Lessons in Peruvian Flavors

Today, I decided to make pasta with a Peruvian twist. I found a recipe on social media and thought, “Let’s do it!” Off to the supermarket I went, grabbing aji panca and aji amarillo for the huancaina sauce. I was so pumped about this new recipe that I got a bit carried away and added extra aji panca to the sauce.

When I proudly presented the dish to my mother, she admired the beautiful presentation but took one bite and her eyes widened. “This is… spicy!” she exclaimed, reaching for a glass of water. My mother, who thinks black pepper is adventurous, was not prepared for the fiery kick.

Determined not to waste the entire pot of pasta, she worked her magic, adding a bit of this and a dash of that to tone down the heat. By the time she was done, the sauce was much milder, and we could finally enjoy it.

We ended up eating pasta for the whole week, each day with a slightly different variation of the sauce. It was a fun experiment with Peruvian condiments, and I learned a valuable lesson: sometimes, less is more when it comes to spice!