Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Dumbed-Down Pasta alla Zozzona

I subscribe to Sip and Feast on YouTube, and this is a variation of his recipe. I don't think I've ever seen guanciale around these parts of east-central Illinois. Hell, I rarely see pancetta around here. 

And since I only see pecorino romano at Aldi on occasion, I just had to use parmesan. 

And before I watched the video, I had no idea what the heck pasatta was. I was able to acquire that via the InterWebs. 

If you want a truly Roman version of this dish, check out "Pasta alla Zozzona - The Secret Roman Pasta I Can't Stop Making." 

After we ate this today, the comment I made to Mrs. Nasty was that if I had to add anything to this dish, it would be mushrooms. I don't know if that would be a sacrilege or not. 

Ingredients

4 slices of good bacon, cut into small pieces

1 lb. of Italian sausage

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

A healthy amount of cracked black pepper

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1 bottle of pasatta (I used the Rutti brand)

1 lb. of penne pasta (use the tubular pasta of your choice)

Process

I used a Dutch oven for this dish, but if you have a very saute pan, that will work too. 

Place the bacon into the oven and render it. Pull it out and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. 

I cooked the pasta and then drained it while doing this. Reserve some pasta water in case you need to thin out the sauce a bit. 

Set to medium heat and add in the sausage. Cook halfway through and add in the onion. I broke up the sausage with potato masher and mix the sausage and onion together. 

Add the pepper flakes and distribute them for a minute or two. 

Add the wine, set to high to burn off the alcohol, then move the heat to just under medium heat, and add the Passata. 

Combine the egg yolks, egg, and ton of freshly cracked black pepper. Mix thoroughly. 

Set the sauce to a low-key simmer for approximately 15 minutes and add the pasta. Thoroughly mix it in and cook for approximately 10 minutes. 

Taste to see if you need to add salt (I added a little). 

Take the Dutch oven off the heat and mix in the egg-parmesan mixture. Serve. 

One of the aspects of this dish that surprised me is that it does not call for any garlic at all.  

Random Notes from a Crank

As I can attest to, gardening is good for people from a physical and mental standpoint. The New York Times has a nice little article about the subject: "Why Gardening Is So Good for You." 

As much as I hate weeding, especially flower beds, I enjoy seeding and planting new crops. 

However, there are benefits of digging in the dirt. 

I'm in the midst of watching the Netflix documentary Turning Point: The Vietnam War. It's a good documentary. It's not as good as the PBS documentary by Ken Burn and Lynn Novick, but it's solid. 

As I was watching the third episode "Life Is Cheap," I had the idea or rather the question of whether anyone has ever written speculative novel that narrates what would have happened if Bobby Kennedy would not have been assassinated and would have become President in 1968. 

I guess what I'm looking for is perhaps some positive speculative fiction. 

At an antique bazaar we went to on Saturday, I bought a movie poster for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, easily one of the best comedies of the 80s. 

The poster inspired me to watch the movie yesterday, and it was excellent. 

The one scene in which the teacher talks about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that launched the Great Depression and George W. Bush's description of "voodoo economics" is relevant. 

Music Friday: "Buggin' Out" & "Check the Rhime"

One of the albums I listened to this week was The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest. 

Here are two standout tunes from this opus. 

Musing of the Moment: Tottenham to a European Final

Tottenham beat Bodo Glimt 2 to 0 in the second leg of the semifinal with goals from Solanke and Porro. 

Spurs are in the Europa League Final and will face Manchester United. It's a Premier-League Final. 

The last time Tottenham was in a European final they faced another red-clad, Premier-Leage team: Liverpool. 

My hope is the outcome is different in 2025. 

Come On You Spurs. 

Music Friday: "Bad State of Mind"

I've heard this song played on the SiriusXM station The Spectrum. 

I immediately enjoyed the sound of this band and will probably be checking out their first two albums. 

Treaty Oak Revival is a new band to me. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Lots of things are going to get more expensive. 

A bunch of idiots are counting on Moscow Don to make some deals that help the U.S. and bring business and industry back to the United States. The New York Times has a good article on this nonsense: "A Flashing Economic Warning and a Sharp Political Jolt." 

The Canadian Prime Minister, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oxford, has a more realistic view of what's happening: "Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The system of open global trade anchored but the United States, a system that Canada has relied on since the Second World War, a system that, while not perfect, has helped deliver prosperity for a country for decades, is over."

What's more menacing is how President Adolf tariff nonsense has strengthened China's position in the world economy. China is now importing soybeans from South American and getting its beef and pork from other countries. 

I woke up in a pissed-off mood this morning because I was thinking about how the head coach of high school basketball team basically wasted my son's junior year. And to a certain extent, the head coach of the high school baseball team is doing something similar. 

As I was driving to a baseball game yesterday, I caught the broadcast of the Barcelona-Inter Milan Champions League match, the first tie of two matches. It sounded like it was bananas. 

Based on the highlights, it was. 

I don't have a team I'm rooting for in that competition, but I certainly want PSG to beat Arsenal.