Life of Wry

Growing up, one of Peter’s favorite pasta dishes was Penne All-arrabbiata. This is because there was an Eddie Izzard comedy sketch featuring Darth Vader at the Death Star Canteen (in Lego form) where the characters try to order Penne All-arrabbiata from the canteen staff. For some reason, and I never (ever) understood why, this sketch left Peter (and Jim and Paul) rolling on the ground. They would laugh until they cried (I am not kidding). And they’d watch it over and over. It was always hilarious to me… not the sketch, but their reaction to it. So it has enduring and fond family significance.

For this reason, Peter always orders Penne All-arrabbiata whenever we go to Italian restaurants.

Shockingly, I never made it (well, I didn’t cook for those couple decades when Peter lived at home… you know, like for his whole life). Yes, I feel terrible about this. It’s one of the things I try not to dwell on — the fact I let Jim be the main chef in the house for the entirety of Peter’s upbringing. I am absolutely CRUSHED that I don’t have an assortment of mom recipes that Peter thinks of when he thinks of mom’s cooking. In fairness.. there may be a few recipes and dishes he associates with me, as I did most of the holiday cooking, and the planning and cooking for some of our bigger events (not all). But the everyday stuff….. I really dropped the mom ball here. Feel terrible about that. There, I said it.

Anyway… I’m cooking NOW. Quite a bit during this pandemic thing. And tonight made Penne All-arrabbiata.

Super yummy. Jim and I both rated it 4-star. (I’ve mentioned our rating system?) (NTS: Blog about recipe rating system.)

It was so easy, I didn’t think to stop and take any pictures of the prep or steps along the way, as I often do (which always feels a bit silly, but I’m usually so darn proud of myself).

Here’s the final, just before serving:

Here’s the plated version (as it were).

See? Pretty simple. Here’s the recipe… Christopher Kimball’s, no less. We were both surprised he uses canned tomatoes, but I did it his way.. and wasn’t at all disappointed.

So… anyway. I’m renaming this now-staple (if late to the party) mom dish: Penne All-Peter!