A tower of spaghetti, drizzled with olive oil, is flanked by grated Parmesan cheese and a bread sauce. To eat it, you need to play with your food, dragging the spaghetti through the sauce and cheese with each bite.

You will need small, round individual ramekins to form the spaghetti towers.

Serves 8

Sauce

1 cup day-old, unsalted bread*, untoasted, and made into crumbs

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup fresh, chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Pour olive oil into a cold frying pan. Add bread crumbs and sauté on low heat. Add parsley, and salt and pepper to taste, and continue to sauté until the crumbs are golden brown and crunchy. Set aside.

Pasta

16 oz. spaghetti

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Large pot of lightly salted boiling water

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Olive oil for garnish

Freshly ground black pepper

Boil spaghetti al dente in lightly salted water. Drain the spaghetti but keep the water and set it aside.

Place 1/3 cup olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté spaghetti on low heat for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of the salted water from the pasta boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain again.

Place bread sauce on a low fire to warm.

Fill the individual ramekins with spaghetti, using the traditional method of twirling with a fork until the spaghetti is firmly packed into the mold.

Invert the ramekin onto the center of a warm plate and leave it in place 1 minute to “set.”

Carefully remove the ramekin and you should have an impressive spaghetti “tower.” Drizzle the tower and the plate with olive oil in an “x” pattern. Top with freshly ground black pepper.

On one side of the tower make a long strip of the freshly ground Parmesan cheese, and on the other, a long strip of bread sauce.

Serve immediately.

* Traditionally, Tuscan bread is unsalted.