Why, why, why? And a fresh pasta dish.

There was a cooking show on TV. I was kind of half-watching it. I’m not sure why. I have about six million cookbooks. The last thing I need is more food ideas.

Anyway, it was the type of food show that is a vehicle for selling products. The announcer kept mentioning websites and in half an hour he said ‘w w w’ about twenty-five times.

Whatever were the inventors of the Internet thinking? Why did they choose the longest letter of the alphabet for the domain: 'doubleyou, doubleyou, doubleyou'? That’s nine syllables.

They could have chosen 'eee', for 'Earth's Electronic Encyclopedia'. Or 'iii' for 'Intercontinental Information Interchange'. Or 'ccc' for 'Complicated Communications Channel'. Or even 'ttt' for 'Terminally Twisted Tubes'.

Any of these alternatives would save six syllables on every repetition of a website address.

Having said that, why do people keep repeating 'doubleyou, doubleyou, doubleyou' anyway? Isn't it a given? It’s not like there’s an alternative. Which is a real shame. Because if there were, I’d like to see these:

mmm.chocolate.com
sss.reptiles.com
zzz.beds.com
rrr.tigers.com
yyy.questions.com

Alright, enough nonsense about the Internet. Let’s have lunch.

Pasta with fresh root vegetables, ricotta and pine nuts.

This is possibly the healthiest pasta dish I have ever made. It’s also surprisingly tasty. It could almost be described as a warm pasta salad; as the vegetables are grated and added raw to the pasta. The ricotta adds unctuous balance; oil the pasta if you wish.

Cook linguine - definitely al dente for this dish.

Grate half a cup each of fresh beetroot and carrot into one- to two-inch shavings. Lightly toast a couple of tablespoons of pine nuts.

Toss beetroot and carrot with drained pasta, fold through half a cup or more of ricotta and toss pine nuts over. Garnish with finely chopped celery leaves. Salt and pepper to taste.