We watched the chefs at Dents de Loup make this for their staff dinner from a seat at their counter. It is a new butcher and dining room in the 9th arrondissement, the kind of place where the kitchen runs straight off the bar with no separation, so you sit and watch them work while you eat.

 

 

We had stopped in for a glass of wine and a plate of charcuterie after lunch at Pétrelle across the street. While we ate, the chefs started making their staff meal. Fresh spaghetti from a giant pot of boiling water, lifted onto plates. A skillet of ground pork finished with cheese that went into a hot oven to melt and brown. Spooned over the pasta with the pan juices poured over.

It looked like the best thing we had seen all day. We made it the next night at home in London. It came together in under thirty minutes, and there is one step the chefs do first that makes the dish what it is.