What do The Godfather and A Scruffy Terrier Have In Common?

What does The Godfather and a Scruffy Terrier have in common? More than you may think. The Scruffy Scrappy Terrier will also make you that offer you can't refuse. It is very frightening, don't let that innocent look fool you. I've been woken up in the middle of the night by that chilling feeling, you know when you feel something isn't right. It's the Scruffy Terrier sitting up on the bed, just starring at me with a cold blank stare. What is he thinking, contemplating, or is it scheming?, gives me chills just to think about it. And then there are those "offers" he makes us, pet me now or I'll keep jumping around you annoying you until your nerves are wrecked and you can't resist my "offer" any longer. It can also be their shared love for Spaghetti. The Scruffy Terrier's demands go like this, get in the kitchen and make me some Shpaghetti or I'm going to tell everyone that you are a bad Mommy and starve me. (Shpaghetti is not misspelled, it's just how Czechs pronounce it and our dog prefers that pronunciation over Spaghetti, it's something about the ch and sh sounds that get his attention.) Shpaghetti is one of his favorite meals, and nothing better come between him and his Shpaghetti.

Well OK, the Scruffy Scrappy Terrier is actually nothing but a furry ball of love. He loves everyone and wants to share the love with both people and his fellow species. He doesn't care if you want or don't want some love and attention, you're getting it! Panchito is one of the sweetest dogs in the world, and has been my little shadow for the past 12+ years. He loves people food, and somehow he just knows what's for dinner and when not to fill up on his dog food and save room to fit his people dinner. Now I know many of you are bothered by the fact that we feed him Spaghetti or more specifically pasta sauce, don't be. Our dog has been eating pasta sauce, pepperoni pizza and many other weird things for 12 years. We have been lucky that his stomach is like a rock and hasn't had problems eating these foods. But that's my dog and may not be the case with many dogs out there, so be careful what you feed your dog.

So here is where the Godfather movie comes in, I actually learned how to make decent spaghetti sauce from the movie. It was from this scene in the first The Godfather movie,
"Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick." I tried it and was so happy to not have to buy the disgusting jars of pasta sauce that are available here. While it started out exactly as in the scene my sauce has evolved and it depends on what I have in the house to make it. Here is my general recipe.

Ingredients: ( 4 servings for 1 lb. or 500 grams spaghetti)
1 15 oz (400 grams) can stewed tomatoes
6 oz (200 grams) tomato puree
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
finely sliced/diced olives, optional
1 tsp. dried Thyme
2 tsp. dried Oregano
2 tsp. dried Basil
1 large bay leaf
large pinch of granulated sugar

1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 cup (100 ml) red wine, *
Optional:
minced meat or sausage

*I will leave out or add it after I separate some sauce for the puppy, because alcohol is bad for dog.*

1. Heat the oil, add the minced garlic and cook for 3 minutes, then add all of the spices and stir around for 1 minutes. Add the wine then the stewed tomatoes and tomato puree, if the tomatoes are whole use the spoon to break up. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until ready to serve.

If using sausage or minced meat fry until cooked through then add the remaining ingredients. You can use this basic tomato sauce for spaghetti or any other type of pasta you like. I like to use it on just about any pasta, even to make lasagna. It also freezes well.

You remember that movie Lady and The Tramp, the scene where they are having a romantic dinner slurping the spaghetti? Panchito kinda looks like him, now if we could only find him a girlfriend.... but he'd skip the long romantic walk and go for seconds then right into ....mmmmm.. let's just call it dessert to keep it G rated.

I have chosen this recipe for the October YBR event