When Vince and I met, the first thing he talked about was Italian food and I told him I don't like Italian food but later admitted it's just the red sauce I don't like. I grew up where there weren't many (very few!) Italians and there was a real Italian restaurant in Lake Charles but it was high end and that wasn't the kind of place we ever ate. So, Italian food for me was my mom, who didn't like to cook and was not a good cook, opening a can of tomato sauce, pouring it over browned ground beef and serving it over spaghetti with grated cheddar cheese.
Vince has always told me that if I had good, authentic Italian food, I would love it and, he's probably right. We ate at Maggiano's in Overland Park, KS a few months ago and it was delicious but, as far as I know, there's no place around Joplin to get outstanding Italian food.
Somehow last week, Vince came across this YouTube channel - Pasta Grammar. I think Vince watched half a dozen of their videos, then he shared them with me and we have been binge watching. I want to cook everything they make! They also have a website where they share some of their recipes. And, they have a cookbook! I ordered the cookbook and it arrived today and I can't put it down!
Today I made Pesto Alla Trapanese. It's in the book but it's also on the YouTube notes for that video. My book arrived after we had gone to the grocery store so I had to do some subs.
Almonds - I didn't have almonds so I used pistachio nuts.
4 cloves of garlic - I used some of the garlic scape pesto that I made earlier this week. It's all frozen in cubes - 2 T. each.
Pecorino cheese - can't get that hebure so I used an Italian blend from Sam's.
Busiate - Didn't have that so I used bucatini. It was so delicious. I think I now love Italian food!
Tomorrow I'm making the Italian Stuffed Meatloaf. We watched her make that on the YouTube video and I haven't stopped thinking about it!
I'm having fun cooking the recipes and, of course, Vince is thrilled to be getting lots of Italian food!
Growing up in Texas, we didn't have a lot of Italian food (don't think my Dad would have eaten it, unless he had to - he'd probably have a PB&J instead, LOL). My mother was from Germany so if we had something "international" it would be German food and she was an excellent cook.
ReplyDeleteShortly after DH and I married, he went in the Navy and we traveled coast to coast and on the rare occasion we went out to eat and tried Italian, it was always GREAT. For me, I rarely ate the "standard" tomato sauce Italian, I would eat a lot of the buttery type meals (chicken picata with artichokes has always been one of my favorites). I say "standard", not that it is, because most people I talk to talk about spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs and it's the tomato sauce type, LOL. I think all the ethnic foods we are exposed to today (vs. meat/potatoes meals of old), are great.