Fettucine alla Todd

One of the moments in Sweeney Todd that makes the hairs on my arms stand up comes when "the demon barber of Fleet Street," back in London after unjust years in exile, ferrets out his razor case and, brandishing his deadly-glinting blade overhead, exults:

"My arm is whole again!"

I feel that way about my kitchen. With almost a year and a half living with a wet bar and a microwave, and 30 years without a gas cooktop, I wondered whether I still had chops.

I started out with oil in a pan, finding heat levels by toasting stale Cole's Peace ciabatta and making it into garlic rounds.

And tonight, though my edges are far less sharp than Sweeney's, there were garlic cloves, pancetta, fresh sage, heavy cream, Asiago cheese, maybe a glass of Chianti to get the nerve up. . . .

Dice the pancetta, heat the saute pan on medium and let it render without burning. Add minced garlic once the fat has come loose. Reduce heat.

Once the garlic is soft and starting to brown gently at the edges, add plenty of heavy cream, scrape all the beautiful brown spots off the pan and into the liquid, and reduce it by about half over ever-decreasing heat, stirring every so often. The heat should make it form bubbles that don't break, and the reduction should take 20 or 30 or 40 minutes.

Boil water for the fettucine. About a minute before the noodles are done, whisk in two handfuls of good grated cheese (asiago, parmesan, romano -- you choose), some fresh ground pepper, a cup or so of fresh green peas, a few drops of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon-plus of fresh chopped sage leaves to the reduced cream. Grate some fresh nutmeg on top of all, and stir in.

(Shopping at Fausto's helps at every stage of this process.)

Drain the fettucine, drop into the sauce, toss. Plate and sprinkle with extra ground cheese. Serve with the rest of the chianti.

Richness. Complexity. Depth. Smoothness.

Good to be back.