4 cup dry white wine

6 or 8 grape tomatoes or 1 fresh roma tomato

1 can (14 to 15 ounces) of peeled whole tomatoes, crushed/squished by hand, with juice

1 small can (8 ounces) tomato sauce (I use the no added salt type)

2/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano

good pinch only of salt

pasta water, if needed

Put 5 or 6 quarts of water with 1 heaping tablespoon of salt in a large pot; stir to mix in the salt. Begin gradually heating the water by putting the heat on medium. You don't want the water to boil too quickly, as you need to get the sauce started first. In a skillet over medium heat, add the chopped guanciale and immediately reduce the heat to low. Slowly render the fat from the guanciale, then add the chili pepper (or chili flakes) and the fresh tomato pieces, saute 2 minutes. (You can now turn the heat to high for the pot of water.) Back to the skillet, turn the heat to medium for the guanciale mixture, add the white wine and then the canned tomatoes and tomato sauce; stir to mix. Bring to a steady simmer, and adjust the heat to maintain that steady simmer for about 6 minutes. Stir in the grated pecorino romano and the pinch of salt. Meanwhile, when the pasta water boils, add the bucatini and cook until the bucatini is not quite tender; I'll say 6 to 7 minutes (this is the tricky part, as generally dried bucatini takes about 8 to 10 minutes to cook, and it will cook a bit longer in the sauce, so you don't want it completely cooked before you add it to the sauce. Check the cooking instructions on the bucatini packaging for cooking time and adjust your cooking time accordingly, if need be.) Remove the bucatini from the water (save some of the pasta cooking water) and add the bucatini to the sauce, mixing it into the sauce; if the sauce is too thick, add some of the pasta water a little at a time until the preferred consistency is reached. When the bucatini is tender, you've got it! You can serve with a little sprinkling of some more pecorino romano, if you'd like. And don't forget the wine!

 

Bucatini all'Amatriciana with a glass of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo ...

WORD HISTORY:

Tenacity (tenacious)-"Tenacity" is related to quite a number of words, including to "tension," "tenant" and "tenure," Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French (with both "tenant" and "tenure" specifically from Anglo-French), to "tendon," a word of Greek origin borrowed by Latin and then borrowed by English from Latin. "Tenacity" goes back to Indo European "ten," which had the notion "to stretch, to extend out, to draw out." This gave Latin "tenere," meaning, "to grasp, to hold," which produced the adjective "tenax," meaning, relating to "holding fast or firmly, clinging persistently, steadfast," which gave Latin the noun "tenacitas," meaning "the act of holding fast, firmly, persistently, steadfastly." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "ténacité" and English borrowed the word in the early part of the 1400s, initially as "tenacite." The adjective "tenacious" was formed in English in the early 1600s from Latin "tenax" (see above), and with the "ious" suffix (meaning, "having the characteristics of, full of, with an abundance of") from French "ous" and "eux," both from Latin "osus," with the same basic meanings as listed for the English form. 

3 Cheese Macaroni & Meat Sauce Casserole

 

 I'd say this is "Italian-American," rather than truly "Italian."

 

 

Ingredients:

 

2/3 pound sweet Italian sausage (removed from the casing)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided use)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup shredded carrot

1 can (28 ounces) peeled tomatoes, crushed

1 can (14 to 15 ounces) regular tomato sauce

1 teaspoon Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet mixed with 1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon dried oregano (crushed in the palm of your hand)

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup dry macaroni, cooked in lightly salted water

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup shredded fontina

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano

In a skillet over medium heat, add 2 teaspoons of olive oil and then add the chopped onion and the sausage and keep stirring and breaking up the sausage as it cooks. Cook until the sausage is lightly browned, then add the carrot and garlic and cook for another 90 seconds. Add the crushed tomatoes and bring to a simmer for 3 minutes, stirring a little. Add the tomato sauce, Gravy Master/Kitchen Bouquet and water mixture, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, sugar and salt, stir well to mix. Turn the heat to low (or you'll have sauce spattered all over everything, including your outdoor doormat), and gently simmer the sauce for about 15 minutes, stirring often. If the sauce is too thick, add a little water to thin it out. Meanwhile, cook the macaroni in some lightly salted water until it is almost done. Drain the macaroni and stir it into the sauce. Swirl 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole dish, then empty the macaroni mixture into the casserole. Drizzle another 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top, then distribute the shredded mozzarella over the top, followed by the shredded fontina and finally sprinkle on the grated Pecorino Romano. Put the lid or aluminum foil on the casserole and bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 40 minutes, then remove the lid and bake at 400 F until the cheese browns lightly.     

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Tone-This word is related to quite a number of words. A few examples: it is really the same word as "tune" (collection of sounds into a song or melody), it is closely related to "tonic," a word borrowed from Greek, it is distantly related to "tendon," a word English borrowed from Latin, which had gotten it from Greek, to the adjective "tense" (also the verb), borrowed from Latin, and to "tense," the noun (used in reference to the time form of a verb, as in, "Do I use the present tense or the past tense in this sentence?"), a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, to "tender," the verb, borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, and "tender," the adjective, likewise borrowed from French, which had it from Latin (but from a different Latin word than the verb), and to "thin," a word from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "ten," which meant, "to stretch, to stretch out." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek the verb "teínein," which meant, "to extend, to spread," and this produced the noun "tónos," meaning "rope" (materials wound together and then extended to tie or secure something), which developed the secondary meaning, "tension," from the idea of "taut rope," and further, "accent, voice stress, intonation," from the sound made by various degrees of tension applied to rope or cords when plucked. Latin borrowed this as "tonus," with the same general meanings, but with "particular sound or pitch of something" gaining in prominence, with Latin-based Old French taking the word as "ton." English borrowed the word from French in the mid 1300s, but with influence from Latin, and that influence likely brought about the later spelling with the ending 'e' to signify the 'o' being long. The mid 1600s saw the use for "firm body" begin, and the mid 1700s brought the additional meaning "attitude expressed in spoken (later even in written) words." The idea of high and low pitch in sound came to be used figuratively for shades of color.         

Italian Seafood Pasta: Spaghetti allo Scoglio

This dish is known throughout Italy, but as you can imagine, it is extremely common in communities along the sea. "Scoglio" means, "rock, reef, rock from the sea;" so it's easy to see the connection to various seafood that live in and around the rocks or reefs by the seashore.* It is not a cheap dish, as many, or perhaps most, seafood is expensive, and to buy such a dish in a restaurant, regardless of whether in your home country or in Italy, will likely lighten your wallet considerably or burden your credit card statement for a decent serving. You can save some money by making this wonderful seafood spaghetti at home, and it's really not hard to make, but there are steps to be followed. (NOTE: If you have had this in a restaurant, they may have had some other seafood included, like squid or scampis, or they may have just as likely excluded one or more of the seafood items I use for this recipe. Remember, Italian cooking is more about fresh ingredients available in a given area; thus, Italian cooking tends to be regional, although the basis of many recipes are the same.) This is not meant to be an actual tomato sauce dish, but rather a seafood and wine broth with some seasoned tomato flavor. This is a FANTASTIC dish!  

 

Serve with bakery fresh Italian bread ... 

 

Ingredients (4 large servings):

 

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 large cloves of garlic, crushed, if you prefer to remove it easily later; otherwise, mince it

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved

2/3 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1 or 2 fresh red chili peppers, chopped

1 cup tomato sauce

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 teaspoon thyme

2/3 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups dry white wine 

1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley

12 medium size sea scallops

12 medium to large shrimp (shells removed and deveined, you can leave the tails on if you'd like)

12 mussels, scrubbed

12 clams, scrubbed

3/4 pound spaghetti or linguine

extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over each serving 

 

Add the olive oil to a large pot with a lid over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the garlic and chili flakes (or chopped red chili) and cook another 2 minutes, stirring pretty much constantly. Add the halved grape tomatoes and continuing cooking until the tomatoes are well softened. Stir in the tomato sauce, oregano, thyme, black pepper and salt. After about 3 minutes, add the white wine, stir well and let cook 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the heat down slightly. Add the clams and put the lid on the pot; let cook for about 4 to 5 minutes, then add the mussels and replace the lid. Remove the lid after another 4 minutes and see if the clams and mussels have all opened, if not, replace the lid and cook another minute or two, until they are fully opened (remove and discard any clams or mussels that have not opened at all). Remove the clams and mussels to a platter or bowl temporarily. (In the meantime, cook the spaghetti in simmering salted water until it softens somewhat, but it is still a little firm, about 7 or 8 minutes at most.) Drain the spaghetti, add it to the pot and mix it into the sauce very well (it will finish cooking in the sauce, thus taking on the flavors of the sauce). Add the sea scallops to the pot and cook for two minutes, then add the shrimp; cook until the shrimp are just tender (they cook pretty quickly). Check to be sure the spaghetti is cooked (you don't want it to turn mushy, though). Add the chopped Italian parsley and mix everything together well. Turn off the heat, add the clams and mussels back to the pot and replace the lid for about three minutes just to allow the clams and mussels to warm up. You don't have to pile every plate high with the seafood, as you can add more as you go. Drizzle just a little extra virgin olive oil over each serving. 

* Italian "scoglio" goes back to transliterated Ancient Greek "skópelos," which meant "lookout point;" thus also, "high point, peak," which presumably led to the further meaning of "reef, rock rising from the sea, cliff." Latin borrowed the word as "scopulus," with the same general meanings. This gave Ligurian "scogiu" and then Italian took it as "scoglio." NOTE: Ligurian is an Italic language spoken along the coastal area of northern Italy and into southern France, although some refer to it as a dialect.   

WORD HISTORY:

Swain-This word is distantly related to "self" and to the adverb and conjuction forms "so," all from the Germanic roots of English, and it is also distantly related to "sole" (adjective for "single," but not related to the noun for "part of a shoe or a foot"), a Latin derived word borrowed by English via French. Further, it is closely related to the name "Sven" (also "Swen"), which is from the North Germanic languages. "Swain" goes back to Indo European "swe," meaning "oneself, self, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "swainaz," meaning "herdsman, one who looks after animals," then later, "a young servant boy." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "swan" (long 'a,' and not to be confused with the bird), meaning, "a herder, a swineherd, a warrior" (the "swineherd" meaning has led some to believe "swain" is related to the similar word "swine," but they are from different sources, although our ancestors may well have conflated the two because of the similar pronunciation). The Old Germanic form gave Old Norse "sveinn," meaning "boy, servant." Old Norse speakers settled in much of northern England, and the Old Norse word certainly influenced the spelling of the English word to "sweyn" and then "swain," but also in the meaning to "a servant to a knight" in the middle 1100s. It later was used in compounds "coxswain" and "boatswain" (once spelled "batswegen," where the 'g' melded with 'e' to produce the 'ai/ay' sound), types of officers on boats/ships, and the latter came to be pronounced as if "bo-son." Many relatives of "swain" in the other Germanic languages have died out or experienced very limited usage, although Swedish "sven," in the sense "a young male servant," is still around, but not common. 

Easy Spicy & Flavorful Spaghetti

Spaghetti sauce doesn't have to have 25 ingredients and cook for 10 hours. Sometimes... simple is more than adequate. This is my own recipe, but Italians have so many pasta sauce recipes, there is certainly a chance that this is a close match to some other recipe, but I use pitted Kalamata or Niçoise olives in brine, where Italians would likely use one of their own types of olive, of which they have several.

Ingredients:

1 pound spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic
1 chili pepper (seeded and chopped) or for more heat, 1 red chili pepper and 1 green chili chopped
8 to 10 pitted Kalamata olives with 1 teaspoon brine (halve the olives)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 14 to 16 ounce can tomato sauce

Cook the spaghetti per the instructions on the brand you use. Don't let it overcook, but keep it with a little firmness when you bite into it; that is, "al dente," as the term goes. In a large skillet, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Slice the garlic into pieces and add it to the hot oil (keep the garlic slices big enough that you, your family or your guests can use a fork to move it to the side of the plate if eating garlic directly is not desired). Let it cook for about 30 to 40 seconds (shake the pan a time or two), and then add the chili pepper (I use both red and green hot chilies, and the sauce was not mouth-scorching). (NOTE: If you don't like much heat, just add a little sprinkle of red chili flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper.) Add the olives and the teaspoon of brine and 1/2 teaspoon of thyme. After about 1 minute, stir in the tomato sauce, and cook until the sauce is hot, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the spaghetti. I put it into the skillet and mix it with the sauce. While I'm a lover of grated cheese on pasta (I especially love Pecorino Romano), I don't use cheese on this spaghetti and I've found that I much prefer it that way with this sauce. 

WORD HISTORY:
Duo-This word is related to "two," a native English word from its Germanic roots, whose relationship to "duo" is from Indo European. "Duo" goes back to Indo European "dwoh/dwah/duwo," which meant "two." This gave Latin "duo," which also meant, "two." This continued into Italian as "duo," with the same meaning, and it was borrowed by French as "duo," but with the somewhat altered meaning, "two things together, two items combined." This was borrowed by English, with likely reinforcement from Latin, in the latter part of the 1500s, initially with the meaning, "song for two people, song written for two singers." The meaning expanded to just about any activity done by two people working together.

Polish Cabbage & Noodles

If someone were to ask you to name a typical Polish food, you'd likely say "pierogis" or "kielbasa," as these foods are very tied to Polish identity, but .... Back in the first half of the 1500s, the Polish king, Sigismund I (Polish: Zygmunt), married Bona Sforza of Italy as his second wife (his first wife had died after childbirth). The new queen helped to bring Italian cuisine to Poland, including the common use of pasta. In this dish, the pasta is paired with cabbage and mushrooms. The Polish word "łazanki," pronounced as if, "wah-zahn-kee," is a type of noodle; thus, pasta. There are numerous variations to this dish, including the type of pasta used, but I've used egg noodles. Polish cooking, as well as other cooking styles in Belarus, Lithuania and Russia, uses a good deal of sour cream in recipes, something that the Germans in eastern Europe, especially in East Prussia, picked up from these various national/ethnic groups over the centuries.   

Ingredients:

5 cups fresh cabbage, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped
4 tablespoons butter + 4 tablespoons canola oil
10 to 12 ounces wide egg noodles
2/3 cup sour cream (low fat type is fine)
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large skillet or in a large heavy bottomed pot, then add the canola oil. Add the onion and saute for about two minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, stirring further. Add the cabbage and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage has cooked down and is tender. Sprinkle the paprika over the mixture, season with salt and pepper and stir. Meanwhile, cook the noodles per the instructions on the package. Drain the noodles and mix into the cabbage. Stir in the sour cream and serve.

With some sliced tomatoes and red onion...

WORD HISTORY:
Pierogi (Singular form: pieróg)-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, and its history is shaky in places, but "apparently" it goes back to transliterated Old Slavic "pireh," which meant, "feast, drinking and food celebration." This then produced the transliterated Slavic "piru," with the same meanings. In some Slavic dialects/languages, it then seems to have taken on the meaning, "pie," perhaps from a common food served for large occasions (feasts). With Polish and some other Slavic languages, it came to mean "filled dumpling," seemingly tying in with the notion of "pie;" that is, "a filled dough." English borrowed the word from Polish immigrants to America in the mid 1800s, with further reinforcement from Yiddish as Eastern European Jews immigrated into the U.S.

Pasta With Cheese and Pepper (Cacio e Pepe)

Excellent in its taste and in its simplicity. This is an Italian dish, most especially associated with Rome. The dish is meant to have a spicy taste from the black pepper; so if you like spiciness, you can add even more pepper. 

Ingredients:

6 quarts water, with 2 tablespoons salt
1 pound spaghetti
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano + extra for sprinkling on top
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 cup hot pasta cooking water (you may not need to use all of it) 

Heat water to boiling with the salt added. Cook spaghetti about 8 or 9 minutes, making sure it is not too soft or mushy. In a skillet or pan over low heat, add the pepper, the olive oil and the butter. Let butter melt, stirring to mix the ingredients. Drain the spaghetti, but keep 1/2 cup of the hot cooking water. Add the cheeses to the warm oil/butter/pepper mixture. Stir well, then add one half of the hot pasta water, stirring further to mix well. Add the pasta to the skillet and stir to coat the pasta, adding tablespoons of hot pasta water to thin the cheese and pepper sauce, if needed. Sprinkle some cheese on top of each serving.  

The spaghetti and a glass of hard apple cider.* Hey, you Italians drink what you want, and I'll drink what I want, and I don't give a damn what Mussolini said; in fact, since he said it in Italian, I don't know what the hell he said anyway. And once I drink that big glass of hard cider, even if you translate, I still won't care! Just joking ... I don't want to find a horse's head in my bed... What's that? I won't find a horse's head, but I might find a horse's behind, if I look in the mirror? ... I don't get it, I don't even have a mirror in bed. 

* For those learning English, and for those unaware, in this case, the use of the word "hard" means it has an alcohol content, usually a fairly good percentage. In the U.S., while today, with high alcohol content beers produced by many craft breweries, in the past, beer was "seen" as being relatively low alcohol, as contrasted to what were then often referred to as "hard liquors;" that is, alcoholic beverages like various types of whiskey, with much higher alcohol content. 

WORD HISTORY:
Am-This word is part of a large and complex group of words connected into use with the composite verb "to be." ^ It goes back to Indo European "esme," which had the meaning "I exist;" thus, "I am." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "imi," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "eom," which meant, "to be (in existence)." This then became "em," before then modern form. In the English of old(e), English speakers said, "ic beo" (I am). Why exactly "am" prevailed over the direct form of "be" ("beo"), I don't know, but "perhaps" it was by influence by Old Norse, which used "emi," which became "em" (am). Old Norse is another Germanic language, but from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages; whereas, English is from the West Germanic branch. Old Norse came to England with Old Norse speakers collectively called "Danes" by the English in those times. Gothic, another Germanic language, which died out, is from the East Germanic branch of Germanic, had "im" (am). There are forms in some other non Germanic Indo European languages too.

^ I say "composite," because the component parts of  "to be" actually come from forms of more than one old verb; thus, its highly irregular conjugation. It is a verb of the utmost importance, as I can't imagine the language being able to function without its various forms.