Spaghetti writing

By Alessio Colonnelli – Thoughts on Europe – 21 May 2020 –

How pasta rescued me from Brexit

Writing for me is a well-oiled cog inside a wheel. The upkeep can be demanding; it requires daily elbow-grease. It’s quite a job, sure, but you mustn’t let it grind you down – writing because you have to is devoid of magic. And yes, olive oil will do.

You see, writing – just as reading – can be done anywhere. An early draft of this was jotted down on a kitchen worktop while my spaghetti and sauce were simmering for lunch. But I got carried away with my pencil and notebook, and overcooked the spaghetti by 3 minutes and 10 seconds. That, in Italy, is a culinary sin. And I even used a stopwatch! Pasta is a serious matter – in this country, at least, where you are ruthlessly upbraided if you get it wrong. (Too salty or downright insipid ’cos you forgot the salt altogether are the second and third worst sins respectively.)

However, as it turned out the ‘spags’ weren’t too bad. “They’re still ok,” my two Italian guests claimed fairly convincingly. So, unless they just said it out of politeness – anything’s possible – I figure I’ve found a make of pasta that is neither cheap nor expensive, yet delivers on autopilot. The perfect pasta for the most happy-go-lucky among the world’s cooks; but I won’t disclose the brand, this isn’t a sneaky advertorial.

By the way, I ended up penning about pasta though that wasn’t my initial intention. I just got distracted. The original theme dealt with the new developments on Brexit. That’s for next time, anyway. Or maybe never. (My version of Word doesn’t recognize the term Brexit. I wish I didn’t either.)

Preparing food helped my mind roam and disentangle itself from a subject I was clinging onto. Timing went up the spout, a blessing in disguise: giving up on something can be for the better. A vapid idea damages your writing with worse results than a stargazing friend mangling your lunch.

(Written by Alessio Colonnelli on 21 May 2020. Twitter: @co1onne11i.)

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