Looking for a romantic date idea? What about a home cooked Italian meal and a cute tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel who falls for a streetwise downtown Mutt?

Lady and the Tramp is probably one of the most charming and feel good Disney films ever made. Even though it was released over 50 years ago (1955), the dinner scene from Lady and the Tramp is still one of the sweetest onscreen kisses ever put on film. Seriously, it's up there with Bergman/Grant and Bogey/Bacall. In case you are unfamiliar with Lady and the Tramp, I'm referring to the scene where pampered purebred Lady shares a plate of spaghetti in an alley behind an Italian cafe with streetwise Tramp. In the scene they unknowingly slurp the same strand of spaghetti and suddenly find their mouths meeting in a surprise kiss.

Let's try to loosely recreate that famous scene at your house. It will create the perfect romantic atmosphere to enjoy your meal and then cuddle up on the couch after dinner for the movie.

INGREDIENTS OF THE DATE
Besides owning Lady and the Tramp on DVD (do you seriously still have a VCR you old fart?), you need to make a grocery shopping list. Yes, embrace the idea of being one of those annoyingly organized people in the grocery store with a list and a pen marking things off one by one. Make it fun!

Grocery shopping with a list is like a scavenger hunt. See how fast you can get through the maze of the isles and get everything crossed off on your list.

If grocery shopping is the only thing that is preventing you from cooking a great meal, you have a couple of options.

• Nowadays, many areas allow you to purchase your groceries online and have them delivered right to your door. Fresh direct, for example, is a great alternative to going to the store.
  
  
• If it's the crowds at the grocery store that are keeping you away, try going to a 24 hour grocery store late at night. The isles are much more manageable during off-peak hours.

SHOPPING LIST FOR THE DATE
If you don't already own the movie, you can purchase Lady and the Tramp online from Amazon.com. You can also purchase groceries from Amazon, but it's probably easier just to run to your local grocery store unless you are agoraphobic.

WHAT'S COOKING?
Congratulations! If you're still with me, you must really like this person you making dinner for! Is your date more like Lady, a pampered cocker spaniel, or Tramp, a self-assured stray dog from the "wrong side of the tracks"? If you don't want cooking together to be part of the date, then you can do everything ahead of time except for cooking the spaghetti. But cooking together (even when you're both inexperienced in the kitchen) is always a fun date.

SAUCE
First we start with the sauce. Mmmm…This is easy. Just take it step by step. Personally, I'm not much of a veggie eater. Oddly, I love cutting up vegetables. One of my favorites is onions.

For some great tips on how to prepare onions and garlic, I recommend this book: The Basics - Simple Recipes Anyone Can Cook.

• Finely chop up one large onion
• Mince all 4 large garlic cloves
• Chop up the 1/4 cup of fresh Italian parsley.
• Pierce the 4 Italian sausages several times with a toothpick.

All right! Get the heavy large pot out and turn the burner up to medium-high.

• Pour about 6 tablespoons of olive oil into the pot.
• Add the 4 spicy Italian sausages, the finely chopped large onion, and the 4 minced garlic cloves into the olive oil.
• Saute until the onions begin to change color. This should take about 10 minutes.
• Add the 1 1/2 cans of crushed tomatoes.
• Mix in the 1/4 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley, the 2 small bay leaves, 2 teaspoons of dried basil, and the 2 teaspoons of dried oregano.
• Bring the sauce to a boil. Once it has started to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low heat. Cover and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Stir it often throughout the 30 minutes.
• Add salt & pepper until it tastes good to you.
• If you want, you can slice the sausages thinly or just leave them until you plate the dish.
• Try to fish out the bay leaves. They were in the sauce for flavor. You don't want to eat them.

 

MEATBALLS
Ok, onto making the meatballs!! You can start making the meatballs while the sauce is sitting for the 30 minutes.

• Cut three slices of Italian bread. Each slice should be about 3/4” thick and about 3x5”. Leave the crusts on.
• Place the slices in a medium size bowl and cover them with milk—just enough milk for the bread to soak up. Let it sit for about 10 minutes until the bread is soft. Set this aside. We will call this the 'bread bowl.'
  
• Put the pound of ground sirloin into a separate bigger bowl. We will call this bowl the 'meat bowl.'
• Into the big bowl of meat, mix in 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Pack the cheese into the tablespoon to make sure that you have about 2 tablespoons.
• Crack one large egg into the meat bowl.
• Into the meat bowl, mix in 1 tablespoon of the minced fresh Italian parsley, 1 large garlic clove (minced), 1 teaspoon of salt & 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper.
  
  
• In the bread bowl, take the bread in your hands and squeeze until almost dry.
• Take the blob of bread and put it in the meat bowl then mix it into the meat mixture. Throw away the milk in the bread bowl.

Once the bread and the meat mixture are blended together...

• Take a rounded tablespoon full of the mixture and shape into a meatball. You should be able to make about 24 meatballs.
• Take the heavy large skillet and put it on the stovetop.
• Turn the burner to medium heat.
• Put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the skillet.
• Add the meatballs into the skillet using tongs if you have them. Be careful when you put them in. You don't want the oil to splatter.
• Sauté the meatballs until they are brown and cooked all the way through. Turn the meatballs often being careful not to change their shape. This should take about 15 minutes.

Add meatballs and the drippings from the skillet into the pot of Tomato-Sausage Sauce. Simmer to blend flavors, about 10 minutes.

 

PASTA
Right before you're ready to serve, make the pasta.

• In another pot, fill it up with water.
• Add salt to the water.
• Once the water boils, add 1 pound of spaghetti. Make sure all the spaghetti is submerged under the water. Follow the cooking times on the box.
• Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain it in a colander over the sink.
• Place the pasta in a large serving bowl.
• Add 1 1/2 cups of the sauce.
• Toss the sauce into the pasta so that the pasta gets coated with the sauce.
• Top with meatballs and the remaining sauce and serve it with additional Parmesan cheese.

SETTING THE TABLE
Besides cooking the prefect meal, you should try to create a romantic dining atmosphere to enjoy it. Bread sticks, candle light, music? Maybe a checkered red and white table cloth?

FINAL THOUGHTS
Cooking for someone or with someone can be an amazing, memorable date…even if you don't know the difference between basil and oregano. And sometimes you can't beat a quiet, cozy dinner at home with a good movie. Light some candles and pop in one of my favorite movies, Lady and the Tramp. It's cute, romantic, and sweet. Bellisima!

My boyfriend and I watched this for our Valentine's Day celebration. It was really nice to be able to enjoy a simple story with a lot of meaning. So much of it rings true, and the quaintness of the imagery and storytelling is a fresh change compared to most movies out now. Dinner, the movie, after the movie... the whole night was thoroughly enjoyable.

This item is available for purchase from Amazon.com Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as a small animation studio, The Walt Disney Company became one of the biggest Hollywood studios and owner of eleven theme parks and several television networks, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). For more information, check out: http://www.disney.com Rating: Requirements: DVD player Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Entertainment