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Hiya, Lib27! Haven't seen many Lenten dishes, so here's one with a little twist in flavours.

Espaguetis para la Cuaresma (Spaghetti for Lent, Panamanian-style).

1 lb thin spaghetti
6 oz button mushrooms, roughly chopped
6 oz medium black olives, pitted and sliced
4 large eggs
(optional) 4 large cloves fresh garlic, well chopped
2 TBSP capers (surfine or nonpareil size)
4 TBSP butter
2 TBSP e-v olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
1-2 tsps dried thyme
ground red pepper, to taste
ground black pepper, to taste
Worcestershire sauce (salsa ingles), to taste

Put 4-5 quarts water into large pot or saucepan. Add 2 TBSP fresh ground black pepper (NOT salt) to water, stir well and bring to boil.

In 2-quart saucepan, add butter, olive oil, mushrooms, chopped garlic if used, capers and rosemary. Mix well with spoon and bring to a light simmer, just melting the butter, and stirring gently every minute or two.

In a large bowl, put eggs, black olives, Worcestershire (I like about 2 TBSPs, btw) and thyme. Whisk well to mix and set aside.

When water boils, add spaghetti. When water returns to a boil, cook for 7-8 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn up the heat on the butter/oil/mushroom pan so that the butter/oil mix is just short of boiling.

When spaghetti is done, AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN, 1) drain spaghetti in colander (or, a VERY CLEAN tennis racket works great for speed!), 2) add spaghetti to egg/thyme bowl, 3) add butter/oil/mushroom mix to egg/thyme bowl.

Sprinkle a little ground red pepper and ground black pepper as you like into the bowl, toss thoroughly but quickly with tongs until well mixed and the pasta is shiny all through.

If you fancy ground Parmesan, sprinkle on generously.

Serve IMMEDIATELY. The pasta WILL cool off more quickly than you imagine. For health paranoiacs (about raw eggs), don't fret -- the hot pasta and hot oil/butter will cook the eggs very nicely, same principle as carbonara but without the bacon oil.

If the recipe seems "too oily" to your taste, feel free to use less, but do keep in mind the mushrooms will absorb quite a lot of the oil/butter.

Please note that there is NO salt added to this dish. The only salt present comes from the Worcestershire, olives and capers. If you prefer more salt, I would recommend adding seasoned salt to taste to the cold egg/thyme bowl before adding the pasta.

Bon appetit!