Pasta, Angels, Family & Grandma Gina.

Cooking With Grandma Gina.

The Dude of Food grew up as an only child with a working mom who disliked cooking. Her 3 motto’s in life were:

  1. ‘where there’s smoke, there’s dinner’
  2. ‘you can never be too rich or too thin’
  3. ‘go play on the freeway’

The refrigerator to me was something to go look in at someone else’s house. That is how I learned about food, by looking in other peoples fridges and lunch boxes to see what they ate like. It took me years to get over just casually opening and looking inside of someones fridge. Sometimes I still do.

On special Saturday mornings as a kid I used to make a can of Spaghettios or Franco American Macaroni with cheese sauce as a treat.

One of the places I would wander over to visit was the house of the Italian family down the street. They had 3 older girls and a boy my age and they always had food on the stove. Their kitchen was the best. Homemade pastas, sauces, pizzas, rapini and as we got older their mother made everything with red onions so our lungs would stay healthier. This Italian mother even made liver taste good. She used thin slices of liver and loads of onions.

When we would go back east to visit their Italian relatives I would be blown away that every Italian kitchen was the same, warm and full of food. We couldn’t go anywhere without eating a plate of food and sipping some homemade wine. By the third or fourth visit you’d be pretty full but the hosts would get offended if you didn’t eat their food and thought you liked the other family better so you had to eat, drink and be merry. It was great and nothing but love.

When I went to visit the youthful home of my Italian buddies father in Italy I was blown away at the genuine love, hospitality and meals shared with me.

I am forever grateful and extremely thankful. This love of family and sharing food has never left me. Recently I began preparing homemade pasta noodles after lessons from my friends uncle’s wife, Aunt Mary, whom I’ve known since I was in 5th grade. I’m now 56 years old. In researching how to make a better noodle I was directed to YouTube and discovered the next best thing since beer was created. The name of this Youtube Angel is Grandma Gina Petitti.

Grandma Gina is precious and I instantly fell in love with her. She speaks just like everyone in my buddies family and reminds me of the best of my childhood. If you are still reading this then you must go to visit Gina https://www.youtube.com/c/BuonAPetitti/videos and see for yourself.

Grandma Gina Petitti

Watch and learn to make noodles, ravioli or any other quality Italian dish you might be interested in preparing. You will learn to cook properly and have your heart warmed at the same time. She’s awesome.

You can also purchase Gina’s cookbook online as well. It’s titled, ‘Cooking With Grandma Gina’.

Grazie Nonna Gina. May the Lord God continue to bless you.

According to Buzzfeed Pasta Facts, https://www.buzzfeed.com/jesseszewczyk/pasta-facts , the average Italian eats 60 pounds of pasta a year while Americans average eating just 26 pounds per year.

  • Jan 4 – National Spaghetti Day
  • Feb 9 – World Pizza Day
  • Oct 25 – World Pasta Day

“Now I’ma gunna maykeh a pasta carbonarra.” the Dude of Food.

Spaghetti squash pasta and Miss Zurich!

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From what the Dude of Food understands, you can purchase a device that you stick vegetables in and when you turn the handle it magically turns the veggies into spaghetti! This is a kitchen item that I need to add to my kitchen toolbox.

Right now the Dude of Food is sitting down with a coffee at home, pretending to be served by Miss Zurich in my amber room that overlooks the river. I ask her to dip her finger in my coffee to sweeten it just right. I sip my delicious cup of brew while relaxing in bed watching the ducks on the river. I’m imagining a zucchini pasta with assorted onions and mushrooms smothered in a cheesy white wine glaze served with a side of warmed buttery green beans and 3 poached eggs on sourdough toast and an avocado half is about to arrive. I see Miss Paris has joined in to help and is pushing a cart with food my way. 2 of Germany’s Next Top Models have arrived also. 1 is setting a up tray so I can eat in bed and the other is setting up a massage table so I can relax later. A breakfast for champions, served in bed by beautiful women, is a great way for the Dude of Food to greet the new day.

See what happens to you if you purchase one of these Paderno Spiralizer from Williams-Sonoma.

Bon Appetite.