Saturday night in our neck-of-the-woods is date night. Suburban, hip-town America where the bars, bistros, trattorias and restaurants are packed with happy, hungry revelers.
Your day was meh. If you’re anything like me, you come home to the place where you can shut out the rest of the world, put on what ever old thing makes you comfortable, maybe a little music and maybe a glass of wine or a beer. Okay, feeling a bit better you peruse the take-out menu folder and shuffle through it like you don’t have it memorized.
Pizza? no. Chinese? no. Okay, I have a suggestion for you. Hit the pantry. Go in and pull out all of those jars and cans that have been sitting on the shelf. Look through the fridge. Is there a box of pasta? Spaghetti? Good. Here’s the recipe — and I use that word loosely — that I make when I want honest to goodness, simple comfort food in a hurry.
Sitting at the bar in our neighborhood pub, I once asked a bartender I’ve known for a while, what her thoughts were about ordering food when she is out on a date. In my mind I was quite sure that something clean and dainty would be the way to go. Her response was that she likes to eat meat. If she is in the mood for a big, sloppy burger or sandwich, that is what she’s going with. She explained that she was the only daughter in a family of boys and in her words, “If the guy I am dating has a problem with what I am eating, then he’s not worth my time.”
No matter how you slice it, we all crave comfort food every now and again. The basic Diner in America, Brasserie in France, Trattoria in Italy or Pub in Great Britain is where we turn when the spirit moves us. We want tasty, well prepared good food. Plain and simple.
