“Hey Maria, just so you know, I'll be home around 8 tonight...
Yes, pasta e fasule is fine... No, I don’t want tubettoni in it. I like it with broken vermicelli inside...
That's okay, if you don't have them I'll bring them when I get back...
Eight o'clock is too late to prepare the pasta because it has to rest? And so what if it doesn't won’t rest — it doesn't matter!
No, Marí, I am not forcing you to go out... No, you are the one who's obsessed, saying that hot pasta is no good! I’m saying that I'll bring the vermicelli when I arrive and I can even break them for you — and if you really insist on the dish resting, we can also eat at nine o'clock, if that makes you happy!
...Sorry about that, Dottoré. As you may have guessed, that was my wife on the phone.”
“No problem! But I couldn't help but overhear: you like pasta e fasule (pasta and beans)?”
“Of course I do!”
“Then wouldn't it be better to find a compromise?”
“What, now I need to eat the tubettoni like a sick person?!”
“No! I wouldn't dare suggest that! But maybe just going home half an hour earlier would do the trick?”
“You don't know my wife. Even if I go back at seven o'clock she won't cook the vermicelli for me!”
“That’s why you shouldn’t bring those. Bring tubetti, spaghetti and broken manfredi, sedanini, lagane...”
“A packet of mixed pasta!”
“Exactly! Now go, because this is making me hungry!”
“Thank you, dottoré!”
“Bon appétit, Gennà!”
Learn more about Worldcrunch's exclusive Dottoré! series here.