October 14, 2023

WEEKLY MENU 10.15.23

National Pasta Day presents itself on the Weekly Menu 10.15.23~

Some sort of pasta probably would have been on the Weekly Menu 10.15.23 regardless, but now we get to decide what type of pasta to have and where it fits into our top five. National Pasta Day is on Tuesday, October 17th this year, but never fear – the entire month of October is unofficially known as Pasta Month! Proving that, we go global on October 25th, when we celebrate World Pasta Day. Pasta comes in hundreds of different shapes and so many different sauces that there is truly something for everyone.

I’ve made no bones about the fact that potatoes are my favorite food out there, bar none. (I’d be hard pressed to classify my top ten spud dishes.) It almost seems like a no-brainer that gnocchi would be in my list of pasta faves, but it’s just not so!

My top Five Favorites are:

Bucatini
Radiatore
Cavatappi
Pappardelle
Spaghetti

How about you?

Honestly? Pretty much every other shape is number six to me. They all have different uses, but they taste pretty similar, and I don’t have any bad memories of any of them. When we were growing up, DOLD was in the road construction business, so we called rigatoni sewer pipes. We always went to Carmen’s Italian Restaurant here in Erieland, and they knew what we wanted. The first time I ordered sewer pipes out of town, you would have thought I was speaking a different language.

If you want a complete listing (with pictures!) of all sorts of pasta shapes, check out sharethepasta.org‘s Pasta Dictionary. It’s a veritable gold mine!

There are a lot of beloved pasta/sauce combos in this house, and, as you might expect, everyone has their own favorite except Bert, who isn’t a huge fan of pasta because it’s so filling. He soldiers through, although sometimes minor grumbling can be heard.

Family Favorites~

D absolutely adores Chicken Fra Diavolo, which makes sense, because it was created for him when his father was out of town on business. We have had it with various pastas, but always go back to rigatoni – it just makes for a perfect combo.

CHICKEN FRA DIAVOLO

Baby Boy is a sausage lover – he’ll be forever known as the Sausage ‘Achine around here, so his favorites include a couple of classic sauces and two different pasta shapes. Fettucine goes with ragu, and orecchiette (little ears!) makes it’s way on board in a One Pan Favorite.

ONE PAN SAUSAGE ORECHIETTE

SAUSAGE RAGU

Everyone likes the super decadent Alfredo Sauce. Fettucine is standard, but we’ll go with pappardelle for a special occasion – if we can find it.

Garlic Alfredo Sauce on Chicken and Fettucine Noodles

FETTUCINE ALFREDO

My favorite? I’m a purist at heart. Spaghetti and Meatballs makes me very, very happy. Smother the whole thing in a nice thick layer of parmesan and mozzarella, and I’m ecstatic.

Baked spaghetti and meatballs with cheese and pasta sauce

MEATBALL PARMESAN

Of course soup night isn’t exempt either. Lasagna is a once a year dinner (if that) around here because it’s kind of a pain to make – but this soup provides a close approximation on taste and is fast and easy. You do have to break up the lasagna noodles a little bit so you don’t get hit on the chin when eating, but the chunks are very comforting.

Bowl of soup on chopping block with cheese

LASAGNA SOUP

Don’t forget about ravioli – these make a perfect bowl of comfort for lunch or dinner.

RAVIOLI IN BROTH

I bet you’re wondering what made the cut for the Weekly Menu 10.15.23, aren’t you? Drum Roll Please!

Weekly Menu 10.15.23

National Pasta Day isn’t until Tuesday, when we are having Chicken Fra Diavolo with rigs. It was on the schedule a few weeks ago, but it got dropped last minute, much to D’s chagrin. We had the ever delicious Sausage Orecchiette last week, so it was time to get D’s favorite spicy pasta back into rotation.

We’re starting the week out with a double crockpot dinner on Sunday. We’ll fill the big slow cooker with Mississippi Crock Pot Roast. The little slow cooker gets the Funeral Potatoes O’Brien. We’ve got a party to get to Sunday afternoon, so we can look forward to an easy meal when we get home. Dessert is a fabulous little cake mix cookie – Texas Sheet Cake Cookies. So good.

Spoiler alert: the “secret ingredient” in the new-to-us chili recipe is coffee grinds. Honestly? We’ve tried coffee grinds in various recipes in the past with very little success. So I’m going to sub in a spoonful of instant coffee powder instead. And I only use decaf coffee in recipes, just in case I have a spoonful late night. The other slightly different item (the recipe doesn’t say which ingredient is the secret ingredient, so I’m guessing here…) in the recipe is semi-sweet chocolate. I’ll probably skip that too and add a spoonful of cocoa powder instead. Much less likely to stick.

We’re having mini corn muffins with the first chili of the season. I use the recipe on the back of the corn meal (it’s pretty foolproof), my medium ice cream scoop and the mini muffin tin. Once they’re cooked, I brush on butter melted with a good slug honey. They go with any chili! So will a generous helping of Tabasco Sauce…