The Platonic Forms of Pasta (including farro - emmer wheat - with zucchini and cheese.)
food humor
“…he was the wisest and justest and best”on the death of Socrates
Ingredients: Any you care to use, as long as they are fresh and pure and blend into a harmonious sauce.
Cooks who focus on the physical variety of the individual components of Pasta, or A Pasta, miss the point. Both Pasta and A Pasta exist in a higher realm of ideas and imagination in which Pasta and A Pasta reflect the perfect essence – or Form -- of their physical manifestations.
Let me explain. We all know that Pasta comes in a myriad of sizes, shapes, textures and forms; some flour based, some even based on potatoes, and yet even the smallest child knows what Pasta is when he sees it. Why? Because all physical forms of Pasta reflect Pasta’s basic essence or Form. It is this Form that unites and defines Pasta regardless of its individual manifestations.
Likewise, A Pasta is not defined by the infinite variety of mixing Sauce with Pasta. For even a slave knows when you order her to make A Pasta that you want some form of Pasta in some form of Sauce, which demonstrates the abstract universality of the principle, or Form, that A Pasta in its physicality represents. The pasta you eat does not define A Pasta. The Form in your mind that coincides with the Form in the mind of every other man, woman, child and slave who instantly recognize A Pasta when they see or hear of one is what defines A Pasta.
Therefore go and distribute all your recipes for Pasta and A Pasta, and feel free to make up more. More variation in the concrete physical manifestations of Pasta and A Pasta do not affect the essence of the universal Forms they represent. (by Susan Cook - A.)
The recipe:
Ingredients:
180 grams of short Emmer wheat (Farro) noodles
6 zucchini
1/2 a lemon rind, grated
Salt
4 heaping tablespoons of Robiola or other cream cheese
Black pepper
Beef extract
Serves 2
Put the noodles on to boil in salted water. In a pan, saute the zucchini in olive oil until tender, letting them just begin to turn brown, adding salt and just a teaspoon of beef extract. When the noodles are al dente, drain and toss them directly in with the zucchini, toss, then transfer them to the a large bowl where you've already place the Robiola or cream cheese and freshly grated lemon rind. Liberally grind some black pepper on top to taste. Or some ginger juice. Improvise, fall into excess if it feels right, if you want a sweet kick add some fine-chopped Almonds. Screw Plato, live a little. Serve in the bowl-iest of bowls you can find. Or see Socrates.
link_ plato and food: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11464226