8.28.2008

Comfort Food and Before Sunset

I had a shit day, and I don't mind sayin' it: Shit. Day. I was following a new library job lead...burned a day of vacation to do it...trekked to the Bronx...and it just didn't pan out. I'm enormously disappointed and depressed about the whole business. Which I assure you it'll take me one day to get over. That's my M.O.: one day of self-pity and depression, followed by weeks of screw-them-I'm-moving-on bravado and sassiness.

The Husband being so rad, he volunteered to pick up Kiddo from camp and take her out to dinner so I could have some Grown-Up Time. Which, naturally, meant cooking and turning on one of my Top 3 favorite movies: Before Sunset (warning: do not watch before seeing Before Sunrise!). I made myself Jamie Oliver's summertime pasta and it was just what the doctor ordered. Click on the link to get the recipe (hint: it's vair vair easy). I did, however, change two things: 1) I used a 1/2 c. of plain ol' extra-virgin olive oil and a 1/2 c. of lemon olive oil, and 2) I used fresh spinach fettuccine from Eli's, as opposed to the tagliatelle that Jamie calls for. This allowed me to use fresh pasta already in my fridge but, unfortunately, it didn't allow for the nice color contrast between the white pasta, the green parsley, and the bright yellow lemon:





I poured myself the last bit of the 2007 Campos Reales Tempranillo we already had open: I should have known that a Spanish wine was not going to be the perfect pairing for an Italian dish. It wasn't bad - just meh. So for my second bowl of pasta (I told you people I was depressed), I poured a 2007 Kris Pinot Grigio from Italy. Result! The bright fruitiness really refreshed my palate and cut through the richness of the pine nuts and the olive oil in the pasta.

This meal - and the three glasses of wine consumed with it - was the epitome of the term "comfort food." Enhanced with movie lines like this:

"Happiness is in the doing, not in the getting what you want."

And:

"There are so many things I want to do...and I end up doing not much."

Eat, drink, and take comfort in food, wine, and romantic movies

2 comments:

Anali said...

Sorry the job didn't work out! I completely understand your disappointment, having just gone through something similar myself. If I were ANYWHERE near you, I'd come over and bake you pumpkin-chocolate chip-bacon cookies. Because I love to bake, even if I can't cook worth a damn.

Unknown said...

How I wish I could invite you guys over for comfort pasta and bacon-pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies!

Or we could go dancing!