My man made the best sauce and rigatonis the other night. He fancies himself an 'al rustico' chef. He likes to chop his vegetables all crazy, and leave some smaller items, like mushrooms, whole. It makes me cringe, and the control-freak chef in me comes flying out.
"Don't do that," I exclaim, "what are you thinking? You would get ejected from Kitchen Stadium, summarily dismissed!"
I watch, wide-eyed as random spices and pantry items-- and what the what is that-- walnuts?! now paprika?! get pulled from the shelf. That's totally illegal! I keep watching, horror spreading across my countenance as more things get pulled off the shelf and sprinkled into the pan, seemingly randomly, and my husband's arms and curls bounce all over the kitchen. Sometimes he gets a little over-intrigued with one new ingredient that he thinks is so funky fresh, and it's just too much and the dish goes south. But most of the time, it turns out just right, and I'll sit there astounded, after gobbling up my first helping, with empty bowl, going back for seconds and thirds. The other night was such a night. My Italian man made the best sauce ever! It went like this:
1) get 2 frying pans ready with heated oil and garlic cut into slivers
2) brown garlic in both pans
3) chop 1 large zucchini in circles
4) chop mushrooms and a red bell pepper all crazy (leave a couple of mushrooms whole)
5) brown zucchini in 1 pan with dried rosemary, crumbled in your fingers
6) start walnuts and mushrooms in the other, add red pepper and 2 small pinches of paprika after 3 or 4 minutes
7) add a 28 oz can of peeled italian tomatoes to zucchini pan, stir.
8) add the contents of the mushroom red pepper pan to the other one, salt and pepper to taste, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
9) serve over 1 lb. of rigatonis.
10) top with a combination of grated Parmigano Reggiano, and Pecorino Romano cheeses.
"I'm an 'al rustico' chef, babe," he says, all smiles, sauce splattered everywhere.
Yeah, it's friggin' delicious.
xoxo
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