What is it? It looks like tree roots...

My daughter looked skeptically at the bowl, as she so often does when anything but Cocoa Puffs or chicken strips are put in front of her. She's going to be 12 years old next month and still, pleasing her at mealtime is still a challenge. She hadn't yet verbally objected, but she didn't exactly look eager either.

"What is it?" my son asked, having walked over to the counter to have a look for himself. The both of them have an almost Pavlovian response to ceramic dishes hitting the granite counter top at the bar in my condo. Whether their watching TV, reading, or playing the Wii, like clockwork, they will almost always immediately walk over to see, and at least quickly whip their head around toward the counter. "It looks like tree roots," he said as he too made a face.

This I had not counted on. This child will usually eat anything that I put in front of him, with almost no hesitation. Not so on this day. Purple spaghetti was a little too foreign for even his very indiscriminate palate.

"Why is it purple?" asked my daughter.

I then had to explain that I had boiled the noodles in wine instead of water and that instead of the usual marinara sauce that they were expecting,and that this red-wine spaghetti was dressed up with garlic, olive oil and grated parmigiano reggiano.(Try it yourself: ) My son decided that he was not interested and said as much. My daughter decided to try some as I left the room to continue whatever it was that I was doing before they announced that they were hungry.

It's a good thing that I had a good appetite when I returned to the kitchen where they were doing their homework because I discovered two bowls of pasta that needed to be eaten. Kids....