Spaghetti Bolognese - Pellegrini's

I'm a pasta kid. I always have been. It started with my earliest favorite restaurant order: spaghetti. Now, we're not talking about just a small portion with a few other things on the side, but a whole big plate of sphaghetti with parmesan cheese sprinkle on top, all to myself. Never mind that I was only five years old and my parents had a firm expectation that I would eat everything on my plate! I loved sphaghetti enough that I would indeed sit there and eat it all, and then lierally roll out of the restaurant.

As I got older, a regular "Italian" weekend routine emerged in our household. Saturday was always spaghetti night, and Sunday was always pizza night. Our spaghetti was popular among our family friends. It was a "secret" recipe that my dad brought back with him from Vietnam, and while I was responsible for making it every Saturday, I wasn't to share the secret with anyone! Late morning after the chores were done, I would get started with the spaghetti and have it simmering throughout the afternoon. The whole house smelled heavenly!

While I cooked the sphaghetti on Saturday night, my dad cooked the pizza on Sunday night. I loved the pizza just as much as the spaghetti, and even more so because there were hardly any dishes to do afterward. But there was just a little bit of difference in the preparation process. My dinner involved multiple ingredients and a long simmering process throughout the afternoon. My dad's dinner involved taking two Tony pizza's from the freezer; after ten minutes in the oven under my dad's attentive eye, we had our dinner! It was still good, and none of us complained because it was the only time that my dad stepped into the kitchen.

I don't make spaghetti every Saturday afternoon anymore, but I do still enjoy Italian food. No wonder I am most interested in visiting Italy . . . not just for the food, but the food would certainly be an added bonus!