Tag Archives: sage

L’Apicio in the LES

I am a bit embarrassed to admit how behind I am on posting this — but, better late than never! 2012 flew by so fast AND I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be an amazing year in so many ways! So, what was my final dinner of 2012? ITALIAN, of course!

So here we go … my final meal of 2012 was a great one! I headed downtown to the Lower East Side for dinner at L’Apicio — the sister restaurant to L’Artusi. It opened only a couple of months ago and we have been excited to head on down to the LES to get a taste of the menu.

L’Apicio’s menu is set up the same way as L’Artusi’s — reasonable sized plates that you share with those you are dining with. Italian cuisine and tapas style… what could be better than this?

When it comes to tapas, I will admit that I go a bit crazy ordering. It first usually starts out with me and my foodie partner-in-crime looking over the menu, eying down what we have to have then we come together to share our choices, we narrow it down to a handful of plates then we confuse ourselves by asking the server what he/she prefers on the menu. Usually we end up picking a plate or two that the server prefers, then we both pick plates we both want, then we decide on one final dish that looks good.

We started with a delicious cheese plate — my guess is the restaurant changes this cheese menu based on what they are able to order / what is fresh. I would suggest ordering 2-4 different types of cheese to start. They go beautifully with wine as well!

hamachi

Then, we ordered a couple of appetizers — but there is one specific plate I have to rave about. The Hamachi was out of this world! Hamachi is also called yellowtail (click here for more info). This dish was made with apple, jalapeno, and chives. All of these ingredients made each bite full of fresh and vivid flavors. The funny part about ordering the Hamachi is that I was hesitant about eating it — I wasn’t too sure about the description on the menu but boy am I happy I gave it a try! It might be my new raw obsession!

cauliflower ravioli

Another dinner favorite was the Mezzalune — ravioli stuffed with cauliflower and topped with pinenuts and capers. The capers added the perfect amount of salt, the pinenuts made the ravioli texture unique and the cauliflower made me feel like I was eating something healthy! The plate was small and something I wish I could have devoured all on my own. If I went back and had to order only one plate — this would be it! Who would have thought how flavorful a cauliflower ravioli would be!?

beefy gnocchi

Another great order — the Osso Bucco Ragu Gnocchi. Gnocchi is already a very filling food, and paired with hearty meat you are bound for a food-coma. It’s also very easy to screw up cooking gnocchi and the chef at L’Apicio cooked this plate perfectly.

maple squash

And, last but not least, the perfect side dish — the Delicata Squash. The squash was made with hazelnuts, sage and maple. All of these sweet flavors made the vegetable taste like candy. It’s the perfect side dish to order when you are eating such savory main dishes. This is also an inspirational side dish that I would like to recreate at home!

We also ordered polenta but it was not something we enjoyed. I believe the consistency of polenta is either loved or hated — and in a nutshell, it’s something I really don’t like. But, if you do like polenta, the restaurant gives you a few beautiful options to choose from!
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Bianca in Noho

So, one of my dearest friends, Stef, took me to one of her favorite UWS restaurants several weeks ago (I didn’t blog about it because I was so hungry I forgot to capture photos… sorry folks!). This restaurant is called Celeste — and Celeste doesn’t even have a website, so I wasn’t able to menu-stalk prior to going for dinner. Following our dinner a coworker of mine mentioned that I should go to Bianca downtown in Noho — she described this restaurant making it sound a bit like Celeste; there were no reservations, always expect a wait, payment is cash-only and the food is spectacular. Bianca does have a website so I forwarded it to Stef saying we needed to get to this joint asap! Stef couldn’t help but laugh as she pointed out to me that Bianca is Celeste’s sister restaurant.

food from bianca

So Stef and I hurried down to Bianca at 7:30 p.m. thinking our wait would be quick and easy — nope! we waited over an hour to be seated. But time flew by as we caught up over a glass of wine at an uber hipster bar right next to the restaurant. When we were seated at Bianca, I was reminded instantly of Al Di La in Brooklyn; the decor was so similar — old-school wall paper with white subway tiling to help divide the space on the walls, even the smells coming from the kitchen were as delectable as Al Di La’s.

We quickly ordered — clearly, we both scouted out the menu prior to attending dinner. To share: the Gnocco Fritto with Stracchino Cheese, a caprese salad (special of the day) and for our main dishes we both ordered pasta — I ordered myself the Ravioli di Ricotta con Burro e Salvia (ravioli in a butter and sage sauce) and Stef ordered herself the Gramigna con Salciccia e Peperoni (pasta with crumbled sausage and red bell pepper). Even though the restaurant was packed — not a single seat was available — the food came out in a very timely manner.

gnocco

Our apps were d-e-l-i-s-h … The gnocco was perfectly cooked, nice and puffy and soft and the stracchino cheese was out of this world. It was obvious it was coated in a very flavorful truffle olive oil, but the cheese consistency was smooth and creamy — maybe even more so than a burrata. Remember folks, Gnocco is not the same as Gnocchi.

butter and sage ravioli

When it came to my ravioli, I instantly had a flash back. The first time I ever cooked my boyfriend a meal at home I made him a caprese salad served with ravioli in a sage and butter sauce (Thanks Food Network for the fabulous recipe and thank you Whole Foods for providing the “homemade” ravioli). This ravioli at Bianca though was homemade and wasn’t just “served with butter” — it was swimming in it. The longer I let the ravioli sit, the thicker the butter got, which allowed me to scoop more of it up on to my fork. I would order this rich dish again in a heart beat!

meat pasta

I had to share a pic of Stef’s pasta — it was out of this world! I also loved that Bianca wasn’t afraid to feed people, the serving sizes were outstanding!

I love finding restaurants like Bianca and Celeste — I am always ready for more suggestions… So if anyone has any, be sure to share the details! Bianca really fit the bill for me and Stef this weekend — literally! Ultimately for 2 appetizers, 2 main dishes of pasta, and 1 homemade sorbet for dessert … plus a bottle of wine. It all totaled up to $81. The way we ordered we were also “splurging” so the fact that we didn’t faint at the sight of the bill, we were very pleased!

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Ravioli Round-Up

It was recently brought to my attention how much I blog about ravioli. So, when I typed in “Ravioli” in my blog’s search, I discovered my friend was right… I am obsessed with ordering this type of dish! So, I thought I’d do a round up of my favorites over the past couple of months so if you have a hankering or an obsession like I do — then you’ll know exactly where to go for the best plate!

1. The best ravioli dish I believe that I have had while living in New York City (and I recently ate it only a couple of months ago) was from my favorite Italian restaurant, Perbacco! Perbacco is in the Lower East Side and they change their menu seasonally, so you know that the food is going to be nothing but fresh and full of flavor! This ravioli — Ravioli di Zucca con Salsiccia which is kabocha squash ravioli sauteed in brown butter sauce and italian sausage served with amaretto foam on the side — is the perfect dish if you are after something both sweet and savory!

2. What other restaurant could have the ravioli plate down… of course it’s going to be Perbacco’s sister restaurant — Gnocco! I was able to catch this ravioli dish when it was listed as a special. Honestly there isn’t a better filling for a ravioli than either pumpkin or butternut squash… and pair that with some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese and I’m officially in heaven!

3. Here we go… exactly what I was just talking about. The Butternut Tortelloni with Roast Italian Chestnuts, Sage and Parmigiano from Crispo in Meatpacking is done perfectly! And you know that this will be available to you since it wasn’t on a special menu! Yum Yum Yum I just love butternut! Super sweet, savory, and in a way totally hits that spot the same way comfort food does!

4. And in fourth place is a more classic Ravioli Al Formaggio — a ravioli filled with cheese in a pink sauce. I loved how the small West Village trattoria cooked up this dish! Malatesta Trattoria doesn’t take reservations, but your 2 hour wait will be worth it — the prices are dirt cheap and you will be saying “yum” between every single bite!

5. A hot-spot where New Yorkers could spot the Kardashians while they were filming their latest season of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, the restaurant is also known as Asellina located on Park Avenue (and can be considered in the neighborhood of Murray Hill). But the chef at this restaurant put together one heck of a special featuring a truffled ravioli… can you see the truffle shavings? They weren’t cheap with the real-deal — forget truffle oil!

6. Bar Pitti was the most recent place I ordered a ravioli dish and it was the most perfect option I could have picked! The ravioli was light and fluffy and stuffed with spinach and cheese — poured over top was a tasty butter and sage sauce that had me licking my lips! It’s a no reservations and cash only type of joint so be prepared! The wait goes fast and you’ll love the pushy (/busy) Italian employees!

Crispo, Meatpacking Restaurant

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a coworker of mine. I am always up for Italian food! I could eat Italian cuisine every day for the rest of my life and be satisfied — I’m one of those people. Even though I enjoy sushi, thai food, Mexican, and French cuisine… I never really crave the foods! But Italian food, I think about it all the time.

Crispo is located right on 14th Street near 8th Ave. It’s so close to Union Square, but I’m going to guess that it’s technically in the Meatpacking neighborhood. If you’re looking for a restaurant close to the hot spots, fun night clubs, and rowdy bars that can be found in Meatpacking, this restaurant is just a 5 minute walk from all of those shenanigans.

The restaurant is loud but intimate. The lighting is magical and you’ll feel cozy at whatever table you are seated at. The low ceilings probably help a lot with the cozy and intimate setting.

The menu is gigantic and a bit over whelming and I was surprised that there’s an entirely different menu for the “specials of the day.” Can you believe it? Of the dayyyy!

Off of the main menu, we started with Parmigiano Crusted Roast Asparagus — this plate contained 4 massive pieces of asparagus spears cooked perfectly (not too over cooked and mushy and it had the perfect crunch to it) and half of the spears were covered with my favorite type of cheese — parmigiano reggiano cheese. The cheese was nice and crispy on top but there was a large amount of it on the vegetables so the cheese was warm and melted underneath the crispy layer.

Another appetizer we ordered off the of the main menu was the Caramelized Brussel Sprouts, Toasted Almonds, and Maple. If you are limiting yourself to only one appetizer, this is the one to get. It was my favorite (and my boyfriend’s favorite too). The brussel sprouts are cooked perfectly and the maple glaze on top adds so much sweetness to the vegetable you will forget what you are eating. Personally, I love brussel sprouts — they can be steamed in a Ziploc steam bag and I’d eat them just like that. But the maple adds loads of comforting flavor to it — I think I’m going to try to recreate these in my own kitchen!

Our final appetizer we ordered was off of the daily special menu — it was a zucchini popper dish that came with cheese stuffed on the inside of the popper and a spicy red sauce. This was our least favorite, the bread on the outside of the zucchini poppers was rather soft and kind of soggy. There was also so much cheese on the inside, I may have been lucky to have one full bite that included a piece of zucchini. The flavors weren’t bad, but the texture was lacking.

For our main dishes I knew exactly what I wanted I didn’t hesitate when ordering — the Butternut Tortelloni with Roast Italian Chestnuts, Sage and Parmigiano.

Anything with butternut I know I am going to love. Perfectly cooked and nice and sweet, exactly what butternut dishes tend to be like, I indulged in every bite. Not a single piece of food was left on my plate. The sage also brought out fantastic flavors in the dish! I recommending this plate as an order if you venture to Crispo.

My boyfriend ordered a pasta dish and he ranked it as just ok. There could have been some more flavors added into the plate. But for all your ordinary pasta lovers that don’t need much to say “wow” I’m sure you would have been happy with the order. (I believe his pasta dish came off of the daily special menu so I can’t tell you exactly what was in it.)

Finally, for dessert… We ordered the tasting of creme brulee and chocolate pot de creme. The creme brulee is definitely one of my favorite desserts and the chef at Crispo did a fantastic job with this! The brown sugar was perfectly torched on the top and all of the flavors were beautiful. The pot de creme was also very tasty and satisfied my chocolate sweet tooth!

Over all I really enjoyed this restaurant — thank you coworker for your recommendation! The restaurant isn’t too far from my apartment and I plan to go back. Hopefully I can bring my friend Stef… I can see her falling in love with the appetizers just like I did!