stray thoughts surrounding blue capellini

Everyone knows that in English we translate capellini as angelhair pasta but in Italian it simply means hair and doesn’t belong to anybody. Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti day but on Thursday I am often alone, making it a good opportunity for a steaming bowl of Blue Capellini. The blue refers not to the pasta but the sauce which is a secret and marvelous with whole peppercorns. Italians tend to talk a lot as if they were allergic to quiet, no matter if their mouths are full of noodles. But I eat my capellini silently. I don’t suck that one strand into my mouth like a retractable vacuum cleaner cord. I chew very slowly with my mouth sealed as if it were a recording studio sound chamber. I’ve never had a need to do qualudes but when the Italians come to dinner I sometimes grate a couple into the parmesan and make the sauce an extra soothing blue for the sake of white blouses and international peace and quiet.