In celebration of the Oscar nominations today, this posting is Foodie Favorites' version of "Dinner and a Movie". It is a first time guest blogger who does half the cooking in our house (or maybe more than half some months!) and this has become one of his specialties. Guys out there, this is surely a meal to impress the lady in your life and it is NOT a black diamond in the difficulty category. So, with no further delay, it is my pleasure to introduce Senor Food.
Senor Food:
Greetings allow me to introduce myself; I am Senor Food, the non-union Mexican counterpart of the great and illustrious Foodie. My take on things is a little different as you will see by my first foray into the food blogging world. I have decided to look at the long standing relationship between food and the movies. How many of us have had dates that consisted of dinner and a movie? My guess would be all. How many of us snack while watching a movie, again my guess would be all. So what is the relationship? Is it a cause and effect type of thing? Nah, food just rocks and we all love to eat it.
"Food, Glorious food" is what those adorable orphans sang in Oliver and by god they were right. Good food IS GLORIOUS! One of my favorite movies coincidentally has a damn good meal in it. The film is Tequila Sunrise, the stars are Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer and luckily for us, the backdrop is the fictional restaurant, Vallenari’s. During a pivotal scene in the film, police officer Nick Frescia (Russell) confronts retired drug dealer Dale McKussic (Gibson) about his involvement in the drug trade over dinner at Vallenari's, but the real scene stealer is the plate of Rigatoni Quattro Fromaggio that McKussic is having- Pasta smothered with a creamy blend of four Italian Cheeses. Perhaps it was the way hottie restaurateur JoAnn Vallenari (Pfeiffer) described the meal or maybe it was just the setting itself but it sounded so good I hoped to try it one day.
Lucky for me I am married to Foodie who in her years of collecting stacks and stacks and stacks of recipes came across the recipe. One day she handed it to me and said, “Senor Food, get to it.” Being both a fearful and smart man who knows his way around a kitchen I said to myself, “Self, lets make this meal.”
Below is the recipe and amazingly, it is simple to prepare, awesome to eat and most shockingly only about 485 calories and 12 grams of fat per serving (makes 4 servings).
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon stick margarine or butter
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ Teaspoon pepper
¼ Teaspoon salt
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated skim milk
¼ Cup (1 ounce) shredded fontina cheese
¼ Cup (1 ounce) crumbled Gorgonzola or other blue cheese
¼ Cup (1 ounce) diced Camembert cheese
6 Cups hot cooked rigatoni (about 9 ounces uncooked pasta)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil
¼ Cup (1 ounce) finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Melt margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add pepper, salt and milk, and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, and add Fontina, Gorgonzola and Camembert cheeses, stirring until cheeses melt. Stir in pasta and basil; spoon into each of 4 bowls. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Now for those of you who have seen the movie and enjoy it as much as I do…
You are now ready to deport Nino the chef and cater parties for one of the most dangerous and notorious men to ever deal drugs out of Mexico ; Comandante Xavier Escalante a.k.a Carlos.
"WE’RE NEVER GOING TO GET TO FINISH THE GAME!"
If you haven’t seen the film well this is the perfect opportunity to do dinner and a movie with a special someone.
Disclaimer: Cooking this meal will not make you as good looking or as cool as any of the characters that are portrayed...
Adios!
Senor Food
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