We haven't been able to get wild with our date nights since March, but I am looking to get a bit more creative with the weather getting cooler and no signs of this pandemic ending. On our last date night, Jimmy mentioned he wanted to get Italian the next time around. Instead of takeout, I decided to recreate my favorite fall restaurant meal. I used to stalk Macaroni Grill's menu each October waiting for Butternut Tortellacci to appear. I would get it at least a couple times before it left the menu. The last Macaroni Grill closed in Minnesota over 5 years ago. The closest ones now are a 13 hour drive or post-pandemic layover in Chicago (O'Hare Airport location is closed currently.)
As we got closer to the day, I kept thinking of more ways to replicate the Macaroni Grill experience. I used my chalkboard to create a menu for Herrmanno's (instead of Romano's) Macaroni Grill.
I also used the back side of some yellow wrapping paper for us to draw on like they have at the restaurant. Since I've already been making bread, I looked up a recipe for Rosemary bread and served it with some seasoned olive oil for dipping. As soon as I took my first bite of bread I was transported there.
Tortellacci is just a really big tortellini, so my dish had a 4 cheese tortellini, alfredo sauce, roasted butternut squash, bacon, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds), and parmesan. I paired it with a bottle of wine we've had for a while. I think I bought it at a local store, but it's from a vineyard that our friends were married at back in 2014. It was such a fun way to have a date night in. I may try to recreate some other restaurant faves in the future since it's looking like we may have a long winter ahead.
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