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Red Pepper Rigatoni
Chef and restaurateur Marc Forgione just opened a new restaurant at 1 5th Avenue in New York City, appropriately called One Fifth, where one of his signature pastas is inspired by the popular Italian-American sausage-and-peppers sandwich.
He starts by making semolina rigatoni pasta with fresh pressed juice from red bell peppers. He also makes a red pepper relish that he mixes with sautéed onions, and duck sausage made from leg and thigh meat.
He makes a red pepper juice reduction and adds the pasta, sausage and relish to that along with some sesame seeds meant to mimic the semolina sesame bread normally used for the traditional sandwich.
Price: $31
Notorious P.I.G.
At Recess, a fast-casual restaurant at Krog Street Market in Atlanta that’s focused on seasonal and nutritious eating, culinary director Whitney Wood bases this bowl on traditional plate of barbecue and its sides. Starting with RightRice, a high-protein rice substitute made mostly of chickpeas and lentils, she tops that with roasted yams, braised collard greens, sweet and spicy pickled Persian cucumbers, roasted corn with cumin and gochugaru and a vinegary coleslaw with pumpkin seeds added. That finished with fried pickled red onions, bacon jam and dairy-free chipotle lime ranch sauce.
Price: $12.79
Rosa del Sol
Sarah Rahl, head mixologist at the Mansion at Commodore Perry Estate in Austin, Texas, part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, wanted to create a cocktail program that showed how versatile pink and related colors can be.
“My concept for the menu is that we can create a cocktail menu that runs the spectrum of one particular pantone: pinks, fuchsias, blush, and bright reds,” she said. “All with vastly varying flavor profiles, including but not limited to body, texture, heat, herbaceousness, salinity, and fresh produce.”
For this cocktail she pours 1.5 ounces of Rosaluna Mezcal and ¾ ounce each of Ramazzotti Rosato Aperitivo and Dolin dry vermouth into a mixing glass, adds ice and stirs for 15-20 seconds. She pours that into a rocks glass over a large ice rock and finishes it with a lemon twist.
Price: $17
Chaat Pommes Anna
Pommes Anna is a classic French preparation of thinly sliced potatoes layered with lots of butter. Chaat is a category of flavorful, saucy, chopped snacks from India. Chef Lijo George, who was raised in the Indian state of Kerala and who, with fellow chef Max Boonthanakit, runs the kitchen at Camphor restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, combines the two with this dish, for which he slices potatoes and celeriac paper-thin and layers them in a cake pan, brushing each layer with brown butter and a spice mix that includes fennel, star anise, cinnamon and cardamom. That is steamed for three hours and then left to chill overnight.
The next day he slices them ¾ of an inch thick, fries them to order and serves them with three sauces: Mint-parsley purée, garlicky yogurt and tamarind chutney.
Price: $17
Branzino Marchiaro
This dish at Ferdi in New York City’s West Village has its roots in the Italian island of Ponza, where owners Aida and Fernando Scarpati are from.
Fernando, the restaurant’s executive chef pan-sears branzino with olive oil, garlic and oregano.
Then he adds a seafood broth with a “touch” of marinara sauce and finishes the preparation with New Zealand mussels and Alaska king crab.
Price: $39
