Passport & Plate - Spaghetti in avocado cream, with masala and shrimp
Bolivia | Saturday, March 7, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
400g spaghettis
2 big ansd ripe avocados
5g spicy masala curry
Extra virgin olive oil
20 medium-big prawns
50g grated pistachios
4 cloves of garlic
How to prepare this recipeFry the cloves of garlic in a pan with some olive oil, on a low flame. When they start to become golden colored, add the prawns.
At ther same time open the avocados and whip them to obtain a cream. If it is too dense you can add a bit of milk.
Mix the masala curry with ti. Put this cream in the pan with the prawns, once the prawns are almost ready, and keep everything on a low flame.
Boil some water with enough salt in a big pot, and cook the spaghettis ¨al dente¨.
Put the spaghettis in the pan with the sauce and mix for 1 minute (with the flame on). Once they are already on the plate, cover them with grated pistachio.
Enjoy!
The story behind this recipeBehind this recipe there isn't only one country, but many, including my own. It is a melting pot of some of the cultures which nourished my body and my soul.
But it isn't something conceived in a moment of poetic inspiration, one day in the kitchen overwhelmed by nostalgia for the exotic lands I visited. Not at all. This dish has been invented out of desperate necessity.
When I arrived, alone and without guidebook, to Isla del Sol, a little island in the Bolivian Titicaca Lake, I was still a young and ingenuous traveler, not able to imagine that in such a place there aren't ATMs, or even no electricity.
What I had in my pocket wasn't much more than the cash for my boat trip back, what I had in my backpack was a cooking pot, what I had in my mind was the obstinate will to spend some days in the island and merge with its myths.
What I didn't have, by the way, was a sleeping bag to lay under the stars for free, as I had lost mine one week before. At 4000 meters, nights are fresh.
I bought the cheapest ingredients available in the village: local mini macaroni, butter and ripe avocados. Mixing tropical flavors and Italian skills, et voilà the pasta with avocado cream, al dente of course: twice a day, for four days. My baptism in creative travel cooking was at the bottom of one of the oldest Inca temples. I guess it worked as enchanted potion, because an impressive amount of magic happened – for example, I received a new sleeping bag as gift.
In the following years, I cooked this meal in every country where avocados were available, refining the idea. I added a bit of India with some masala curry and its peculiar spiciness, giving character to the avocado cream. The pistachio grains, and their unexpected but not invasive taste, whisper ancient stories about flavors coming from Iran, crossing Middle East and reaching Sicily. A bite of Spain with barbecued prawns in garlic sauce, and bit more of Italy with a wiser choice of pasta.
If I was a dish, I would be this.
