Rigatoni with broccolli and orange
I saw this recipe on substack earlier this week, and as if in a miracle, the best cost-benefit pasta brand was back in stock after months, this time with a larger lineup on the supermarket, so I decided to try their rigatoni.
Anchovies keep eluding me, and I'm note really sure why I can't find them anywhere: super fancy markets only carry one imported brand, big chain supermarkets carry none, and specialty grocery stores only have anchovied sardines, which sound like the best substitute, but are still to expensive for a dupe. Their disappearance puzzles me because I'm sure they used to be a common ingredient here before, and not just a fancy one -- they keep popping up on the yellowed handwritten notes, on the magazines for housewives, on the books of quick weekday recipes from 30, 20 or 15 years ago I've been cleaning up in preparation of moving to a different apartment.
Rigatoni was a good choice of shape, as it picked all the pieces in this sauce, in spite of me overcooking it somehow (I suspect they were too large for my pan). Anchovies would've a great compliment, but what really made me unsatisfied was how faint the taste of orange was -- mine had a very green zest, not very fragrant. It made me resent being parted from the process of buying the food I cook and eat, and how agrobusiness in capitalism confuses it further.