Angel hair pasta, Sottocenere

Capellini d'angelo con formaggio di sottocenera al tartufo. That there's Italian for "hair of angel with cheese of 'under ash' to truffle".  In the pasta world, you got your capellini, 'hair' pasta, which is thin, and you got your capellini d'angelo, 'angel hair' pasta, which is even more thin. So this pasta is extremely thin. Do you understand how tricky it is to achieve al dente angel hair pasta? The cook has to stand there and test it every 5 seconds. <--- Possible exaggeration in excess of 100%. 

The rind of the cheese is a gray ash mixed with spices, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, and truffle oil. The ash coating conveys these flavors into the cheese. The rind itself is edible if a bit gritty and also mild so hardly worth it. The cheese also has bits of truffle inside. It is very good, and I do recommend it if you happen to see it around, go for it.  

This is a very small plate of pasta. It might look large in the photograph but the pasta is very thin, the plate small, and the tomato a single small Roma type diced finely. The only flavorings are salt/pepper, and herbs. The pasta is rolled in mild olive oil. There is no sauce. The cheese is soft and tends to congeal. I suppose a bit of pasta water could have been used to form a thinner sauce with the olive oil and the cheese, but I wanted to be careful not to goof on the cheese. This small plate of just a few ounces of pasta amounts to a light snack. It stood for dinner tonight.  

Aerogarden herbs, mostly lemon basil, a sprig of mint, and a few thin weak strands of  oregano. Everything is bolting so their tiny flowers too.