Pasta Plus!

My name isn't JosiePasta for nothing... I love my pasta!  That's why one time during a summer internship at my current law firm I fell in love with a place called Pasta Plus.  We were having one of those LexisNexis tutorials during lunch, so they catered from the local Italian Diner in downtown Clayton.  I'm pretty sure I got back up 3 times for another scoop of their pasta con broccoli.... it was so creamy and decadent, and the shell shaped noodles were perfect to capture the sauce.

Two years had passed and I never had the chance to eat it again.  All I knew was that catered tub of pasta, I wasn't quite sure how the restaurant would be and I was too chicken to go by myself.  Finally, Jessie called me one day and asked to meet me for lunch in Clayton and pasta was on my mind (when is it not?!) so I suggested Pasta Plus.  We went at the perfect time and there was no line.  It was a walk up counter and the menu was full of every standard pasta dish you could think of: spaghetti and meatballs, fettuccine alfredo, mostaccioli, toasted ravioli... the list goes on and on.  It also has classic Italian sub sandwiches as well.  Very casual, with classic Italian checkered table clothes and framed posters of The Sopranos on the wall.  I already knew what I was getting before I walked in... Pasta Con Broccoli!!!  Jessie had the same.  They brought out our food to us, and just in time, because only 5 minutes after we ordered, the line got really long.

Pasta Con Broccoli

The pasta con broccoli was so good and just as creamy as I remembered; however, maybe I've grown up since being a summer associate, because I could almost taste the unhealthiness of each greasy bite.  Oh well, it was amazing, and was a great treat!  It also came with two slices of the softest Italian bread I've ever eaten.  I saved it for the end and used it to sop up the leftover sauce.

Pasta Plus is a great idea for a fun catered event, and I really enjoyed stopping in for a quick, casual bite to eat.  Whenever I can't resist my pasta craving, I'm definitely heading up there again!

Mom's Pasta Salad

If someone asked Josie and me what one dish we think of when we think of summer I know that both of us would 100% answer our mom's pasta salad. Our mom made this pasta salad all summer long whether it was for a pool party we were hosting or for a BBQ we were attending. I may be biased but I think this is the best pasta salad in the world.

Mom's Pasta Salad Serves a large crowd!

• 1.5-2 boxes of Tri-Color Rotini (I use Barilla, has never failed me), cooked, drained, rinsed with cold water. DO NOT OVERCOOK or you will get mushy pasta salad and no one wants that.
• 1 packaged sliced Pepperoni, slice in half
• 1/2 of a large red onion, diced into tiny pieces
• 1 jar of Artichoke Hearts, chopped (I usually buy the jar where the artichokes are soaked in olive oil and Italian seasoning)
• 1 pint of Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on preference
• 1 small can of sliced Black Olives
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese 
• 1 small jar of diced Pimentos (you will only use about 1-2 tablespoons of these)
• 1 bottle of semi-homemade Italian Dressing (We ALWAYS use the Good Seasons dry Italian dressing mix. You can buy 2 packages of the mix and it comes with the dressing container. I swear it is delicious.)

All of the ingredients.

The hardest part of this pasta salad, and it really isn't very hard, is just preparing all of the ingredients. Get the pasta cooked and cooled. Chop the onion, slice the pepperoni, slice the tomatoes, chop the artichoke hearts....you're done! Place the pasta in a very large bowl and prepare to add all of the ingredients.

Everything all prepared and ready to be mixed.

I usually wait to mix everything until 30 minutes-1 hour before I am going to serve it. I like to add everything but the dressing and cheese to the pasta and mix. Then I add the bottle of dressing and the cheese and mix again. A full bottle will work for 1.5-2 boxes, use less for 1 box of pasta. 

The pasta salad half eaten, I forgot to take a photo 'till after people ate, oh well!

The great part about this pasta salad is that it tastes amazing as left-overs! Joe and I ate some for dinner the night after (and a few noodles for breakfast, shhhhh). If you invite me over, can I please bring the pasta salad?

LoRusso's 2011 Pasta Bowl Winning Recipe

Each Monday after the Super Bowl, LoRusso's Cucina on Watson Road holds the annual Pasta Bowl competition where people come to sample three recipe entries and vote on the winning dish.  All of the proceeds go to Operation Food Search and the winning recipe is featured on the menu for the entire year, with $2 being donated each time the dish is ordered.

This past February, my recipe won the 2011 Pasta Bowl and is currently featured on the menu.  The dish is Bucatini (a long thick spaghetti-like noodle with a hollow center) with a light pesto sauce, sun dried tomatoes, shrimp, pancetta and pine nuts.

Bucatini Noodles

It was a really close competition (I only won by 5 votes) and it was a really fun event to come and try all of the pasta dishes.  Below is my winning recipe:

“Bucatini a la Pesto with Shrimp and Pancetta”
Serves 6 as an entrée

Ingredients:
1 lb. Bucatini Pasta
1 lb. 20 Count Deveined, Peeled, Uncooked Shrimp
½ 1b. Pancetta, sliced ¼ inch thick
6 ounces of finely diced Sun-dried Tomatoes
1 tsp (or more to taste) Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
2-3 Large Garlic Cloves (pressed or finely minced)
¼ cup Pine Nuts
½ cup of finely grated Fresh Parmesan Cheese
¼ cup plus more for garnish largely grated Parmesan Cheese
½ cup Pesto Sauce (chopped basil, parmesan cheese, olive oil, chopped pine nuts)
Salt and Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Directions:
1. Put a large pot of cold water over high heat, salt water liberally and cover pot with lid; Once water comes to a boil, put in Bucatini Pasta and cook for 9 minutes until Al Dente; drain pasta but save 1 cup of residue pasta water from the pot.
2. Dice Pancetta into about 1 inch slices; Place a separate large, high sided skillet over medium heat; Brown the pancetta until it is just about to turn brown (want it with a slight crisp, but not too crispy); Remove pancetta from the pan and place on paper towels; Discard the fat from pan and wipe down.
3. Season shrimp with salt and pepper; Put 1 tablespoon EVOO in high sided skillet and heat to medium heat. Sauté garlic and shrimp in skillet for about 4 minutes until shrimp turns pink.
4. In separate small pan, toast pine nuts over medium-low heat for a few minutes.
5. In a small bowl, mix pesto sauce with finely diced sun-dried tomatoes and with finely grated fresh parmesan cheese; add EVOO (or the olive oil from the jar of the sun-dried tomatoes if you used a jar) to the mixture until it gets a good texture
6. In a large bowl or pot, mix Bucatini Pasta, Residue Pasta Water, Pine Nuts, Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Shrimp with Garlic, Pancetta, and Pesto/Sun-dried Tomato Sauce Mixture
7. Plate pasta. Garnish with large grated Fresh Parmesan Cheese.
8. MANGIA BENE!!!

Josie and Josie with the winning dish!

If you haven't been to LoRusso's, I definitely recommend it.  My family has been eating there for years and recently we threw Jessie and Joe's engagement party there in the banquet room they have for big parties.  LoRusso's also catered our college graduation party a few years ago where we had a big salad and pasta buffet for our guests.  The food is great and the atmosphere is definitely old school Italian (they even have a piano player Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights).  The chef, Rich LoRusso and his wife Terri run the place and are there everyday (except closed on Mondays).  I definitely recommend that you try my pasta bowl dish and absolutely do not forget to order the flash fried spinach for an appetizer!!!!!!

Josie with Chef Rich LoRusso and his wife Terri

Note: our cousin Mary Ann won the 2010 Pasta Bowl with her yummy eggplant pasta dish and Jessie won the 2009 Pasta Bowl with her penne with sausage and tomatoes.  We've definitely kept it in the family!  Keep an eye out for future posts providing you with their winning recipes!

Patane Pasta Bowl Winners: Mary Ann, Josie and Jessie

Restaurant Review: Sugo's

With all of the new Del Pietro restaurants popping up, Jessie and I decided to try the classic Italian cuisine at Del Pietro's Sugo's Spagehtteria, located in Frontenac.  We are a little turned off by the restaurant's location in a strip mall (with the door shut, you can't even tell the restaurant is open), but when you walk inside you get to experience a rustic setting with hearty wood tables and tiny tealight candles lighting up the large dim room.  Once our eyes adjusted, we ordered a glass of wine while we waited for a table (even on a Tuesday night, the place was packed).  There really isn't a bar, but rather a long wooden table with several bottles of wine sitting on it.  And no bartender, simply the hostess turning around and grabbing a bottle and glasses.  There is a make-shift waiting area off to the side with 3 taller circular tables, right next to the people eating. 

Front door of Sugo's Spaghetteria

Once we finally got seated, we didn't see our waiter for a while.  We were so thirsty Jessie actually got up and grabbled us some water from the side table, because no one would wait on us!  Although our wait was long, once we gave our order, the food came out in less than 5 minutes!  In fact, we didn't even have time to get bread.  Luckily a really smiley guy (who was not our original waiter) noticed we were missing bread but had our food and offered to get us some.  He continued to help us out the rest of the night... we named him "Smiley."  We liked him.

On one wall there is a huge chalkboard with the entire menu and the specials of the day.  The great thing about Sugo's is the simplicity, they really get it right.  The menu only has a handful of different items to choose from for each meal category (salad, antipasti, pasta, pizza), so you'd think it would be really easy to choose, but all of the items sound so good, it is actually hard to eliminate your choices down.  This post is here to help you choose: THE LASAGNA!  Jessie got Lasagna and it was to die for, not to mention the size of my head!  I definitely recommend splitting this item, or be smart like Jessie and eat half and save the other half for lunch the next day.  I think my favorite thing about the lasagna are the tomatoes they use.  They were really tangy and gave the lasagna a really big pick-me-up.  I also loved the big square shreds of fresh parmesan cheese on top.

Jessie's Lasagna

I decided to order the pasta special of the day, Pasta Diavolo, which is angel hair pasta with scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams in a spicy tomato sauce.  It was awesome!  I probably should have saved some to take home but I could not stop eating it.  And luckily Smiley brought us some bread, because the leftover sauce was so yummy to dip my bread in.  Like the Lasagna, there was something rich and tangy about the tomatoes that really added to the dish.



Josie's Pasta Diavolo

 Over all, Sugo's Spaghetteria exudes simplicity.  From the decor and ambiance, to the menu and food.  For people who like good rustic Italian food, I would definitely swing by Sugo's (and get the lasagna!).  And for all of you West County and St. Charles peeps, don't worry about coming out to Frontenac because Del Pietro also has Babbo's Spaghetteria in the Chesterfield Valley which is an identical clone to Sugo's, right down to the wooden tables, chalkboard menu and lasagna!  Note: Wine lovers, also try Del Pietro's contemporary wine bar, Via Vino, next door to Sugo's.

$24 Spaghetti?!

Would you pay $24 for spaghetti?!  Apparently thousands already do at Scott Conant's NYC restaurant Scarpetta (Italian for "Little Shoe").  I have to admit, I was a little skeptical once I heard the price... I make spaghetti dishes for under a couple bucks... what makes this spaghetti so special?!

Once you look at the recipe below, you may notice there is a tad more to it than your normal spaghetti-o's:

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Basil
Makes 4 servings

• About 20 ripe plum tomatoes
• About 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish the dish
• Pinch of crushed red pepper
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 ounce freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about 1/2 cup) 
• 6 to 8 fresh basil leaves, well washed and dried, stacked and rolled into a cylinder and cut thinly crosswise into a chiffonade
• 1 pound spaghetti, either high-quality dry or homemade

To peel the tomatoes: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water nearby. Cut a small X on the bottom of each tomato. Ease about five tomatoes in the pot and cook, let boil for about 15 seconds, and then promptly move them to the waiting ice water. (Repeat this with the remaining tomatoes.) Pull off the skin with the tip of a paring knife. If the skin sticks, try a vegetable peeler, using a gentle sawing motion. Cut the tomatoes in half and use your finger to flick out the seeds.

To cook the tomatoes: In a wide pan, heat the 1/3 cup of olive oil over medium-high heat until quite hot. Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and season lightly with the salt and pepper. (I always start with a light hand with the salt and pepper because as the tomatoes reduce, the salt will become concentrated.) Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes to soften. Then, using a potato masher, chop the tomatoes finely. Cook the tomatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tomatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened. (You can make the sauce, which yields about 3 cups, ahead of time. Refrigerate it for up to 2 days or freeze it for longer storage.)

To serve: Bring a large pot of amply salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti until just shy of al dente. Reserve a little of the pasta cooking water. Add the pasta to the sauce and cook over medium-high heat, gently tossing the pasta and the sauce together with a couple of wooden spoons and a lot of exaggerated movement (you can even shake the pan) until the pasta is just tender and the sauce, if any oil had separated from it, now looks cohesive. (If the sauce seems too thick, add a little pasta cooking liquid to adjust it.) Take the pan off of the heat and toss the butter, basil, and cheese with the pasta in the same manner (the pasta should take on an orange hue) and serve immediately.

We can't wait to try this recipe and let you know how it turns out!!!  Jessie has two of the Kitchen Aid homemade pasta maker attachments and so we will be making our spaghetti homemade!  Also, I gave out fresh basil plants as gifts at Jessie's bridal shower, so we'll have plenty of fresh basil to use!

Ryan and I are going to visit NYC in September and I am definitely going to put Scarpetta's on my list of places to go (if we have time in between all of the broadway plays :-P).  They also give you a complimentary bread basket that includes house-made focaccia, Sullivan Street Bakery filone and ciabatta, and a house-made stromboli with smoked mozzarella and salami (pictured below).  I can't wait!!!