Mann Ziti

Aimee Mann is one of my favorite musicians of all time. On the way to her Christmas concert at the Wiltern, Craig asked me why I liked her so much. "Because she's unsentimental yet emotional, cold but vulnerable at the same time; plus, she's funny." She writes lyrics like, "And I'm the only one who knows / that Disneyland's about to close." And: "Finals blew I barely knew my graduation speech / with college out of reach / if I don't find a job it's down to dad and Myrtle Beach." With little time to spare before the concert, I decided to whip up a pasta dish without a recipe. And it turns out that this pasta–which I'm calling Mann Ziti in Aimee Mann's honor–has a lot in common with the music: it lives on the edge of darkness.