Weekend Food, Continued

As much as I enjoy cooking on Saturday afternoons, on Sundays ... well, not so much.  As you know, we take those ridiculous long walks (link to post about that is below) and by the time we stagger in the door around 5pm, it's all I can do to drag myself into the shower.  The last thing I want to do is head to the kitchen. 

http://nevertrustaskinnycook1.blogspot.com/2009/09/5000-miles.html

So usually we will just eat leftovers, order out or hit the local pasta joint in our 'hood.  That would be Saba, which caters mostly to Emory students.  An arugula salad, a bowl of steaming pasta, a bottle of cheap red wine and we're happy campers.

http://www.saba-restaurant.com/

Maybe it was that candy corn which addled my brain, but I got the bright idea to SKIP the walk this past Sunday and head for a movie.  Visions of popcorn danced in my head, I guess.  Of course, I could barely eat it once I got engrossed in the movie, "Waiting for Superman."

http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/

This is a film everyone should see, but you will not leave the theater feeling uplifted.  You will be thoughtful, grateful that your own kids were able to obtain good educations and you will ask yourself what you can do to make a difference.  I encourage you to see it.

After that, we came home and I flipped the channel to "Sixty Minutes" where the topic was the issue of our homeless veterans.  An issue close to my heart as I volunteer at the VA hospital here in Atlanta (and I used to run a homeless shelter). 

Suffice it to say, comfort food was in order.  I turned to my recently-cleaned-out pantry and pulled out a box of fettucine.  Not whole wheat, either - the real deal.  I remembered Ina Garten's recipe for pasta with truffle butter.  I remembered that container of truffle butter in my fridge.  Screw the calories.

PASTA WITH TRUFFLE BUTTER    (from Ina Garten's "Back to Basics")

Kosher salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 oz. truffle butter*
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
8 oz. fettucine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano, shaved with a vegetable peeler

Add 1 tablespoon of salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, heat the cream over medium heat until it simmers.  Add the truffle butter, salt and pepper and reduce heat to low.  Stir until the butter melts, then keep warm over very low heat.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until just tender to the bite.  Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water then drain the pasta.  Add the pasta to the saute pan and toss well to coat.  As the pasta absorbs the sauce, add as much of the reserved cooking water as necessary to keep the pasta very creamy.

Serve in shallow pasta bowls and top each with a generous sprinkling of chives and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. 

Yield:  2 to 4 servings

*I bought my truffle butter locally, but here's a link to find it:  http://trufflebutter.org/

You can't eat pasta with truffle butter and not think about those deserving kids who don't have the opportunity for a quality education or those homeless veterans who are recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Maybe if we can all just make a difference in the life of just one of them.......