Lady and the Tramp Dinner Night

Happy New Year, readers!  We kicked off the New Year with another one of our Disney Themed Dinners. The time, we focused on Walt Disney’s beloved film, Lady and the Tramp.  The inspiration for our Lady and the Tramp Dinner Night?  National Spaghetti Day, of course!  This national holiday takes place on January 4^th and celebrates one of our favorite noodles and all its glorious sauces.  What better way to start a New Year than with a big plate of noodles and sauce?!  You can read more about this national holiday at National Day Calendar.  Seeing as how Lady and the Tramp enjoy a delicious plate of spaghetti and meatballs in one of Disney’s most iconic film scenes, I set forth recreating some of that magic at home for my own kiddos. 

Download a printable version of our Lady and the Tramp Dinner Menu here:

Antipasti (First Course)

For our first course, I decided to create two offerings for the girls to choose from.  Our first starter option was a Caesar Salad.  I kept this as SIMPLE as possible (romaine lettuce, bottled Caesar dressing, and parmesan cheese).  My kids love a good Caesar salad, so I knew that option would go over well with them while still embracing the Italian theme of our menu.

Our second starter option was a cup of Zuppa Toscana soup.  Sound familiar?  You have probably seen this menu item listed as one of the soup offerings at your local Olive Garden!  I LOVE this soup.  What I love even more…is making it at home in my crockpot so I can eat it ALL THE TIME! 

I have been using this fabulous recipe from Gal on a Mission for years.  This recipe is a low carb version of traditional Zuppa Toscana.  Basically, you are swapping out the potatoes for cauliflower.  Other than that, you can still enjoy the spicy sausage and creamy broth you would expect to find at your local Italian restaurant.  Not a fan of the low carb alterations?  No problem!  Just omit the cauliflower and substitute a couple of russet potatoes instead.  This recipe is SO EASY to assemble in the crockpot and turns out beautifully every time.  Can’t recommend enough!

Secondi Piatti (Main Course)

Of COURSE, we had to serve up spaghetti and meatballs as our main dish.  Or as Tony refers to it in the film, “The Spaghetti Speciale…heavy on the meatball!”  I love making my own marinara and meatballs for my family, because I have my Great-Grandma Carmella’s recipes in my arsenal…straight from Italy!  You can check out her Classic Marinara Recipe HERE and her Italian Meatball Recipe HERE!  Once you start making your own sauce and meatballs, you will NEVER want to go back to that jarred stuff they sell at the grocery store.  Honestly, these recipes will probably even ruin Olive Garden spaghetti for you…but you can always get their Zuppa Toscana instead! 😂     

I knew we needed to serve up some breadsticks with our pasta (how else are you going to soak up every drop of that AMAZING sauce?!).  But I thought it would be fun to make the breadsticks shaped like dog bones to fit our Lady and the Tramp Dinner theme!  My plan was to purchase a can of refrigerated breadstick dough and shape them into bone shapes.  Unfortunately, my grocery store was fresh out of breadstick dough.  I made do with crescent roll dough instead.  It took a little more finagling to get the right shape, but it worked just as good as any dough.  Then I topped each “bone” with some melted butter and shredded parmesan and popped them in the oven.  The turned out really well (although much LARGER than I was expecting).  The kids loved them! 

Dessert

I considered preparing a traditional Italian dessert for this menu (tiramisu, cannoli, etc), but then my mind turned to a fun piping technique that I tried out over the holidays.  By sniping a small corner of a Ziploc bag filled with the frosting of your choice, you can pipe long, thin strands that look just like spaghetti noodles!  I first tried this technique to make Buddy’s Spaghetti Cupcakes for our Elf Themed Dinner Night.  I decided some spaghetti and meatball cookies would be the perfect dessert for our Lady and the Tramp Dinner.

For the cookies, I decided to make a traditional sugar cookie.  You can make whatever type of cookie you desire. Just be sure it’s sturdy enough to hold a good amount of frosting!  I made a traditional buttercream with a tiny bit of yellow food coloring to look like spaghetti noodles. 

There are several ways you can achieve that bright red spaghetti sauce look to top your frosting noodles.  You could try pureed fruit (such as strawberries or raspberries), red jams, or even strawberry ice cream topping.  I wanted to utilize ingredients we already had in the house, so I grabbed a jar of apple jelly from the fridge and some red gel food coloring.  I prefer to use Wilton gel dye as opposed to liquid food coloring because the color is more concentrated. This means you can use less to get richer colors.  

To melt the jelly, I heated a few spoonful’s over the stove then added enough gel color to achieve the red tone I was looking for.  Then I spooned the jelly on top of my cookies and topped them off with a Ferrero Rocher “meatball.”  One thing to keep in mind – let the jelly cool a bit before adding to your frosting or it will melt!  In my eagerness I made that very mistake, but I am happy with how they turned out regardless!   

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Bevandi (Drink)

To round out our Lady and the Tramp Dinner Menu, the girls enjoyed some Black Currant Sparkling Juice in fancy wine glasses.  I would have loved to purchase some Italian sodas but – alas – I struck out at the grocery store yet again.  The girls enjoyed the sparkling juice instead and said it felt like a true Italian restaurant experience.

My kids really enjoyed thier Lady and the Tramp Dinner Night.  I think a big reason it was so fun for them is because the food is SO iconic in this film.  My four-year-old INSISTED I have her spaghetti served up to her at the exact moment Lady and the Tramp were eating their own dish. “Yes, ma’am!”  I’m glad the immersion aspect I was going for was not lost on her! 

I hope our Lady and the Tramp Dinner Night inspires you to have your very own Disney Themed Dinner Night. Or just use it as an excuse to celebrate National Spaghetti Day at home or at your favorite restaurant…you can’t go wrong!

Looking for more fun Disney-Themed Dinner Nights to enjoy with your family?  Check out our Little Mermaid Dinner Night HERE or our Goofy Movie Dinner Night HERE!

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