By PATRICIA TALORICO
02/14/2003

Actress Renee Taylor has a confession to make: She's an addict, a Costco addict.

When it comes to the warehouse-shopping club, the comedian admits she

doesn't know when to say when. Her actor husband, Joe Bologna, finally had enough of the buying sprees and decided rehab was in order.

"Joe took away my card," Taylor sighed. Looking out at the 25 people who came to watch as the couple made a few pasta dishes at Brandywine Hundred's Celebrity Kitchens cooking school, the 67-year-old native New Yorker then pleaded for a fix while delivering one of her trademark punch lines:

"Give me a card," she deadpanned as the attendees laughed along.

Taylor and Bologna, who tend to be onstage when they discuss their 37-year love affair, moved the show Tuesday behind the stove.

The husband-and-wife team is in Wilmington through Sunday for their 90-minute show about marital strife, "If You Ever Leave Me ... I'm Going With You" at The Playhouse Theatre. But in between performances, they spent an afternoon at the invitation of Celebrity Kitchens owner Cindy Weiner to tend to their second love - cooking.

The knowledgeable foodies, who are included in the 2002 tome "Patsy's Cookbook: Classic Italian Recipes From a New York City Landmark Restaurant," love throwing parties at their California home. Bologna, 64, known for his roles in "My Favorite Year," "Blame it on Rio," "The Woman in Red" and "Big Daddy," said their outdoor pizza oven gets a workout.

Frequent dinner guests sampling Joe's four-cheese pizza specialty - homemade dough topped with caramelized onions, pignoli nuts, Gorgonzola, goat cheese, mozzarella and Parmesan - include actresses Connie Stevens and Lainie Kazan (the mother from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") and "the Sinatra women," Taylor said. "Sometimes our friends bring everything from their garden - fresh vegetables and herbs. It makes everything so much better."

For the impromptu cooking demonstration, Taylor, who received an Emmy nomination for playing Fran Drescher's mother Sylvia Fine in the CBS series "The Nanny," dressed the part of a domestic goddess. Tossing aside a full-length mink coat to make her famous "Jewish" spaghetti and meatballs and Italian-style marinara sauce, the actress wore a form-fitting, purple spaghetti-strapped top and sheer black short-sleeved pullover. A glamorous, gauzy shawl decorated with colored rhinestones was slung round her shoulders. Her platinum-blond hair was curled and styled.

"She likes to dress sexy when she cooks," said Jackie Stander, who joked that she's the couple's "agent, publicist and therapist."

Standing side by side over steamy pots of pasta, Taylor provided commentary while Bologna discussed his favorite wines (California reds), grocery stores (He's a Trader Joe's fan) and concentrated on toasting garlic for a broccoli, raisin and and pignoli nut sauce.

"You can never have too much garlic," Taylor advised the crowd. In fact, the pungent perfume could be one of the secrets to the pair's long marriage. "He says, 'What is that you're wearing?' " Taylor said, pointing to Bologna. "I say, 'Garlic.' "

Their culinary styles, like their personalities, often contrast. Taylor, who married Bologna in 1965, said when she first got recipes from Bologna's mother, most began with the sentence, " 'Start the night before.' I said, 'Forget that.' "

Now, Taylor, who follows The Zone diet, loves to take recipes "and make them healthy." The results are not always to the delight of her family. "My son used to say, 'Please don't make whole-wheat pizza.' "

Bologna, a fan of Neapolitan fare, provincial French cuisine and the classic Italian cooking at celebrated California restaurateur Piero Selvaggio's restaurants, prefers homey, Italian comfort food. "Put a gun to my head and I want to eat the food of my childhood," he said.

The meal came off with only one gastronomic gaffe. Someone accidentally mixed together both Taylor's Jewish and Italian sauces. "Oh, well," Taylor shrugged. "I think it's funny."

After the demonstration, Taylor and Bologna visited tables, signed autographs and posed for photographs while passing along cooking advice and restaurant suggestions. One of the couple's favorite Italian eateries is Valentino Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel, Bologna said. "Ask for Luciano and tell him I sent you," he said, referring to executive chef Luciano Pellegrini.

Reach Patricia Talorico at 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com.