Drunken Tuscan, AKA I Don't Like Rosemary

This is New Recipe #3 in my quest to try 27 new ones in 2007. It's another Rachael Ray goodie from her Express Lane cookbook. I won't post the recipe until I've tweaked it, because after asking the kids who ate here last night (Sarah, Stephen, Joel) to join me in rating it, the average was only 2.8 stars out of a possible 5. (Joel's vote really skewed the average because he got all analytical on me. The noodles were "the bestest" which he gave a six even though I kept telling him five was the highest possible, the bacon a three, the mushrooms zero and the spinach zero.)

Basically you are supposed to pour a whole bottle of Chianti into the water that's to boil the pasta in. I didn't have a whole bottle of Chianti,and wasn't about to run and get some, but I substituted with 1/3 bottle of red cooking sherry. It also called for 2-3 sprigs of rosemary which I really enjoyed chopping by rockin' my mezzaluna. Moreover, it called for bacon to be chopped and cooked till crisp (yum) and onions to be sauteed in garlic. So far so good. Then add the spinach and two ladels of the wine water in which the pasta--I chose bucatini for the sound of it, but discovered it's just thick spaghetti-- has been cooked to al dente. Well, Joel just couldn't get enough noodles, even though he kept saying, "I don't like pasta." It's funny what kids say, isn't it? We had to tell him, "pasta IS noodles, Joel." (He still doesn't believe us.)

So it had WAY too much rosemary for me. About 3 sprigs too much. I love my dear friend whose name is Rosemary, and love the romantic sound of the herb, but I have tasted it and realize one thing: I don't like rosemary the herb . No way, no how.

Today I had leftovers which were better because I added a few of the last drops of A-1 steak sauce in the fridge, plus I put several shakes of fiery hot sauce all over it. Mmm.

Maybe I should rename it Drunken Mexican in Tuscany.