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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Walnut Pesto Pasta
A few weeks ago, I had a craving for pesto. We went over to Fairway and the basil looked great but when we went down the nut isle- pine nuts were $13 for a 1/2 cup!! There was no way I was about to pay that, so I thought to myself what to do next. Next to the pine nuts were the walnuts – $4 for a 2 cup bag – much better. » Continue Reading…
Cheryl's Eggplant Parmasan
There are actually few things I consider myself to cook well – Eggplant Parmesan is one of the things. Most of the time I act as an excellent Sui Chef for Frank as he takes the lead. This eggplant recipe is one I made up from years of trying other peoples eggplant and taking note of what I liked about it and what I didn’t.
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Home Made Whole Wheat Pasta
Usually Sunday dinner for Italians consists of so much food you can’t leave the table and escape your family. While it’s not as intense in our kitchen, we do share the need to eat tons of pasta. Looking to finally put Cheryl’s pasta maker to good use, we decided to make some whole wheat pasta and some marinara sauce for dinner.
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Eggplant and Polenta
Being that I’m a vegetarian, I’m always looking for hearty dishes for the winter and eggplant is a good meat substitute. This dish uses similar techniques found in my eggplant parmesan recipe (more on that later).
For this recipe you will need:
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Bucatini with Marinara Sauce
My Grandma’s favorite pasta, Bucatini is like a hearty version of spaghetti – thick with a hollow hole through it like a pipe – a perfect vessel for ragù or marinara sauce.
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