Dean Martin, in an otherwise forgettable 1953 movie with Jerry Lewis called "The Caddy," sings this faux-Neapolitan street song composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Jack Brooks:
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.
Academy Award nomination for best original song, but it lost to Doris Day's "Secret Love." Regardless, "That's Amore" became Dino's signature tune. Moving right along:
When the stars make you drool just like pasta fazool, that's amore.
Pasta fazool is what east-coast Italian-Americans used to call pasta e fagioli, pasta with beans. It's a hearty soup, still served at Olive Garden, $6.79 at dinner, with unlimited breadsticks: a hearty, unfussy soup tjat lends itself to infinite variations; Cheese/no cheese, tomatoes/no tomatoes, chicken stock/beef stock, sausage/no meat at all, The noodles can be whatever short or tiny pasta you've got on hand, macaroni, shells, ditalini, even spaghetti you break into short bits. You could add spinach, you could even add kale (although--ugh--that would spoil it for me). An ideal crockpot recipe, frankly.
Enza Sorrentino made this version today at Mondello. She used five or six different kinds of beans (two kinds of lentils, pintos, cannellini, chickpeas), and mini-macaroni, topped with bits of crispy-fried pancetta. Heading to the restaurant's regular menu, it is, where it will go into rotation with three already popular soups: vegetarian minestrone, lentils with Italian sausage, and Nonna Vita (aka Italian wedding soup) with tiny veal meatballs.
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