Once of the most unusual recipes I found this year was Biba Caggiano’s Green Tea Tonnarelli with Shrimp and Candies Cherry Tomatoes. The recipe was from Biba’s Italy, a cookbook of hers I bought 15 years ago but which I started to really appreciate only in the past few months.

Her simple instructions about making tonnarelli were very clear. The revelation was that you should roll the pasta dough considerably thicker than one would do for ravioli or fettuccine. I used only the first three of six settings on my pasta rolling machine, and they came out looking seriously professional.

The candied cherry tomatoes was another unusual method — cooked in a 250° F. oven for 3 hours. And most unusual was the incorporation of green tea powder into the flour mix for the dough. It was fragrant but very subtle. Perhaps the tea was too old or stale, but the taste was very good.