Chicken cacciatore with perciatelli a la Aunt Char

Tomorrow's lunch. Thank you Aunt Char!

My aunt called around 10:00 this morning and asked if I'd like to join her for lunch. She said she would be making chicken cacciatore with perciatelli. Would I? That is a totally loaded question.

Char makes the most delicious spaghetti sauce of anyone I've ever known. Her secret is salt pork, which some people do not like the idea of. For me, it makes total sense. Buy a small piece of it at the market and freeze it, then put it in your food processor until it resembles the size of peas. Put a couple of teaspoons of it in your red sauce the next time you make it, and you will understand.

It's an out of body experience.

We had some chicken drumettes from Sprouts, and she also served a romaine lettuce salad with a balsamic vinaigrette from Paul Newman. I like that he donates all of the proceeds from his salad dressings to charity. That is a cool thing.

Usually I eschew bottled dressings, but his balsamic vinaigrette is quite tasty. It sticks to the salad, which is not always the case with a standard vinaigrette.

I digress. The kitchen wench is sentimental when it comes to salad dressings, since I used to be a salad chef. In the spirit of full disclosure, this was a paid position...but, it was when I was around 10 years old. My Mom wanted me to feel empancipated in terms of receiving an allowance, so she gave me a job and "paid me for it." I was my family's salad chef.

My aunt and I also shared a bottle of Australian Syrah, but I can't tell you the name of it right now. It's one that you can find at most supermarkets and isn't over $7.00 a bottle.

We agreed that we need to eat in more often to save money. And that will allow us to have more wine with our meals. The kitchen wench is down with that!