Good Eats Club

Pastosa Pizza

Yum…. After a rainy afternoon touring Staten Island pizza spots, Frank introduced me to his favorite specialty Italian food store, Pastosa’s Ravioli—a third generation owned family business. Starting out 40 years ago in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Anthony G. Ajello saw the gap in the market for ravioli made with high quality cheeses and other ingredients. Now the family has 11 stores across the tri-state area selling olives, sauces, smoked meats, cheeses as well as other Italian imports.

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We all have a few dishes we can cook consistently well, and one of Cheryl’s is definitely polenta. It’s inexpensive, tasty and easily complements what’s in season, including these Hen of the Woods mushrooms we found at the local farmer market. Hen of the Woods mushrooms are expensive, but are certainly worth a try – they taste very “earthy” and don’t require too much work – just chop up the mushroom into little stems (kind of like cauliflower/broccoli) and fry in some butter. Brown on both sides and you’re ready to add them to your dish.
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It’s been a while since we’ve posted some food-related work, but we promise – we’re back! We actually just worked on the apartment and added a ton of stuff to our kitchen – we even got some proper cocktail equipment so stay tuned for some drink recipes soon!
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Stuffed Mushrooms

These are two very simple dishes, but complex in flavor.  The idea for the brussel sprout salad came to us after we purchased the mandolin and started shredding everything. My new favorite salad is shaved brussel sprouts, walnuts, Pecorino Romano cheese with a lemon olive oil vinaigrette.  I like Sebicca’s flavored olive oils based out in “the breadbasket” of northern California.

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If you’re cooking a recipe that takes longer than 40 minutes, there’s no better accompaniment than roasted vegetables. Even as a full meal, winter vegetables are a great way to have a healthy lunch or dinner. We tend to add some grains like quinoa, couscous, or brown rice.
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Soba Noodle Soup

Here’s another great soup that works equally well in cold weather. I’ve been meaning to work in some more buckwheat noodles since a friend of mine made me a quick noodle dish for dinner one night. It’s much lighter than pasta, but perhaps even more complex.
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Near the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border, among the industrial buildings that represent the last few factories in the area, is an amazing source for smoked fish – aptly named, Acme Smoked Fish.
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Shrimp Frittata

Frittata. It’s just fun to say, really. It’s also an extremely quick and easy dish to make if you’re looking for a quick dinner. We’ve been working with the Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italy which was a gift to us from our good friend Aimee. For a brit, he actually does a very good job taking the reader around several kinds of Italian food and offers some new twists on old Italian favorites and some recipes that I never really considered Italian at all, like this frittata.
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Chinatown Veggie Dumplings

Chinatown dumplings are cheap. There are few places where you can get absolutely stuffed for under $5 and walk away with days worth of food for under $10. While there are many opinions on who has the best dumplings, overall they remain a great value – a bag is likely to last you at least a month if you’re keeping other foods in the mix.
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Lentil Walnut Veggie Burger

Apparently, we had no idea that veggie burgers with bacon was a trend, but people keep telling us that it’s true. Regardless, some of you will scoff at the idea of making a veggie burger, let alone eating one, but they’re much better than the frozen Boca kind and you can’t eat hamburgers every day, can you?
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