When the owners of The Original Pie Shoppe in Laughlintown decided to renovate, they didn’t hire a fancy design firm. They trusted the job to an employee who understood traffic patterns in the popular bakery/breakfast/lunch spot.
The employee is clerk Seth Brown of Ligonier, who also is studying marketing and general management at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
“He did an amazing job,” said Jennie Lucchetti, who works in group sales for the business owned by Tom and Kelly Columbus. “He has a great eye and he knows how everything flows.”
The shop reopened Tuesday after a two-month closure for the redesign that included removal of an interior wall, new flooring, display cases, coffee station and coolers; painting; and an upgraded cash register system.
“(The Columbuses) came to me and asked if I’d like to give it a shot,” Brown said. “It took a year and a half of planning and three different designs pieced together.”
The Pitt-Johnstown sophomore said his education helped in the process. He said he also has something of a vested interest in the shop — his parents and grandparents also have worked there.
“Marketing includes a lot of product placement, and layout is a big part of that,” he said. “I really enjoyed the process, and there wasn’t a moment I wasn’t excited about it.”
The shop closed Feb. 9 for the work. That was the longest it had been closed since it was founded as a small bakery in 1947 by Melvin Columbus and his mother, Mildred. Tom Columbus is Melvin’s youngest son.
Special orders and fundraiser sales continued during renovations.
“Across Pennsylvania, people were still eating their Pie Shoppe pies,” Lucchetti said.
While the interior is new, the menu remains the same, Lucchetti said. That includes 47 varieties of the namesake pies, cinnamon rolls baked from Melvin’s original recipe, breads, rolls, cookies, cakes and other sweets, along with breakfast and lunch items such as pizzas, paninis, sandwiches and sides.
A build-your-own doughnut option was added last year, Lucchetti said, in which the customer chooses among many doughnut options and then adds choices of icing and toppings.
Tuesday’s reopening was busy, she said, preceded by “a lot of calls and a lot of anticipation. We had a big lunchtime crowd. The owners can’t say thanks enough to everyone, staff included.”
Stopping in Wednesday for pickled eggs and iced tea, Sandy Ellis of Boswell looked around and said, “I don’t like it — I love it.”
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Editor's Picks | Food & Drink | Local | More Lifestyles | Westmoreland
If you go
The Original Pie Shoppe
1379 Route 30, Laughlintown, PA 15655
Open 6 a.m.-6 p.m. daily; closed on major holidays.
Details: 724-238-6621 or theoriginalpieshoppe.com
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Everyone has a lot of opinions about fast food offerings like chicken sandwiches and French fries, but what we don't often talk about is all of the delicious dessert items that often grace our drive-thrus. Popeyes is not only amazing at unleashing chicken sandwiches that seemingly take over the world, but it also does it with delicious desserts like its Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie that is now back for a limited time.
We first spotted the news over on Chewboom, and wouldn't you know it, Popeyes is advertising the good news for all to see on its homepage. The treat was first introduced back in 2013 and features a deep-fried, turnover-style pie crust shell that's then filled with layers of strawberry puree and real cream cheese. It's pretty similar to the Strawberry Cheesecake Pie the chain unveiled early last year and seems like the perfect warm-weather treat.
Popeyes
In fact, Popeyes is no stranger to hand pies like these, selling everything from peach pies to pumpkin pies and even a raspberry cheesecake version. The point is, the chain is seriously good at everything from main courses to sides to desserts, so if you're not making your next meal there a three-courser, WYD??? The Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie is back at participating Popeyes locations for a limited time only. Guess what else you still need to try?? The chain's new and buzzed-about fish sandwich! Give both a try or be sad forever! The only possible options!!!
Kristin SalakyNews EditorKristin Salaky is the news editor at Delish.com covering viral foods, product launches, and food trends.
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As the plant-based craze continues to grow, cauliflower crust pizza creator CAULIPOWER has expanded into all-new plant-based pasta. Linguine and Pappardelle are the two new varieties that will be found alongside their number-one-selling pizza crust. Just as their famous crust, the pasta will be made with real cauliflower as the primary ingredient with only 230 calories per serving. The new past line has 48% more fiber than traditional pasta, zero added sugar – and is free from artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, according to the company.
“I created CAULIPOWER so that people everywhere could have access to healthier, easier versions of the food they love that actually taste like the food they love. We’ve been able to use the power of veggies to reinvent many of America’s favorite comfort foods. We did it for pizza. We did it for chicken tenders. And now, we’re doing it again with our new frozen cauliflower pasta,” said founder and CEO of CAULIPOWER, Gail Becker. “As with all of our products, we strive to disrupt large categories that are ripe for innovation - and pasta certainly fits that bill. We wanted to create a nutritionally superior option that actually tastes like fresh Italian pasta. Our new Linguine and Pappardelle have just 230 calories per serving, making them the lowest calorie pastas in the grocery store whether dry, refrigerated or frozen. They're also high in fiber, gluten-free, and have zero added sugar. They said it was IMPASTABLE…but we did it anyway!”
CAULIPOWER focused on taste, texture, and nutrition, and set out to improve all three from what is currently available, all while keeping it plant-based. Unlike others on the market, the company’s new cauliflower pasta cooks from frozen to al dente in just three minutes, providing a true fresh pasta experience every time. “There is no need to load it with sauce or “mask” any of the flavors. Just add a little olive oil and seasoning and you would never know the difference from fresh pasta,” Becker said. In order to really put the new pasts to the test, CAULIPOWER served it to Italians in the pasta capital of the world, Rome, to see if they could taste the difference. You can watch their reactions here: caul.us/tastetest
The company has seen incredible growth since it launched in 2017. “Our mission is to make America’s favorite, delicious comfort foods healthier by using the power of plants, Becker continues. “We did it with pizza. We did it with chicken tenders. Now we’re doing it with pasta. “Recent data from SPINS reporting shows that the total plant-based marketplace is at $5.6 billion (SPINS Natural Enhanced +MultiOutlet) and growing 29% year over year—this is nearly double the 15% growth rate of the food and beverage market. The new line of Cauliflower Pasta from CAULIPOWER can be found on Amazon, in the freezer aisle of select retailers across the country including Fresh Thyme and Jewel at only $5.99. It will be made available via Fresh Direct, and at Hy-Vee and Gelson’s in April/May. This Fall it will be available at Walmart and Kroger and in thousands of other retailers by the end of 2021.
Romans use the leaves that grow around heads of broccoli to make a flavorful sauce for pasta. In the United States, most of the leaves are stripped off before broccoli is sold. Our recipe instead uses the stems, which are equally flavorful and produce a silky sauce. Baby spinach maintains the color of the original recipe.
Undercooking the broccoli stems could throw the sauce off. We’re accustomed to cooking vegetables until crisp-tender, but the stems here should be cooked until fully tender.
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
1 pound broccoli, stems and florets separated
1 1⁄2 cups packed baby spinach
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped
4 tablespoons (1⁄2 stick) salted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 tablespoon drained capers
1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest, divided
12 ounces rigatoni pasta
1 ounce pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, finely grated (1⁄2 cup), plus more to serve
In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil. Peel the broccoli stems, reserving any leaves, and cut crosswise into 1⁄2-inch rounds. Add the stems and leaves to the boiling water and cook until fully tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 20 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a blender; reserve 1⁄2 cup of the cooking water. Keep the water at a boil.
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Cut the broccoli florets into 1- to 1 1⁄2-inch pieces. Add the florets to the boiling water and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Using the slotted spoon, transfer to a colander and rinse under cold water until cooled. Again keep the water at a boil.
To a blender, add the garlic, butter, capers, pepper flakes, 3⁄4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon of the lemon zest, and the reserved broccoli cooking water. Puree until smooth and bright green, about 30 seconds. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Stir the rigatoni into the boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve about 1⁄2 cup of the cooking water, then drain. Return pasta to the pot and add the broccoli florets, the broccoli puree, 1⁄4 cup of the reserved cooking water (or as much as needed for the sauce to cling to the pasta), the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon zest, and the cheese.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens slightly and the pasta is well coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Pasta With Creamy Asparagus
Makes 4 servings
This lively springtime pasta dish is inspired by a recipe from River Cafe London: Thirty Years of Recipes and the Story of a Much-Loved Restaurant, a recent cookbook from Britain’s landmark restaurant. The asparagus is finely chopped in the food processor; half is sautéed until tender and half is kept al dente for pleasing contrast in texture. A cup of cream binds the asparagus into a silky sauce just thick enough to coat the pasta, while a sprinkle of lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice at the table brighten up the flavors.
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2 pounds asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
8 ounces wide, flat pasta, such as tagliatelle or fettuccine
1 tablespoon salted butter
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 medium shallots, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1⁄4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to serve
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus lemon wedges to serve
In a food processor, pulse the asparagus until finely chopped, about 15 pulses. Measure out 1 1⁄2 cups chopped asparagus and set aside.
In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons salt and the pasta, then cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain. Meanwhile, in a non-stick 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic, shallots, and 1 teaspoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the asparagus from the processor and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes. Add the cream and the reserved 1 1⁄2 cups asparagus, then bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until a spoon drawn through the mixture leaves a 2-second trail, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan and 1⁄2 teaspoon salt.
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Add the drained pasta and 1⁄4 cup of the reserved cooking water to the asparagus-cream mixture and set the pan over medium heat. Toss, adding cooking water 1 tablespoon at a time as needed, until the sauce is silky and clings to the pasta. Stir in the lemon zest, then taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve with additional Parmesan and lemon wedges.
Pasta With Sausage and Broccoli Rabe.Connie Miller of CB Creatives
Pasta With Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
Makes 4 servings
Orecchiette, pasta resembling “little ears,” is the classic choice for this dish; its shape is ideal for catching bits of the broccoli rabe. If you can’t find orecchiette, campanelle is a good substitute; it cooks in about the same time. Adding the broccoli rabe in two stages gives the dish textural interest, as some pieces will be fully tender and almost saucy, while others retain a bit of bite. To crush the fennel seeds, pulse a few times in a spice or coffee grinder or use a mortar and pestle.
Once everything is in the skillet, the pan will be filled to the brim; the easiest way to stir is with two spatulas and a gentle tossing motion. Remember to mix water into the sausage. The water loosens it, making it easier to break into pieces while cooking so that it’s more evenly distributed.
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12 ounces hot Italian sausage, casings removed
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
12 ounces orecchiette pasta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more to serve
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (1⁄2 cup), plus more to serve
In a medium bowl, combine the sausage with ‚ 1/3 cup water. Stir with a fork until well combined; set aside. In a large pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the orecchiette, then cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes; the pasta should be tender at the edges but still firm at the center. Drain in a colander set in a large heat-safe bowl; reserve the cooking water and pasta separately.
To a 12-inch skillet set over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil and the garlic. Cook, stirring, until the garlic begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Remove and discard the garlic, then add the sausage. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally and breaking the meat into small pieces, until the sausage is no longer pink and begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the fennel seeds, pepper flakes, half of the broccoli rabe, and 1⁄2 cup of the reserved cooking water, then stir to combine. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rabe is just tender, about 3 minutes.
Stir in another 1 1⁄2 cups of the reserved cooking water, the remaining broccoli rabe, and the pasta, then bring to a simmer. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rabe is tender and the pasta is al dente, another 3 to 5 minutes, adding more cooking water as needed so the sauce clings to the pasta.
Off heat, stir in the Parmesan and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, then taste and season with salt and black pepper. Serve with additional Parmesan and oil.
Christopher Kimball is the founder of Milk Street, home to a magazine, school, and radio and television shows. Globe readers get 12 weeks of complete digital access, plus two issues of Milk Street print magazine, for just $1. Go to 177milkstreet.com/globe. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. Spaghetti sucks,” podcast host Dan Pashman told his audience at New York’s Caveat Theater back in 2018. “The Lady and the Tramp did a great disservice to American culinary history by romanticizing spaghetti. You know, what we should have taken from that movie is that it's a pasta shape that's only fit for dogs.”
The comment—outrageous, I know—elicited a response equal parts laughter and jeers from the crowd. At first it sounded like Pashman was acting over-the-top just to get a reaction, but then it seemed like he might be onto something.
“[Spaghetti is] round on the outside,” he said. “That means it is a low surface area in relation to the volume, that means that sauce doesn't adhere to it well. It means less of it contacts your teeth when you first bite it...There's all this romanticism around spaghetti, but spaghetti and meatballs isn't even an Italian thing!”
Wait. Does spaghetti suck? Is my love for bucatini, which Pashman says “doesn’t live up to the hype,” actually as hollow as the hole in its center? He’s right, you can’t even slurp bucatini! Have I been living a lie all these years?
This kind of existential uncertainty is part of the fun of “Mission Impastable,” Pashman’s recently concluded five-part saga on his food podcastThe Sporkful. It kicked off with the Caveat Theater scene, and, spanning three years, culminated in the creation of a brand new pasta shape. Yes, a new pasta. Pashman had some issues with the classic pasta canon, so he decided to make a better shape of his own. And, as an Italian-American, as a dude who spends most of his free time fantasizing about what kind of sauce he’s going to eat on Sunday, I have to admit: Pashman’s cascatelli is good.
There's a sizable sauce trough in there.
Scott Gordon Bleicher
So how the hell did a podcast host make a new pasta shape? Well, as with everything in The Sporkful, Pashman did it obsessively. I spoke with the notoriously opinionated authority on all things food last week, shortly following the conclusion of “Mission Impastable.” Right away, Pashman was characteristically particular about his brainchild cascatelli, which looks like a cross between a millipede and an octopus tentacle, with a name that’s a riff on the Italian word for waterfall.
“First of all, I recommend it cooked at like 13 minutes,” he insists. “The very first run of boxes, although they're already ordered now and gone, says 15 to 18 [minutes]. We're revising it on future boxes to say 13 to 17 minutes.” When I tell him that my partner and I had prepared some cascatelli with a lemon Alfredo sauce for our guests the day prior, he agrees with me that a heavier creamy sauce goes well with the ripply, ruffly not-noodles. “I would say anything thick, first of all, is going to get up in the grooves. It’s going to get into the sauce trough, which is what I call the area between the two ruffles—that canyon. Anything with little bits, like meat sauce, will get stuck in the ruffles really nicely.”
"I'm not a chef, I'm not Italian-American, I'm not a pasta expert or historian."
Sauce trough is an apt description of how cascatelli seems to suck in that sacred oily sludge, giving you fat bursts of flavor when you bite through it. It’s not a pretty image, but that’s kind of Pashman’s whole thing. Each episode of The Sporkful seems to reveal yet another strange and unappealing way the guy enjoys food, such as how he folds pizzainside out to “accentuate” the surface taste as it hits his tongue. Insane, right?
These convictions about food are at the basis of "Mission Impastable." As such, Pashman relied on three principles in his long and surprisingly emotional quest to create the perfect pasta shape. As described right on the box, those principles are:
Sauceability: How readily sauce adheres to the shape
Forkability: How easy it is to get the shape on your fork and keep it there
Toothsinkability: How satisfying it is to sink your teeth into it
Before, little Sporkfulisms like these would just be tidbits to chew on during your walk to work or bike ride around the park with Pashman in your ears. And, sure, he has made sandwiches and baked cookies on his show before. But in “Mission Impastable,” he’s forced to put his money, or pasta, I guess, where his mouth is. And, I suppose it says a lot about the legitimacy of this guy’s meticulously organized rules about food, because the cascatelli really came out well. Heck, maybe we all should be eating pizza folded inside out.
Cascatelli, which is sort of like an update on mafaldine (the fettuccine-like noodle with ridges on the sides), is a gloopier, more succulent, more comforting pasta than most of the shapes you regularly eat. Since it's short, it's not quite a long noodle, and it has more in common with a spiral shape like cavatappi (which Pashman recommends I add to my Pasta Mount Rushmore), though it's not a closed loop like many of the smaller shapes we eat. I’d say the experience is closest to one of those puffy, wiry shapes like radiatore. Unlike radiatore, or pretty much any other shape I can think of, cascatelli really does take a while to cook. To me, that’s a good thing, though. Better to have your noodles undercooked than come out looking mushade!
Cascatelli is made at Sfoglini. The first run of boxes sold out almost immediately.
Scott Gordon Bleicher
“I came at this from an outsider's perspective,” Pashman explains. “I'm not a chef, I'm not Italian-American, I'm not a pasta expert or historian, so I tried to embrace that perspective, you know? I just approached it from the perspective of someone who loves to eat pasta.”
Pashman made it sound so simple on the phone: "What's the pasta shape that I would most want to eat that doesn't exist?" But listeners of “Mission Impastable” know that The Sporkful host’s zig-zagging journey was anything but straightforward. It was more fusilli than fettuccine, to put it in pasta terms. His original pitches for pasta shapes were utterly crushed, as were his pleas for distribution with companies and pasta outfits across the nation. (Thankfully, the Brooklyn-founded artisan food company Sfoglini answered the call.) Then, tons of his own cash invested, Pashman, a father of two, faced the pandemic face-first. There’s a sequence midway through the miniseries that really stuck with me. Unraveling to his wife on mic, the host begins to realize that, between his job and his children’s college fund, achieving a creative goal seems more like a fantasy than a real, edible twirl of dried semolina. For anyone with artistic aspirations, especially those of us with our twenties in the rear view, moments like this feel all too familiar, and tragic.
When I ask if he would recommend a project like this to young creatives, Pashman replies no, explaining, “I'm about to turn 44. I'm glad I did not try to do this 10 or 20 years ago because I would have failed, probably. I'm glad that I took the time to learn, to get better at making a podcast and to get better at running a business so I can make smart decisions.”
As of now, shipments of cascatelli on Sfoglini’s website are delayed by a period of 12 weeks until the next batch is ready. Until then, you can listen to The Sporkful wherever you get your podcasts. Pashman says there will be “updates” to the miniseries soon.
And, by the way, Pashman’s come around on spaghetti. Bucatini, too. “At the end of the day,” he says, “if you put a plate of spaghetti in front of me, I'll eat it and I'm going to be happy. I love all pasta.” I feel the same way, especially about cascatelli.
Dom NeroVideo EditorDom Nero is a staff video editor at Esquire, where he also writes about film, comedy, and video games.
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For some reason, I thought the canon of pasta shapes was fixed and eternal. Spaghetti, linguine, cavatappi, penne, fusilli, alphabets. The world of pasta is already so expansive, it never occurred to me that anyone could need anything more. I was sure there was some Italian government office in Rome—maybe next door to the one where they keep track of what qualifies as authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano and San Marzano tomatoes—dedicated to the oversight and responsible usage of pasta shapes.
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But now I learn this is not so! Dan Pashman, the host of the podcast Sporkful, decided he would create a new pasta shape, and by god, he did it! He didn’t even have to travel to Italy. Instead he consulted with members of the Pasta Lab at... North Dakota State University? (Okay, this actually makes sense because most of America’s durum wheat, which is what’s used to make pasta, is grown in North Dakota.) It was a very dramatic journey, chronicled, of course, over five episodes of Sporkful, collectively known as “Mission: ImPASTAble.” There was laughter. There were tears. There was yelling in exasperation from Pashman’s wife. And at the end, a brand-new pasta shape! It’s sort of a cross between mafaldine (a ruffly fettuccine) and bucatini. Pashman called it cascatelli, which means “waterfalls” (sort of: technically the plural in Italian is “cascatelle,” but Pashman liked the i ending better), because that’s what it looks like. “I would describe the shape overall as a curved comma or half a heart,” he toldSalon. “On one side there’s ruffles, and in the space between you’ve got a dugout, kind of a half-tube that just traps sauce in there. It’s amazing.”
According to Pashman, there are three major components of pasta: “forkability,” “sauceability,” and “toothsinkability.” These refer to the way pasta stays on the fork, the way sauce stays on the pasta, and how satisfying it is to take a bite. Cascatelli, in his humble opinion, rates high on all three.
You can even buy it through Sfoglini for $4.99 for a one-pound box, although, Salon reports, you’ll have to wait 10 weeks because it’s all sold out.
There are several Tuscan dishes that I adore, such as ravioli gnudi, “naked” ravioli, which are more like spinach and ricotta gnocchi, lightly poached and served with sage, butter and Parmesan. Another classic is the crespelle alla Fiorentina, crepes filled with the same spinach and ricotta filling, but topped with a light Béchamel sauce, perhaps a little tomato sauce and baked in the oven. They are easy to prepare and serve at the last minute.
I’ve often fancied getting into the maple syrup game – buying some Canadian woods, drilling some holes, hanging some buckets under some spigots. It seems like a low-stress pastime, and you get summers off.
It turns out that they don’t hang buckets under spigots much any more. These days, they run hundreds of feet of blue plastic piping between the trees, a giant sap collection network that feeds a big tank. Watching YouTube videos of men assembling these vast systems is also, it turns out, a pretty low-stress pastime.
Maple syrup from Vermont. Photograph: Henk Meijer/Alamy
In the kitchen, maple syrup can serve as a general replacement for sugar, as long as you remember two things: (1) you’ll need to reduce the overall amount of liquid in the recipe and (2), despite many nutritional claims made on its behalf, maple syrup is no sort of health food. It may be a decent source of minerals including zinc, calcium and iron, but it’s also an excellent source of sugar.
The main reason you shouldn’t replace sugar with maple syrup is price: sugar costs as much as sugar, while maple syrup costs as much as gin: about £15 a litre, give or take, depending on the brand and grade. Anything markedly cheaper is liable to be maple-flavoured corn syrup. So use the good stuff sparingly, in recipes where its unique woody flavour can make a difference. Here are 17 of those to be getting on with.
Angela Kim’s maple buttermilk pudding. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian
Maple syrup is often paired with another distinctly North American ingredient – pecans – to mutual advantage. Jamie Oliver’s maple syrup and pecan tart, for example, is basically a treacle tart with some nuts in, and a bit of maple added to the golden syrup (you can swap the two, like for like, in any recipe). The combination appears again in this winning reader recipe from Angela Kim for maple buttermilk pudding. Here the pecans are candied – with maple syrup and dark rum – chopped, and served alongside.
Liam Charles adds pears and maple syrup to a classic pecan pie for a similar effect, while this maple syrup, pecan and bacon lolly – yes, you read that right – brings together three great tastes and puts them on a stick.
A slightly less obvious match features in this parsnip and maple syrup cake, a BBC Good Food competition winner from Catherine Berwick. Grated parsnip serves much the same structural purpose that grated carrot does in a carrot cake, which is to say, it’s fine as long as you don’t think about it too much. Thomasina Miers’ maple, oat and banana loaf has got one small carrot in, along with a bit of apple and two ripe bananas.
Tom Hunt’s stale cereal crispies. Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian
Tom Hunt’s maple and coconut crispies are, he suggests, a great way to use up stale breakfast cereal, although his preferred mix is a combination of puffed rice and other grains such as millet and quinoa, which makes for quite a grownup Rice Krispies square. Nigel Slater’s hazelnut maple biscuits are another sophisticated tea-time treat.
Sweet as it is, maple syrup’s uses are not restricted to puddings. Yotam Ottolenghi deploys it in salad dressing, specifically his maple and lemon vinaigrette. It also figures in this smoky maple duck salad, in the dressing and in a glaze for the roasted duck breast.
A maple manhattan. Photograph: Dan Matthews/The Guardian
Finally – and fittingly, for an ingredient that costs as much as gin – we present three maple-based cocktails. The first is a simple twist on a classic: the Maple Manhattan from Nigel Sandals combines good bourbon with Martini Rosso, maple syrup, a cherry and a little sugar. The ingredients are stirred with ice cubes, 15 times clockwise, 15 times anticlockwise (this is obviously the secret to the whole thing) before being strained into a chilled martini glass.
A maple whisky sour, like this one from Gimme Some Oven saves you the trouble of making a sugar syrup first – just pour the maple syrup straight into the shaker. The Baptiste, from Happiness Forgets in London, is a heady mix of maple, cognac, orange bitters and dry cider. It may sound a little too heady, but remember: it’s an excellent source of zinc.
Carry your Easter celebration back to medieval times with corzetti. This hand-rolled, embossed pasta, named after a Genoese coin, the corzetto, for its distinctive shape, has graced tables set for holiday celebrations in Italy's northeastern region of Liguria since at least the 14th century.
The mariner republic of Genoa has long been known for the fine art of pasta-making. Powerful merchants traded wheat far and wide across the Mediterranean Sea, and the sunshine and salty sea winds of the Ligurian port city provided prime pasta-drying conditions. Made especially for holding rich sauces, such as the other Genoese specialty, pesto, the shape earned inclusion in a 15th-century caution. Medical guide Medicinalia quam, preserved in the library of the University of Genova, advises, "One shouldn't overindulge in the consumption of lasagne, corzetti, tagliarini, tortellini and the like."
Aristocratic Genoese families used corzetti to showcase their status: Every noble family had a unique, elaborate hand-carved wooden stamp embossed with its signature coat of arms. Today's corzetti stamps sport designs ranging from honeybees to sea shells. Each is a two-piece tool, with one piece carved as the cutter that makes the coin shape and its flip side carved with a design. The second piece is carved as well. Together, the carved sides emboss the pasta coin.
"At Monteverde, we have our own custom corzetti stamp hand-carved by Filippo Romagnoli," says Sarah Grueneberg, chef/partner of Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio in Chicago. "One side has cuore (heart) and the other mano (hand) to represent one of our sayings 'traditional heart with a modern hand,' how we like to approach our dishes at the restaurant."
"We sell these for guests to use at home," Grueneberg said. "We're developing a spring corzetti dish with a green-olive pistachio pesto, spring peas and butter. Something nice and delicious."
If you can't travel to the eastern Italian Riviera, where artisans still carve custom corzetti stamps from apple, beech, maple or pear woods, you can find countless corzetti stamps online at etsy.com, or look for Romagnoli's stamps (and recipes) at romagnolipastatools.com. If you're looking to showcase your own family emblem, Florentine Touch and the Wood Grain Gallery, both internet-based Etsy shops, offer customized corzetti stamps.
"I really love the corzetti pasta shape because you can transform a regular sheet of pasta into something totally unique with its own design," Grueneberg said. "We've served it in the past with duck ragu and a pecan pesto. I really love how with corzetti, you can have the perfect amount of sauce on each coin and keep it simple."
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CORZETTI WITH LEMON RICOTTA SAUCE
Prep: 1 hour
Rest: 30 minutes
Cook: 13 to 15 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
3 cups flour
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk fresh ricotta
cup finely shredded Parmesan, plus more for serving
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt
Zest of 1 to 2 lemons
cup basil leaves, minced
1. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add the eggs; process until the dough forms a rough ball, 30-60 seconds. If the dough remains dry, add cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and process between each addition until it forms a rough ball.
3. Divide the dough into two balls, wrapping the ball you are not using immediately with plastic wrap to preserve moisture.
4. Flatten the ball with the palm of your hand; run it through a pasta machine about three times on the widest setting. Continue rolling the flattened dough through the machine, reducing the setting each time, until the dough is less than 1/8-inch thick. Dust the sheet of dough with flour as needed. Lay the sheet on a lightly floured surface while you repeat the process with the second ball of dough.
5. Using a corzetti stamp, cut circles from the dough. Then press each circle between the two carved pieces of the corzetti stamp, embossing both sides. Gather the scraps, form into a ball, roll and cut more circles. Let the circles dry for about 30 minutes on a baking sheet dusted with flour.
6. Heat a large pot of well-salted water to a boil on high heat. Add corzetti to the pot; cook, 3 to 5 minutes, until pasta is done to your liking. Reserve 1/3 cup of the pasta water before draining the corzetti.
7. In a bowl, whisk together the butter, ricotta, cup Parmesan and reserved pasta water until a rich, creamy sauce forms. Add the pepper and salt to taste. Pour the sauce over the corzetti, toss gently, and garnish with the lemon zest and basil.
Nutrition information per serving: 642 calories, 25 g fat, 14 g saturated fat, 248 mg cholesterol, 75 g carbohydrates, 1 g sugar, 27 g protein, 333 mg sodium, 3 g fiber
Jennifer Roos is introducing area cooks to the Sleadd family recipe for Derby Pie, the annual traditional dessert served during Kentucky Derby-related events in her hometown of Louisville.
The recipe is old. Roos knows it was being made this way long before she was born, but she has no idea how long.
She is a Kentucky native who came to Bowling Green to coach women’s basketball.
Starting as assistant coach in 2001 and earning the title of head coach for the Bowling Green State University program, she racked up an almost 70% success rate over her 17 years of coaching at BGSU.
Prior to coming to BGSU, she played college basketball in North Carolina for Davidson College and then coached at the school.
“It was very strange for me, when I went away for college, because every day growing up, Derby Eve, the Friday before the Derby, all school was canceled. That Friday no one had school, public, private or parochial,” Roos said. “No one had even heard of the race,” she said about her years at college. “So I got to talk to my friends about what the Derby meant to the city and the state, and my Mom sent me a couple pies to college so they could try them out.”
Her friends now also have the recipe and hold their own Derby parties.
She even named her dog, a chocolate lab, Derby.
“It’s a special time for the city, hosting the Kentucky Derby. They have a Kentucky Derby Festival for the weeks prior to the race. They have a half marathon, a full marathon, balloon race, a steamboat race,” she said.
More than 200,000 will come to festivities.
“It’s the opportunity for the city to have the fastest two minute race in sporting events,” Roos said.
“Spring has sprung in the city and people come from all over. It’s a worldly event, I believe. And it’s the pageantry. It’s not just the women’s attire, but the men’s attire. It has also grown into the Kentucky Oaks, a race for fillies. Then on Thursday before the Derby, the call it Thurby, a lot of locals will tend to go to races on that day, because tickets for the Derby are harder and harder to come by,” Roos said.
People will make the pie for the Kentucky Derby, which is historically the first Saturday in May.
“We usually will make it for the annual family reunion, which we host around the time of the Derby. Typically a lot of people will go to the Derby, so we won’t hold the reunion on that Saturday, we have it right there around.”
According to Roos, versions of this recipe will be trademarked and sent all around the world.
She notes that a 1/2 pound of pecans will equal 2 cups. They don’t go to waste, as when serving between 40-50 people, she will be baking a number of pies, because they are the traditional dessert and very popular.
“Everyone will have a different amount of bourbon in it. You can leave (the bourbon) out. There’s very little of it, but you can still taste it,” she said. “The slices are heated up. It’s very sweet and served with vanilla ice cream.”
She recommends Maker’s Mark brand bourbon.
Roos prefers the richness of real butter, but she will substitute margarine for family who may have allergies.
Pecans on the top of the pie will mark it as one that has nuts it. Roos recommends holding back several whole pecans that have a good look for the top. As seen in the photo, she will make a small three pointed star, but that is just her creativity.
The pie is not commonly sold in Northwest Ohio, but it is sold at every grocery store in Kentucky, she said.
“This is the primary dessert for the reunion, that we have been doing for years. We’ve just kind of tweaked the recipe. Some of my family have allergies. We don’t put pecans in sometimes. Some like bourbon in theirs and some don’t.
“It’s always a big hit, because of the time of year with the Kentucky Derby. I don’t even know that you could compare it to the Ohio State - Michigan football game here, except it’s a two week celebration, prior to, and the race is two minutes long.”
Always the competitor, Roos hopes that the pie recipe will be the catalyst for an expanded number of Derby celebrations.
“If even one more pie and party takes place from this story, then I have succeeded,” Roos said.
Dinner at home is about to get a lot more luxurious. Famed Italian restaurant Carbone is officially entering the premium pasta sauce market with new consumer goods brand Carbone Fine Food.
The Major Food Group eatery is beloved for its Italian fare, with brick and mortars in New York City, Miami and Las Vegas. Carbone will start selling its packaged pasta sauce March 29. The canned sauce comes in marinara, tomato basil and arrabbiata flavors, all of which will be available for purchase on Carbone Fine Food’s website and Amazon. The sauces are also scheduled to roll out at Stop and Shop supermarkets in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“Creating staple sauces for the home cook that possess the craft we’re known for has been a goal for some time,” head chef Mario Carbone is quoted in a press release. "The challenge was to create a product that would not only cut down cooking time but also truly deliver on the promise of unequaled flavor, and we can now say that that's exactly what we've done. We couldn't be more excited—and there’s much more to come."
The preservative-free pasta sauces aren't the first restaurant-grade sauces to hit shelves. Fellow NYC favorite Rao’s brought its sauce to market, fidning success as people looked to elevate their at-home dining experiences. As COVID restrictions limited indoor and outdoor dining, 2020 saw a rise in demand for premium pantry staples. Research firm IRI found that sales of premium sauces like Rao’s increased five percent over the past year. Sales for budget brands, like Prego, fell about the same amount, CNN reports.
Planning for Carbone’s packaged sauce started in November 2019, well before the pandemic completely shifted the food world.
“The sauce category is a crowded one, but what it is lacking is a premium product that can stand up to what’s served in restaurants,” CEO Eric Skae is quoted. “Chefs Mario and Rich have created the highest quality sauce on the market. They found a way to jar the Carbone experience. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Carbone’s jarred sauces employ the same ingredients as the restaurants, including ripe southern Italian tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano. Each are crafted in small batches to minimize scaling difficulties.
Carbone is looking to develop a roasted garlic sauce for market. Currently, there aren't plans to bottle their famous spicy vodka sauce.
Visit Carbone's website to learn more, and look for Carbone sauce's in a Stop and Shop near you.
This Sunday is Easter, the Christian holiday usually filled with packed pews and kids rolling around after colorful eggs and anthropomorphic bunnies. This year many will, once again, celebrate mostly at home with smaller gatherings. That doesn’t have to mean a day tied to the kitchen cooking up a feast. Several restaurants are still offering all kinds of feasts, from Midwestern dinners, best served just a hair past noon, epic brunches, or just sweet baked goods stuffed with a taste of spring.
Comforting Classics: The Buttered Tin
The Buttered Tin, will offer Easter treats like a pan of nine hot cross buns for $15 and decorated Easter egg and bunny sugar cookies for $4 each. Perfect for spring pie flavors lemon meringue, key lime, coconut cream, and banana cream will brighten up any dinner. Speaking of dinner, four and six serving take-home meals to heat at home includes Fischer Farms sliced ham, sweet potato, and squash mash, maple bacon brussels sprouts, house-made ginger rolls, and lemon drop cake.
Order pie and dinner online by Tuesday, March 30th at 3 p.m. to pick up Friday, April 2nd, or Saturday, April 3rd. Easter treats are available daily in the bakery case, so you can call to place an order, too at (651) 224-2300.
Travail knows how to throw an epic party, and that includes an at-home with their abundant family meals. The meal is built to serve four with a two and a half pound ham with Ron Burgundy glaze, two-pound prime rib with horseradish sauce, herby fingerling potatoes, asparagus, arugula salad with goat cheese vinaigrette, cream of mushroom and Italian sausage soup, shrimp cocktail, dinner buns, and carrot cake. With deluxe items like a four ounce Waygu with black truffle, mini lobster rolls, or two pounds of prosciutto-wrapped lamb skewers, Travail is the place to order from when you want to go all out.
Order online by Thursday, April 1st to pick up starting at noon or for local delivery Saturday, April 3rd.
A Perfect Kit for Two: Borough
The uber affordable kit for two requires a bit of preparation and assembly but comes equipped with all the goods. The kit includes deviled eggs with chorizo and tomato, roasted and spiced nuts, marinated lamb slices, pita, hummus, dill dressing, cucumber and feta salad, baby kale salad, olives and pickles, and cookies. The brunch kit add-on comes with orange lime elixir, grapefruit lime elixir, bitter orange syrup, garden variety bloody mar mix, disco citrus for garnish, and an option to include a bottle of sparkling wine. Washing down a bunch of briny, pickled goodness with some tasty drinks? Twist my arm.
Order online by Thursday, April 1st to pick up Saturday, April 3rd.
Build your own brunch takeout from Stewart’sKatie Cannon
Choose Your Own Brunch Adventure: Stewart’s
Buy a ticket, take the ride at Stewarts. A ticket purchased through Tock allows a build-your-own meal from this intimate St. Paul restaurant with brunch options like a strata, french toast bake, carrot cake, bellini kit, and more. The cost ranges from $16 to $32 per dish.
Russian eatery Moscow on the Hill has recently extended their ordering deadline. The family-style to-go options include borscht, a house pickle platter, Ukrainian beet salad, Olivier, grandma’s Galubtsy, Siberian pelmeni dumplings, Vareniki dumplings, and a tiramisu tray. The flexibility to choose different sizes and dietary restrictions to fit your family’s needs make Moscow on the Hill a great choice, but honestly, they had me at “tiramisu tray.”
Order online by noon on Wednesday, March 31st to pick up April 4th.
Craving Savory and Sweet Pies Birchwood Cafe
With take-home Easter brunches for 2-4 or 6-8, Birchwood Cafe is serving up their wholesome, comforting goodness to reheat at home this year. Choose either a quiche Lorraine or veggie quiche with apple, parsnip, leek, cheddar, and thyme alongside roasted breakfast potatoes, greens with tangelo thyme vinaigrette. Extra add-ons include a pound of Fischer Farms bacon, a bottle of house-made Piri Piri sauce, and a key lime pie with a graham cracker crust or gluten-free gingersnap crust.
Order online by Thursday, April 1st at 7 p.m. to pick up Saturday, April 3rd, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Perfect portioned and packed up for maximum ease / Facebook
A Feast to Feed a Small Army: 6Smith
A verifiable feast priced at $285 will feed four to six people this Easter. Three starters including monkey bread, peel and eat shrimp, and assorted fresh fruit with vanilla cream cheese is only the beginning. You’ll also receive a Caesar salad and sweeter pomegranate and grapefruit salad with candied pecans. The fun doesn’t stop there there is also prime rip, dijon, and herb-crusted salmon, roasted asparagus and carrots, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, toasted baguette, half of an apple pie, and carrot cake. A la carte “boosters” and bloody mary and mimosa kits are available as add-ons. They’re calling it a feast for good reason.
Order online by Thursday, April 1st to pick up Sunday, April 4th.
Vegan A La Carte Brunch: Seed Cafe
For a well-rounded Easter brunch, Seed Cafe has three great options. Each offering comes in a 9-inch ready-to-bake container that serves 4 to 6 people. The dairy-free scalloped potatoes get their cheesy creaminess from cashews, nutritional yeast, and spices, the forager mushroom, kale, and frittata is a chickpea frittata sans eggs with a garlic “cheese” sauce, and for something sweet, order the peach oat crisp.
Order online to pick up Friday, April 2nd from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., or Saturday, April 3rd, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Pastry chef John Kraus’ elegant bakeries, Rose Street Patisserie on Snelling and Selby in St. Paul and Patisserie 46 on 46th Street and Grand Avenue in Minneapolis pull out all the sugary stops in making gorgeous sweet treats for the holiday. There are little white chocolate sunny side up eggs, stunning, speckled blue chocolate eggs, dark chocolate bunnies with ears ready to nibble, and even the classic hot cross buns.
Hamline-Midway coffee shop and cafe, Groundswell has seasonal, springy cupcakes ideal for munching alongside a specialty coffee beverage. The flavors are chocolate coconut “nest” cupcakes, chocolate “bouquet” cupcakes, and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. The gluten-free flavors include lemon meringue, vanilla “bouquets,” and a blueberry cheesecake swirled with lavender buttercream. Boxes are available in half and full dozens.
Get a mixed box of sweet, fried treats brought right to your doorstep from Cardigan Donuts. A box includes Easter-themed doughnuts, plus blueberry doughnut holes, a raspberry bismark, lemon poppyseed old fashioned doughnut, and more.
The delivery area is a 20-mile radius around downtown Minneapolis and the flat delivery fee is $9.9.5. Or pick up at City Center or in the North Loop. Order online.
In a normal year, this little wine shop in Cathedral Hill throws an epic rosé wine tasting to kick off the warm season. Pink flows like the rivers as many in the industry bulk up their staff in preparation for the universally beloved patio season. Solo Vino is currently offering a rosé “six-pack” for $75. Bring home a few bottles of varying pink hues and (fingers crossed) sip some in the sunshine this weekend.
Call (651) 602-9515 or email info@solovinowines.com to order the rosé six-pack or anything else you fancy curbside pick-up.
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