ALDI Pizza Ravioli

The frozen-food cases at ALDI hold such delights - which rotate in availability with a baffling inscrutability - that I could probably write this blog exclusively about ALDI products and never run out of source material. Why, just the other day I went in for some bread and a head of lettuce - and nothing else - but the siren song of the frozen foods beckoned me and there I beheld PIZZA RAVIOLI.

There were two varieties available: Pepperoni and Cheese. I bought a bag of each and boiled them up according to standard ravioli operating procedures, and then served them without attempting to distinguish by sight which ones were which.

The Pizza Ravioli are as deliciously satisfying as frozen ravioli can be. That is not intended to be insulting or ironic, either: The ravioli I grew up eating was always frozen - I don't think I saw a "fresh" ravioli until I was like thirty years old - but it means that you're not going to find huge bursting-at-the-seams-with-ricotta ravioli in these bags. The filling is standard quantity, and standard-for-ALDI quality (which means, of course, that it's right on par with any name brand you might usually buy.)

I cooked and served the two varieties by dumping both bags at once into the boiling water, then fishing them out and intermingling them in a big shallow serving bowl. I wanted an adventure, because it's impossible to tell by eye whether the ravioli on the end of your fork is pepperoni or cheese. It's not until the mildly spicy taste of the pepperoni hits your tongue that the difference is clear. ALDI certainly got the taste down pat here. These ravs genuinely taste like pizza, enough so that even Lynnafred's boyfriend ate them, despite his declared distate for ricotta cheese (he usually only eats meat ravs, the heathen.) They were really delicious, and a nice change from standard ravioli. I would buy them again.

Remember if you can't find these in your local ALDI, have a chat with the store manager to see when the store is going to get some in. Like many of ALDI's products, Pizza Raviolis are generally a "limited time" item, and every store's schedule differs.

REVIEW: Mendelsohn's Frozen Lasagna

Single-serve frozen lasagna is one of my favorite lunches, and I'm always looking for new brands to try. So naturally, I grabbed a couple of boxes of Mendelsohn's Lasagna when I found it at The Barn in Greenfield MA.

This is a very simple lasagna - four layers of noodles each separated by a miniscule sprinkling of mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce, topped with a generous portion of more mozzarella, and not a bit of ricotta cheese to be found anywhere.

So basically., this "lasagna" is actually just pasta and cheese with some sauce.  And bad sauce it is, with so much sugar it's like eating candied pasta. Too bad, really, because despite the other shortcomings, I would be inclined to buy Mendelsohn's Lasagna again if it weren't for that awful tomato syrup.

On the positive side, it's the only frozen lasagna I've found which is certified Kosher. I guess you should consider that a warning - if you're keeping Kosher and you're relying on Mendelsohn's Lasagna for lunchtime deliciousness you will find only disappointment.

Review: Columbus Salame Secchi

If there's one thing I find hard to resist, it's a good salami. (Stop snickering, I didn't mean it that way.) And when I'm browsing along the deli counter at a supermarket and find one I haven't tried before, it's fairly certain that cured meat stick is coming home with me.

And that's how I met this Columbus Salame Secchi, made by San Francisco's Columbus Salame (aka Columbus Manufacturing, Inc.) they've been making cured Italian meats on the west coast since 1917, and Secchi was one of their first products.

It's truly an awesome dry-cured salame, mellow and meaty. It's a great addition to an Italian sandwich, and it's perfect alongside some sharp table cheese, olives, and giardiniera for a snack platter.

Links:

Columbus Salame website
Columbus Salame on Facebook

Review: Bove's Vodka Sauce

It's been a couple months since I reviewed Bove's All Natural Roasted Tomato sauce. Since then, I've been keeping my eye open for other Bove's varieties, and not very long ago, I found Bove's All Natural Vodka Sauce in the a local Geissler's supermarket/

Lynnafred is a big fan of vodka sauce, but not a big fan of the often greatly-inflated price of commercial vodka sauces. A quart of good commercial vodka sauce can cost twice as much as a quart of the same brand's marinara. When we were wandering down the pasta/sauce aisle at the market, she pointed out her discovery of several varieties of Bove's sauces, including the Vodka variety.

"Check it out," she said, "They're carrying Bove's. And they've got vodka sauce!" She took a jar down from the shelf. "Whoa. This is the same price as their regular sauce.  I love vodka sauce. Let's get it," she added, putting the bottle into the shopping cart.

At first glance, Bove's Vodka Sauce doesn't look any different from any other good-quality tomato cream sauce. It's a milky-pink color, and tiny bits of herbs can be seen suspended in the sauce here and there. But even a single taste highlights the difference. The smoothness of the cream sauce is offset by the richer tomato flavors, distinctive herbal notes, and fiery pepper kick at the finish. We enjoyed it with penne pasta and homemade meatballs, where the spiciness of the sauce was a welcome counterpoint to the relative tameness of the meatballs.

This is another Bove's product I can unhesitatingly recommend.

Villa Milano Famous NY Pizza, East Hartford CT

Not too long ago, Maryanne read about a new pizzeria opening in East Hartford, called Villa Milano Famous NY Pizza. According to the article in the Hartford Courant, owners Eddie and John Kilenovic owned pizzerias in NYC and recently decided to move their businesses to Connecticut.  Over the past couple of days, we stopped in a few times to try out the various pizzas and other items.

Villa Milano is located at 456 Main Street in East Hartford. It's on the north-bound side of the street right across from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company's deco brick building.  Keep a sharp eye out as you approach, because the unassuming brick building can be kind of easy to miss.

The pizzeria offers both take-out and dine-in service. As you walk in the front door, there are a series of booths on the right, and a glass display case and service counter in front of the kitchen on the left. The display case usually shows off several of the delicious foods on offer - there are garlic knots and pizzas ready to sell by the slice.

Lynnafred loves Sicilian pizza, so on our first visit there we ordered a Sicilian Grandpa pie: thick, square crust topped with sauce, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. It took about 20 minutes to come out of the kitchen (not a bad wait - pretty typical for a place that makes their pies fresh, actually.) We had ordered it to go, but the owner insisted on calling us over and presenting to us before boxing it up.  One look at it, and I could see why:

Look at that. That's not just a pizza, it's a work of art.  And it was also one of the best Sicilian pies we have ever had. The dough was just slightly crispy at the edges and on the bottom, but light and pillowy beneath the excellent sauce. Shredded mozzarella was sprinkled atop the sauce, and then the pieces of fresh mozzarella were added in decorative designs of stars, flowers, and stripes. Fresh basil leaves were sprinkled over the pie after it came from the oven, allowing the residual heat to wilt them into sauce and cheese. It was an awesome Sicilian pie, one like I haven't had in over twenty years, and this pizza resolved us to return to try out some of the other offerings.

On a later visit, Maryanne and I decided to sample slices of their standard thin-crust New York-style pizza, and the Roman Pie.

The Roman Pie, top right in the picture here, is a stuffed-crust pizza filled with potatoes, sausage, pepperoni, and cheese. I'd never had anything like it - it was very good, and quickly became one of Lynnafred's favorites.

The New York pizza was absolutely perfect - a hand-stretched water crust, perfectly crisped on the bottom with just the right amount of char, and yet maintaining the ideal amount of chewiness and tenderness combined.  Take a peek at the picture on the right. That's the color of a pizza crust the way it is meant to be. Just awesome.

We also ordered a meatball grinder and kept it simple with sauce, meatballs, and cheese on a 12-inch roll. It came out of the oven nicely toasted, crammed with eight huge handmade meatballs and dressed with tomato sauce and melted cheese. Maryanne and I cut it in half to share because it was more than enough for the both of us. The meatballs  were very much like the ones my Italian grandmother used to make, though she used to put Romano cheese in hers and Villa Milano doesn't. The texture was very good, and I wouldn't be surprised if they made their meatballs with a pork and beef blend.

One other thing: No trip to Villa Milano would be complete without an order of their garlic knots. They are absolutely stunning - little knots of the tenderest yeasty dough, baked up golden brown and delicious with melted butter and garlic. There are six knots in an order for two bucks. After our first time there, we've always made sure to get a double order to go. Most of them make it all the way home. The ones that don't get eaten right away reheat nicely in the toaster oven for a garlicy morning breakfast treat.

So: Villa Milano. Great place for authentic New York pizza without driving to New York.
456 Main Street
East Hartford, CT 06118
860-568-4898
860-568-4899

You can check out their menus here.

Review: Bove's All Natural Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce

Although my favorite pasta sauce is the stuff I make from scratch at home, I don't always have the time or ambition to make a pot of tomato sauce - especially in the summer, when my kitchen is hot enough without a big pot simmering on the stove.  

So, I do what millions of other people do: I buy prepared pasta sauce in jars at the supermarket. Over the years, I've discovered that there are a lot of bad sauces, a bunch of good sauces, and a few that are really excellent.

Allow me to introduce you to one of the excellent ones: Bove's All Natural Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce. Discovering a sauce like Bove's makes me really happy - not only did I find a really high-quality product, but it's made right here in New England (in Vermont, to be specific) and as you might know by now, I'm a big fan of New England-made stuff.

Anyway, the Roasted Tomato sauce is awesome. Officially, the ingredients are fire-roasted plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and onions, and spices. Unofficially, I'm pretty sure the ingredients also include Win and Rad. The roasted tomatoes contribute to a deep and rich flavor that is second only to homemade. I used Bove's Roasted Tomato sauce in a lasagna on Sunday, and it was one of the best lasagnas I've ever made. The sauce held its own against the pasta and cheeses and didn't get "lost" among the cheeses and sheets of lasagna noodles.

I'm actively looking for Bove's in local supermarkets now. I bought the jars of Roasted Tomato at my local job lot store, and the other varieties weren't available. If I have to, I'll look for it on Amazon, but I really prefer to give my hard-earned paycheck to local groceries than to any online guys I've never met.

I totally recommend this stuff, without hesitation. 

More about Bove's

Bove's Cafe is a three-generations-old restaurant in Burlington VT. They started out being locally famous for their Italian food and in the past few years have become more widely known after being "discovered" by Food Network. They bottle a fairly big line of tomato sauces; besides the Roasted Tomato variety, there is also Marinara, Three Cheese & Tomato, Mushroom & Wine, Roasted Garlic, Basil, and Vodka.

Priano Vegetable Lasagna by ALDI

Priano Vegetable Lasagna, an ALDI house brand, is probably one of the most unusual frozen lasagnas I've tried in some time.

First of all, there is absolutely no ricotta cheese - or even any cottage cheese - within its layers. Eash seet of pasta is separated by a lightly seasoned layer of pale red (almost orange) tomato sauce. And, although both the box art and the ingredients indicate that the pasta is going to be green spinach pasta, this is not actually the case; the only thing there is plain ol' standard sheets of lasagna noodles.

The lasagna certainly delivers the mozzarella, though. the first thing you'll notice when the package comes out of the microwave is the thick mozzarella topping studded with bits of broccoli, sauteed onion bits, and what I think are either carrots or tomatoes. Overall, I liked it even though it really wasn't what I was expecting.

On the other hand, this Priano lasagna was imported from Germany. What do the Germans know about making lasagna, anyway?

To see how this lasagna stacks up against other frozen lasagna brands and varieties, click here.

Bremer Selects Vegetable Lasagna by ALDI

Bremer Selects Vegetable Lasagna (an ALDI house  brand) is pretty good as frozen lasagnas go. The "vegetables" are provided by finely cut zucchini and carrots in with the sauce, but they're well enough incorporated into the mix that they aren't disturbing (or noticeable, for that matter) even by someone who might profess to hate zucchini and/or carrots.

The sauce is quite authentic, and there is just enough of it to make for a good consistency - not dry enough to make the lasagna tough, nor so much as to make it soupy. I suppose there could be a bit more mozzarella on top, and I also took points off for there being cottage cheese in the layers instead of real ricotta, but overall I thought it was a good lasagna and a decent lunch.

To see where this lasagna ranks among other frozen lasagnas I've reviewed, click here.

Review: Priano Eggplant Parmesana by ALDI

Sometimes when I'm in the mood for eggplant parmigiana, I don't have any eggplant handy. That's not a problem in the summer, when my eggplant vines in the garden are practically falling over with fruit. But in the winter and spring, good eggplant is hard to find, and local eggplant is just not available. And that's when frozen eggplant parm comes in.

Most of the time, I've bought Celentano eggplant parmigiana. It's decent, and Celentano's tomato sauce is very good. But recently, I found that ALDI was carrying their house brand parmigana, Priano. I bought a few to give it a try. 

And no surprise, it's as good as I've come to expect from ALDI products. The slices of eggplant are lightly breaded, with tangy tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese between the slices (though not as much as the box photo shows.) The product is microwaveable, but when I'm cooking it at home I put it in the oven so I can melt a little mozzarella on the top for the last five minutes of heating time. Half a package is perfectly adequate for a serving along side the pasta of your choice (my choice for the photo at left was rigatoni.) Delicious. 

Like many ALDI products, you may have trouble finding it at your local ALDI, since they have a habit of rotating the availability of many of their specialty items. If you can't find it at your ALDI, don't be afraid to ask the manager about it - they may be able to bring it in for you.

A Tale of Two Giardiniere

Here's a head-to-head comparison of Guiliano "Mild Garden Mix" and Mezzetta "Italian Mix Giardiniera."  I happened to have both of them in the pantry and decided to compare the two.  Guiliano's giardiniera is usually found at Ocean State Job Lot, so it's fairly inexpensive.  I buy Mezzetta's product at either Stop & Shop or Coronna's Market (my neighborhood corner store and butcher shop.)

Like many other Italian-Americans, I grew up eating giardiniera. It always has a place at family gatherings, and Maryanne and I put a jar of it on the table whenever we're serving a standard tossed salad, because there's nothing like a good giardiniera to wake up a boring bowl of leaves. And I hear that they use it as a sandwich topping in Chicago which really shouldn't surprise me given all the crap they pile onto hot dogs there, right?

My favorite part of the giardiniera is cauliflower. I don't have much use for cooked cauliflower as a veggie, but if it's pickled and still crunchy, I could nom the hell out of it all day. Both Giuliano and Mezzetta are mostly cauliflower. But Giuliano seems to cook the hell out of theirs while somehow, the Mezzetta cauliflower is crunchy and awesome.  Actually, these qualities come up so often I'm not even going to mention it again beyond saying that the veggies in the Giuliano version are universally cooked and soft, while those in the Mezzetta are crunchy and don't taste overprocessed.

Giuliano is also a hell of a lot sharper than Mezzetta. They use a stronger vinegar solution and it shows. Usually, I have to give the Giuliano "garden mix" a quick rinse under cold water to get rid of some of the highly acidic flavor.  Mezzetta giardiniera is a more tolerable strength, with a pleasant bite that doesn't threaten to kill your mouth.

I guess where you can see where this is leading. A good giardiniera is crispy pickled heaven, and a bad giardiniera is just face-collapsing vinegary pucker. Mezzetta is very good indeed.  Guiliano is not quite bad, but it is sub-optimal. Given the choice of the two, it's Mezzetta all the way.

Boniet

Boniet is an Italian "spread" (for lack of a better word) made up from parsley and anchovies and garlic, finely chopped together.  It's kind of like a pesto, I guess, but without the strong and heady basil flavor.  

It's used most frequently as an appetizer, spread on crusty bread or on freshly sliced tomatoes.  I like it with small fresh mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, assorted olives, and thinly sliced red onion.  I make small, single-serving salads in little glass bowls, arranged around a central dollop of boniet that diners can use as they please.

Like many other Italian "family" recipes, there are probably a million ways to make boniet.  They all start with parsley, anchovies, garlic, and olive oil, but from there it seems that everyone has their own variations.  My family's version calls for a touch of basil and a little bit of tomato paste.

Boniet

1 large bunch of parsley, leaves only

4 cloves garlic

12 non-pareil capers

2 or 3 sweet basil leaves

2 ounces anchovies (1 small can), drained (reserve the oil.)

1½ tablespoons tomato paste

Using a Chinese chef's knife
to chop the ingredients finely.

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Pick all the leaves off of the parsley and discard the stems.  Chop the parsley, garlic, capers, basil, adn anchovies together until the mixture is an homogenous paste. Stir in the reserved oil from the anchovies, the tomato paste, and the vinegar.  Store in the refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

Allow boniet to come to room temperature before using.  Spread on toast, or use as a dressing on tomatoes, eggs, and salad or use like pesto on pasta or pizza.

Boniet really does make an awesome pizza sauce.  Spread your pizza dough with some boniet, then add cooked, sliced boneless/skinless chicken breast, slices of fresh mozzarella, and a generous sprinkling of grated smoked provolone cheese.

Buon appetito!