Spaghetti Western Movie Night

I had so much fun putting on a Harry Potter En Español Movie Night that I wanted to do another weird themed movie night! After much rumination, I remembered there was an entire subgenre of Western films made by Italians and filmed in Italy in the '60's fondly called...

Spaghetti Westerns!

Sounds like a niche themed movie night to me. I put this on for my family over the summer to spice up our lockdown.

the movie- the picture- il film

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo). 1967, Sergio Leone. 

I can't remember what streaming service we watched it on, but currently it's available for rent for $0.99 on Amazon.

It's a beautiful, exciting movie, and a quintessential Western. Clint Eastwood is the mysterious stranger, Eli Wallach the chaotic neutral(ish), and Lee Van Cleef is just plain nasty. It's really long, so we carried our movie night over onto the next day.

the menu- the victuals - le vettovaglie

I didn't actually make spaghetti, but I added Italian elegance to cowboy staples for the Spaghetti Western menu.

Dinner: CHILI MAC

Chili- Cookie and Kate's Homemade Vegetarian Chili recipe Even the adamant meat-eaters in the house like this recipe.

on top of penne pasta- I've made this chili recipe so many times for so many different occasions and it never gets old, but putting it on pasta was a fun new way to enjoy it. 

Topped it with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and cilantro- except what I thought was cilantro growing in our yard was actually parsley but it still tasted okay.

If there's a way to not make chili mac look gross in pictures, I haven't found it yet. I promise it was delicious, much more delicious than it looks.

Dessert: S'MORES BISCOTTI

Biscotti- World's Best Almond Biscotti from The Chocolate Snowball cookbook. My mom and I are on a mission to bake every single thing in this book. If you don't have The Chocolate Snowball book, I'm guessing She Loves Biscotti is going to have a decent biscotti recipe.

I left half plain, because they're good as is, and turned the other half into s'mores biscotti.

Melt chocolate chips with a little shortening- 20 second intervals into the microwave, stirring in between, until the chocolate is just liquid. Any more than that and it could burn! Spoon it in zigzags across the cooled biscotti.

While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs and chopped up vegetarian marshmallows. I love Dandie's marshmallows. They're so yummy.

And more chocolate over top, if you have any left over.

Drinks: I don't drink as I am a teenybopper, but my mom recommends a "nice crisp Italian beer," like Peroni.

setting the scene - makin' camp - accamparsi

I didn't do too much for decoration, but we had a few wool blankets that I think were from either El Paso or Mexico, so I hung those about. I also used our super cute chili pepper bread cloth. For the Italian accent, a few elegant candles.

Did you try this or any of the recipes? Do you have ideas for other weird themed movie nights? Are you appalled that I mixed up cilantro and parsley? If so, hit me up in the comments below, via email, or on Instagram or Facebook. 

Peace,

Heather <3