Good tools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Working Hard,

I have mentioned these knives to you before, I think, but I wanted to remind you about them.  It's an absolute wonder that such nice tools are available to us.  You can get one of these handmade knives for about $250.  While you are shopping, consider one of these beautiful leather objects, too.

With these nice tools you get a lot of the hand of the craftsperson, some of their spirit.  These things are made with oodles of attention and great fondness for the materials and methods.  There is a lot of feeling packed into an item you will hold nearly everyday.  You can't go wrong with a handmade tool.

The fellows who make these knives and these leather goods are just as nice a people as you have ever met, to boot.

Butterfly, Little Ear, al Limone.

 

 

The Lemon, Edouard Manet, oil on canvas, 1880.

In the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris France.

 

 

 

 



Dear Able,

Wonder at this amazing film of a factory machine making farfalle.  In the time it took to watch that you could have made some by hand, so here is a super snappy clip of making pasta dough, exactly as we do it here, at the Dodo. 

But that is not all:  Watch this woman's hands fly in Bari!  And here is a clip that demonstrates a little more fully how to work that magic.

One more thing, a recipe: spaghetti al limone.  You can even use a packet of spaghetti, made by the big machine which is operated by the big company, because imagining that Sophia Loren wants you to eat it will make up for how little you touched or handled the noodles.  I think, however, if she was to dine tonight, at your home, you might find the time to get your hands into the dough.  Your own dinner might be worth as much effort as that, no?








PS  Do you care for more little ears?  If you make these with semolina flour, oh! you will not be able to look the packets in the face again.  If you were to combine these little ears, made of semolina, with some tomatoes from your garden, and ceci beans beans from the beautiful Palouse....