Game 9: Michael Ventre - Pasta with Artichokes

It wasn’t just players, coaches, and celebrity fans who contributed recipes to the World Champion Lakers Are Cookin’ Family Cookbook. The many sportswriters who traveled with the team across the country and covered their athletic exploits were also heavily featured within the holy text. One of them was Michael Ventre, a sportswriter for The Daily News who covered them at the height of their Showtime success starting with the 1983-1984 season. Ventre was nice enough to answer a few questions via email about his time covering the Lakers, his favorite memory of Showtime, and his favorite dish in the cookbook.

Pablo: In 1985, what was your position at The Daily News? Were you on the Lakers beat? A columnist?

Michael: In 1985 I was the Lakers beat writer for the Los Angeles Daily News. I covered them on a beat basis for four years, beginning with the 1983-84 season.

How’d you get into sportswriting?

I always wanted to write. I attended USC Journalism School and worked on the school paper, the Daily Trojan. I just liked sports so gravitated to sports writing while there. Then I just continued on after graduation.

What was it like covering the Showtime Lakers at the height of their popularity?

It was a very exciting time, as you can imagine. I was a young sports writer and the Lakers was the glamour team of the NBA at the time. They and the Celtics were the dominant teams in the West and East, respectively. So there was a lot of attention paid to their games and their lives. I feel pretty lucky to have had that experience.

Where did your recipe Pasta with Artichokes come from? A family recipe? Your own creation?

I believe it was a recipe I got from my sister.

I try to follow each recipe as closely as possible, but I’m thinking about using fresh artichoke instead of the canned variety. Do you think that’s a wrong move?

I've only made artichoke dishes with jarred artichokes. You can probably use fresh, but you likely would have to blanch it.

Did you try any of the other recipes in the book?

I know I tried A Wilder Marinade For Fish (Page 71, submitted by Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner). Beyond that my memory is hazy.

What was your favorite memory of the 1985 Lakers team?

My favorite memory is the final moments of Game 6 of the 1985 Finals in Boston Garden, when the Lakers finally ended the hex and defeated the Celtics in a championship series They had been 0-7 or 0-8 up to that point. The feeling around the Lakers was great joy but also incredible relief, and I was privileged to witness that first-hand.

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Pasta with Artichokes

12 oz. pasta, cooked and drained

1 shallot, chopped

½ cup milk

1 tablespoon parsley or basil

¼ teaspoon black pepper

6 ounces mushrooms, quartered

2 cups low fat cottage cheese

1 14 ounce can artichoke hearts, halved and drained

2 tablespoons margarine

1 tablespoon dry sherry

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

½ teaspoon salt

In a large skillet, melt margarine and saute artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and shallot. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until the cheeses are melted and smooth. Serve hot over pasta.

When I was a kid, I was a cottage cheese freak. I made my mom buy those single-serving cottage cheese packs that came with a tiny pocket full of apricot or raspberry jelly to mix with the cheese. Partly as a result of being raised by a single mom, I loved products that were marketed to 21-35 year old women: cottage cheese, calcium chocolate bites, Virginia Slims. But until I bought some for this recipe, I had never bought cottage cheese as an adult.

Sorry, Greek yogurt, but you need to gather your things and vacate my fridge. There’s a new breakfast standard for Pablo Goldstein. It tastes better than you and I can still put berries and granola and honey in it. Security will be watching so please do not attempt to download any work files before you leave.

Anyway, this dish was great. It calls for a lot of cottage cheese. And that cheese does not easily melt, no matter what the instructions said. But it turned out to be delicious. And I’m someone who does not like artichokes or mushrooms. My girlfriend, Stevie, a Chicagoan, described it as something a Middle American Mom would put together in the 1970s if she was trying to be fancy. It sounds a little back-handed, but that’s a fore-hand swing of a compliment coming from her.