Alliteration.

The rain's been coming down here in LA, and although today dawned bright and clear, it ended with a temperature drop into the freezing (for us) 50's and a lovely orange sunset, shot with cloud cover.

Of course, it made me hungry.

It all started with the box of Coppola Gemelli that sat on a table in the office for a while, a gift from our friend Christopher.  Not just any Gemelli -- Mamarella Gemelli.  Sounds lovely on the lips, doesn't it?    I decided to take it with me, and started thinking about all the homey dishes I could make with short pasta.  Called Suenarita on the short drive to Casa Angeles, mouth watering.  (She was too busy to talk, even about food and wine.)

At home, my options were limited by the contents of my fridge:  some leftover roasted chicken, some tasty prosciutto, a few veggies, Parmigiano Reggiano, half and half.  And in the wine cabinet?   Tapeña Tempranillo, 2005.   Mamarella, I thought.   Gemelli.  Tapeña. Tempranillo . . . Timpano.

Did you guys see Big Night?  When Tony Shaloub pulls that fabulous pasta dish out of the oven, the one they save for celebrations?  Well, at our house, every night's a celebration.  (Kid finished the homework - yay!  Cat didn't pee on something inappropriate - yay!  The Daily Show's back -- double yay!)

I yanked Pasta Classica out of the cabinet.  Read a bit about classical timpani, decided it took too many pans, always a downside on a weeknight.   But pasticcio, that was another story.  Didn't require so many pans, no pastry dough -- and I had all the stuff, most especially the tasty red wine. 

Tempranillo, by the way, is a Spanish grape.  It favors cooler growing regions, and while it's been largely ignored in California (even though it arrived with Spanish settlers in the 17th century), it's been widely adopted in Chile and Argentina.  But my Tempranillo came right from the motherland, and boasts a hefty retail price tag of around $9.  It also has a cute little fork on the label.  It 's the kind of wine that they call "fruit-forward," where you can taste berries and melon and maybe even a little bit of honey.  But don't think that it makes for a wimpy drinking experience.  It's got a kick that will warm you right up. 

And it was perfetto con il pasticcio.  Grazie, Mamarella.

(Unfortunately, Pasta Classica by Julia della Croce is a little hard to find these days, but they seem to have a few copies on hand at Amazon.  This cookbook is a staple in my kitchen -- it beautifully documents the history of pasta, and has the best pesto recipe I've ever tried.)   

 

Comments

[alex b]

made me hungry