Bon Appetito

Carry in food tonight. Spaghetti and meat sauce for me;spaghetti and meat balls for Richard. We had a very busy day and had no time to even think of going to the grocery store and getting a meal together. The meat sauce on the spaghetti was very good - deep and dark with a rich flavor and mahogony color. Marinara sauces leave me cold - the acidic tomatoes I find shallow and for me, they do little for the pasta. Richard's meat balls tasted like...well, meat balls. Rubbery and with a kind of warmed over flavor. But he enjoyed them.

We're searching for the all-time best meat sauce around here. The quest keeps us trying new Italian spots always applying our uniform kitchen test - how is the meat sauce? Most of the sauces lack the depth which comes from long simmering and building layers of flavor with first, a good meat base, fresh tomatoes and a knowledgable hand with the spices and wine. When done correctly a good meat sauce is a work of art. My own meat sauces are always disappointing to me. I try different recipes but none deliver the richness and layering I'm looking for. So far, Vinces in Temecula delivers the best flavor. Incredibly it's also very cheap!

I can cover up a lot of sins with the herbs from my garden. A mediocre Italian dish is incredibly improved by laying a large, fragrant piece of rosemary across a steaming plate. The diner gets the rosemary aroma borne skyward on a cloud of steam. Regardless of the actual taste of the dish, the rosemary does a lot for the perception of what's about to come - and anticipation and preparation is half the experience. The other trick is to serve a good wine and plenty of it. Garlic bread is so ubiquitous and so well liked that a good chunk slathered with garlic butter and then dredged in parmesan cheese is another distraction.

I'd like to spend some time in Italy with someone who really knew where to go and eat. We've had a marvelous time stumbling into places and have eaten well. But oh how wonderful to be taken to the "sure thing" in every location to try the best of the best. Maybe 2008 will be the year we get to do this with one of the many experts who offer such a service.