Good Things I've Eaten: Pasta all'omerolo

Pasta with tomato sauce ranks up there in a elite class of foods that seem impossible to live without (others on the list include peanut butter and jelly, rice and beans, cheese and bread and all its variations, and a few more) These foods were destined to find each other, and once they did, they were never same.

Here, just outside Naples, I am living in the epicenter of the pasta/tomato collision. “Pasta all'omerolo”, as the dish is called in Neapolitan dialect is a true staple. Almost half of my meals have been pasta with tomato sauce.

Before coming, I can't even fathom how many times I've eaten pasta and tomato sauce. But here, it just tastes better. As I write this, I can hear wind rushing up through the valley that cuts through Gragnano. This wind made it possible to make consistently good dried pasta. A few kilometers to the north, in the valley that stretches toward Mount Vesuvius, they grown San Marzano tomatoes, the best for pasta sauce.

In our last class at UNISG, Corby Kummer, a well-known food writer, told us to avoid at all cost the words “delicious”, “amazing”, and “perfect”. He also informed us that a serious writer only has five exclamation points in his or her lifetime.

Well, this pasta all'umerolo is perfect. The rich, earthy, deep flavor of the tomato sauce marries so well with the chewy, slightly salty, very al dente pasta. Every bite is delicious. The dish is so simple, yet truly amazing. I ate it and thought: "This is what I've been missing my whole life!"

I think I'll be fine living the rest of my life with four exclamation points.