Italiano

It turned out to be Italian Day in our household. It all began when I received my latest issue of Local Table which is chock full of local farms, farmers' markets and grocers that sell fresh products. As I was skimming through it over morning tea with the kid, I came upon a story of a small store that opened in an old part of Nashville named Germantown. It was a pasta store that made all of their pasta right there on the premises so I knew it had to be good. I asked the kid if he felt like pasta for dinner. Of course he did.

After a little while, we gathered ourselves and drove into town. The GPS took us straight to Lazzaroli's, thank goodness. It's been known to get me lost all over the place. We walked in to the small store and just went crazy. They had refrigerators full of fresh linguine and ravioli in delicious flavors and stuffings. Yum. We decided on a plain linguine for our dinner tonight which was going to be pasta carbonara. But, of course, we bought some others also along with some fresh Italian bread and cheeses.

On our way in, we spied Zackie's hot dog shop across the street that tickled our tummies. It was about lunch time by then, so we walked over and ordered some hot dogs to go. The kid got a regular hot dog, I got a hot dog for mom and I ordered, what else, Italian sausage with onions and Peppers. We drove home, sat down and truly enjoyed our lunch. Oh, and they had perogies on the side that you could order! Ethnicity is finally coming to Nashville! Yay!

By about 3 p.m., the kids were bored so I asked if they wanted to try the new Italian ice place around the corner, Nucci's. Yes, of course. I had tried the ice before and it was a tad on the sweet side so we all opted for the gelato instead. I had melon, the kid had blackberry and his friend, the star, had strawberry. It was a nice little mid-day getaway.

About 4 p.m., I started the carbonara sauce. Did I mention they also had fresh Italian Wedding Soup? Yum.

I put out the Italian bread with some new butter I had found.

Finished up the pasta just as the hub and kid were walking through the doors. Perfect timing for once. And the pasta itself was superb, regardless of the sauce. Mmmmmm.

We ended with fresh cannoli that I had bought from Lazzaroli's. I think they are so much better than I have ever had in NYC, I kid you not.

Needless to say, we are all stuffed to the gils. Ooooof.