We All Make Mistakes Day

August 28, 2024.

In 2005, I received an opportunity to work for the French government as a Language Assistant, and while I was stationed in Nice, France, I perfected my spaghetti-making technique. (Being in France had nothing to do with it; I was broke, and pasta is good and cheap.)

I like it with rich, luxurious olive oil, crushed red pepper, and garlic if I can remember.

(!)

That worked well at that time, but here in the states, where I've lived since, I struggled with consistency. Learning about addition of pasta water, butter, shredded cheese, etc; my technique continued to evolve, but always in the service of that original vision from 2005.

I made spaghetti tonight; red sauce, meatballs (not my favorite addition to be honest, but I'm not eating by myself tonight, so I have to be political), pecorino romano, crushed red pepper.

At of the time of this writing, I had been making pasta to the same standard (!) for over 18 years. I had my technique down, and I was able to consistently hit my standard without tasting it before it was done. I thought I was transcendental.

Well, tonight, I was stymied. I made a bowl, fully confident it would be what I expected, but it most certainly was not.

I ate a little.

Dissatisfied.

Added a bit of butter. No. More olive oil, a little water, more cheese, et cetera. I couldn't get it. I complained to my family. I was down on myself. In hunger and frustration, I continued to eat this (relatively) bland dish. I puzzled aloud why it wasn't like I wanted.

Then I got wise ("We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them."), threw caution to the wind, and added salt. Sodium chloride. The commonest seasoning in the world. I was about to feel silly, but I didn't have time because it tasted so good, and I was busy eating it.

Shake shake shake. Bam. Done.

Happy "We All Make Mistakes Day."

Just kidding.

Every day is "We All Make Mistakes Day."

Pierre Miller

p.s. Why the trouble? Because I was still mastering the technique of salting the water before adding the pasta, and I didn't taste the water because I didn't think I needed to. I've eaten pasta that was cooked in over salted water, and in unintentionally under-salting the water, I was laboring under the impression that I wouldn't need to add more.