Creamy Marinia and Fettucini and "Moonstruck"

Who doesn't love a bowl of pasta with a side of toasted garlic and parmesan bread sitting in front of them. Just about any pasta dish is comfort food for me with a capital "C". There are so many varieties of jarred pasta sauces filling the shelves in our grocery stores theses days and they are often a "go to" or last minute weeknight meals. The truth is great pasta sauce recipe doesn't come from a jar and making it from scratch might be easier than you'd think. I might not have any Italian heritage in my family tree but I love to cook like I do. From pantry to dinner table, you can be serving this up in as little as 45 minutes!

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 medium sized onion - chopped
4 cloves of garlic - chopped

About ½ of dry red wine (Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon)

28oz can of diced or chopped Tomatoes 

3 tablespoons of tomato paste

1 teaspoon of sugar

9 leafs of fresh Basil

¼ teaspoon of dried oregano

pinch of red pepper flakes 

¼ teaspoon of kosher salt

1 bay leaf

¼ cup of heavy cream

1 box of dried Fettucini

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

We may be cooking Italian tonight but lets remember back to one of my first posts about our mise en place. Get you cans of tomatoes opened, the wine on hand, your onions and garlic chopped, and all of our spices out and readily available. Take a large sauce pan and coat the bottom with olive oil, it's about 2 tablespoons, and bring it to a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and gently saute' them for about 10 minutes until the become tender and slightly translucent. At this point, add the chopped garlic and stir together quickly and cook for no more than a minute - I can't stress enough how quickly garlic can burn and how it can really ruin a dish.

Once this step is completed quickly pour in the red wine to deglaze the pan. If you don't drink wine or have it on hand, chicken stock can be used as a substitute but wine is really the preferred ingredient. Most of the alcohol in the wine burns off in the cooking process but the wine adds a great depth of flavor to the sauce. Stir the liquid together with the onions and garlic for a few minutes until it begins to reduce. Add the dried oregano, the bay leaf, and red pepper flakes.

Add the can of tomatoes, the sugar, salt and pepper, and the tomato paste into the sauce and then stir together to combine everything. Turn the heat to medium low and all the sauce to simmer for about 20 minutes. Now is a good time to start your water to boil your pasta. No fancy tricks here, just a big pot of water, a lot of salt, and a touch of olive oil.

20 minutes later you should be dropping your pasta into it's boiling bath and it's time to finish off our sauce. Stir in the heavy cream and the fresh basil. Remove the bay leaf and season the sauce the taste. To make the easiest and best garlic bread on this side of the Atlantic, start by toasting a few slices of crusty Italian bread under the broiler until just browned. Cut one large clove of garlic in half and rub the garlic against the toasted bread - the heat from the bread will extract the flavorful oils in the garlic. Spread a little butter on top and some freshly grated cheese.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain the pasta and stir together with a little bit the sauce. Portion the pasta onto your plate and top a little more of the pasta sauce. Garnish with a little bit of freshly chopped basil and grated parmesan cheese and dinner is served!

This weeks movie is just as Italian as our dinner, the 1987 romantic comedy "Moonstruck." It's rare for a movie that's dubbed a romantic comedy to bring both of those elements into the film but "Moonstruck" really succeeded on this level. Cher stars as Loretta Castorini, a widowed woman who recently accepts another marriage proposal. Loretta sees marrying her fiance Johnny as a smart move, but as she admits to her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis) she doesn't love him. When Loretta goes to share the news of the engagement with Johnny's brother Ronny played by Nicholas Cage, she finds a man who isn't exactly thrilled for his brother and his future bride. Things take an interesting twist when Loretta and Ronny soon develop a romantic relationship with one another and they find themselves in a difficult situation. Cher and Olympia Dukakis both received Academy awards for their comedic performances in this film and "Moonstruck" has become a new classic in the world of movies.