I’d just like to preface this by saying that Yes, there is meat in this dish, but don’t worry, there aren’t any extreme closeups of it or anything. Sorry vegans, it was impossible to hide. I did my best. *smile*

I’m actually sort of surprised to see more food bloggers haven’t done anything to memorialize the series finale of The Sopranos yesterday.   If nothing else, its a great excuse to make some tasty Italian, or Italian American food.

At any rate, I was too busy last night watching the final episode and then debating with my husband what ACTUALLY HAPPENED, that we didn’t even eat dinner, let alone make theme food, photograph it and then blog about it.  But that was then, and this is now.

Tonight’s dinner is dedicated to the final episode (ever) of The Sopranos. I like to call it “A great big Italian American Mess”.

I’ll admit though, I had planned to make a Sopranos themed meal for this Main Course Monday since I found neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comout when the final episode of The Sopranos was. I even had the name picked out. So now that I’ve actually SEEN the finale, I’ve come up with a more fitting name, based on the actual ingredients and the actual finale.

So you can either call this dish “A great big Italian American Mess” or, my preferred title-

“Philly got whacked”

It makes sense, since its basically a Philly Cheesesteak, minus the bun, topped with “baked” ziti.
(So I grilled the steak with onions, then boiled the ziti, mixed it with the tomato sauce and topped it with the cheese and mushrooms and everything else, so it wouldn’t be as fattening as traditional baked ziti, with all the cheese)

It also makes sense, since Phil Leotardo got whacked. Hehe..

Anywho, if you’re not a big fan of The Sopranos, or, God forbid, you’ve never seen or heard of it, I’m sorry. Just take the dish for what it is. A bunch of tasty Italian American food, on a plate. Its also fairly healthy, considering its ingredients. I used organic whole wheat pasta with flax seed,  and in addition to using a different “baked” ziti technique, I also used leaner cuts of meat , made my own fresh tomato sauce, and overall lowered the sodium content.

You see, I’d like to keep from looking like Bobby Bacala when he was Junior’s driver, or Vito Spatafore before he joined “The Fit Club”.  So I made a healthy dish. hehe..

Accompanying today’s main course, I made a cocktail we’re calling the “The pinky ring” A mixture of lemoncello, marachino cherry juice sparkling water and agave nectar that doesn’t taste like alcohol at all, amazingly enough. mmm..

So, I’ll leave you with this, a few parting words from the song played as the show came to a close…

“Strangers, waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night

Don’t stop believing”

This dish is pretty easy to make, I used premade pasta instead of making it myself, just to save some time.

Basically, its a deconstructed baked ziti dish on top of “philly” steak. No bun.
If you want to read the full description and story, click here to visit the Other blog. You know, the one with all my stories..

Anyways, here goes with the instructions-

To feed two hungry folks, you’ll need-

2 cups uncooked pasta (ziti or penne)
1 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup provolone
2 cups red sauce
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1 lb top sirloin
1 medium onion
3 small button mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
sea salt

Boil the pasta as you would for any pasta dish. You don’t have to use ziti or penne, though it works best if you use a pasta that has a hole in it rather than spaghetti or linguine, since those really wont work for this dish.

While you’ve got the water getting ready to boil for the pasta, begin cooking your sirloin. Ideally you’ll start out with some thin sliced cuts, but if you need to, before you begin cooking, take a nice sharp knife and slice the steak as thin as you can get it. remember to cut against the grain, otherwise you’ll end up with chewy meat. When you begin cooking the beef, make sure the pan is hot, and well oiled with olive oil. Salt the meat lightly, season it however you like. I add some minced garlic to the pan while the oil is heating, and that adds a lot of flavour to the meat.

When the beef is done cooking, divide it into two parts and place it directly onto the plate it will be served on. Reserve any pan juices or oil for the onions and mushrooms. slice the mushrooms and You can either dice or slice the onions thiny. Caramelize them and add them to the top of the beef.

By now, the pasta should either be done, or starting to get there. after its finished boiling, strain it and then toss it in the pan with a bit of olive oil and whatever minced garlic you have left over. put it back on the burner (medium heat) and add the red sauce. I added some extra sundried tomatoes to my sauce, but this isn’t necessary. When the sauce starts to bubble a bit, spoon half of it ontop of each plate with the steak.

To each plate, sprinkle half of the sliced black olives and half of each cheese, either grated or diced. Add a dash of dried parsley for colour, and there you have it..

Philly got whacked.

In addition to the main course, I created a fun little cocktail that packs a big punch. We’re calling it “the pinky ring” (another mobster joke, but its also a bright pink colour)

To make two servings of the alcoholic version, you’ll need-

4 ounces limoncello
2 ounces vodka
2 ounces marachino cherry juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar (or sugar syrup)
6 ounces sparkling lime water
4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

Mix well, serve chilled and garnished with a lemon slice and marachino cherry.

For the alcoholic version, just mix marachino cherry juice with lemonade made with sparkling water.

Buon Appetito!!

-A.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 2:11 am and is filed under June 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.