This Time It Wasn't Gay Pride. Then Broccoli Rabe and Sausage.

Plot and Duck are still searching the stores. Yesterday they went back to Crate and Barrel to look at a couch. They drove -- DUMB! And yet -- there's a parking place! Right on O'Farrell, just past Powell, practically in front of the store! Maybe it wasn't too dumb to drive after all?

When they came out of the store Plottie looked at the corner of O'Farrell and Stockton and saw there was a concrete barrier erected so you couldn't take Stockton through to Grant and cross Market.

He also noticed a sign that said: No Left Turn and another sign that said No Right Turn. This meant no straight ahead, no left and no right. Also, O'Farrell is a one way street so Plotnik could not back up.

Don't you just love driving in Saint Plotniko? But guess what Plot and Duck had forgotten? THE CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE!

Doh! In S.P., the two things you avoid at all costs are Chinese New Years and Gay Pride. Don't drive anywhere on those two days. If they ever combine the two into Chinese Gay Dragon Day you may as well stay in bed.

RIGATONI WITH SAUSAGE AND BROCCOLI RABE

Everybody who loves Southern Italian food, especially from Sicily, must love the classic Rigatoni with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe. The rabe is in now at the Farmer's Market, and you only see it like this -- young, thin, not too bitter -- for a few weeks each year. Plottie made this classic last night and you can't beat it.

Take two hot and one sweet Italian sausage and remove the meat from the casings. Put in a saucepan and saute, stirring now and again. You want it to brown and release as much fat as possible.

Cut one large bunch of young, thin broccoli rabe into three inch slices. Slice up the whole bunch this way. DO NOT LISTEN TO RECIPES THAT TELL YOU TO BLANCH THE RABE. (This makes it watery and it will not absorb the sauce.)

When the sausage is brown, toss out all the fat and then throw in the broccoli rabe. Stir a lot, it will cook down very fast.

Take two large cloves of garlic, slice thin and toss into the pot too, along with half a cup or so of chicken or vegetable stock.

Cook 3/4 pound of rigatoni to al dente stage, save one half cup of pasta water and drain the rest. Throw pasta in with the sausage and rabe, adding the pasta water to thicken the dish (with the starch from having cooked the pasta in it).

Add a lot of hot red pepper flakes. The dish should be hot, but you can decide about that. Stir the whole thing around five more minutes.

Add freshly grated pecorino romano at the table, or parmesano if you don't have pecorino. Both are delicious.

Take a bottle of Morse '07 Mourvedre, plus the pasta, to the corner of O'Farrell and Grant and stand there watching the gay dragon, or any other dragon, as you eat your dinner. Clean your plate and ask for more.

(No, Plot and Duck did not do this. They stayed on 26th of October Street, but did the rest of it.)