Pasta a la Caroline

Before there was Sex in the City, with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha, there was me and my friends, one of whom was most assuredly the inspiration for the Charlotte Character. As a group, we spent many evenings together at parties and days traipsing around New York City. We have many stories from that time, including mishaps and romances, worthy of a television script. One of our group was Caroline, who was introduced to me through my roommate when we lived on 74th and Columbus. Caroline had a pre-war studio in a brownstone over on 76th Street that had a grand stairway up to her second floor studio, with a fireplace and wood details that exuded the same elegance of it’s inhabitant. Caroline was one of those friends that you wished you could be like. She was beautiful, had impeccable style, a polished and sophisticated personality and ran with the “right” crowd from her Upper East Side upbringing.

Caroline and I ended up working together, part-time, in the Crabtree & Eveyln store on Columbus Avenue. The store was maybe ten feet wide, but very deep with shelves lined with dreamy scents from soaps, body washes, and draw liners. It was a heady experience working in that shop. Sniffing soaps and serving local celebrity customers, like Treat Williams and Tony Randall to name drop a couple.

Back in those days, I was just scraping by and dinner most nights was a box of spaghetti with half a jar of pasta sauce. But when I had dinner at Carolines, she had the ability to transform even the most mundane into something special. Just by placing a dollop of sour cream on top of boxed pasta and jarred sauce, this plain jane pasta became fancy schmancy, not to mention creamy and delicious.

I’ve added some shredded paramsean cheese and chopped parsley to elevate this pasta dish into a restaurant worthy entree. I hope you enjoy and remember that sometimes the simple touches make all the difference.

Ingredients

• 1 16oz box of spaghetti
• 1/2 jar of pasta sauce (I love Paul Newman’s Marinara), warmed
• 4 TBS of shredded parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1/3 cup of chopped FRESH parsley

Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain and divide into 4 serving bowls. Top each bowl with 1/4 of the the pasta sauce, the cheese, a dollop of sour cream and finish with the parsley. Serve hot.