They start you off with homemade bread with olive oil for dipping, fresh olives, salami, and brushetta. You will not get a menu to review until you have ordered your drink and had a few bites of some of the food provided. The waiter brings you a menu and lets you review it and explains the pasta appetizer (which–trust me–GET IT!). I know this is a lot of food but remember you are eating at REAL Italian restaurant.

Appetizer Pasta:
Homemade Ravioli with Tomato/Basil stuffing
Gnocchi in a tomato meat sauce
Fresh spaghetti in white wine sauce with prosciutto and crusted parmigano cheese

Main Course:
Vitello Parmigiana – veal cutlet baked with mozzarella and tomato sauce

Just thinking about how good the food was is making me hungry for it all over again. This is by far one of my favorite meals I have ever had. The dinner experience last just about 2 hours because everything is fresh and well worth the wait. Here is the website:

www.grifonenyc.com

Check back tonight as I am posting another one of my favorite tools in the kitchen.

Happy Cooking!

Sausage Spaghetti:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 pound of sweet Italian sausage (make sure it is 100% pork trust me this makes a difference)

2 cans of diced tomatoes

1 can of tomato sauce

3 cloves of garlic – sliced

handful of black Kalamata olives-diced

1 onion – chopped

1 bell pepper – chopped

2 bay leaves (either fresh or dried)

handful of mushrooms

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds (if you don’t have fennel seed, get some I use it on several dishes and it really adds flavor)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 cup of fresh basil leaves, tear them off the stem don’t chop

1 package of fresh pasta (another difference in this recipe-it tastes really great with fresh pasta, but if you only have the hard boxed stuff, that’s ok too)

1/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat (I use my favorite dutch oven for this).  Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown, which is about 7-8 minutes. I then add garlic, green pepper, and onions which I cook for about 5 minutes. Now remember we keep the heat on medium and we want some flavor on the bottom of pot so break out the wine (or a little water if you prefer not to have alcohol) to loosen up the goodness stuck to the bottom of the pot–trust me, it makes a difference.

Ok wine for me first because for some reason I can’t cook any pasta without drinking a glass or two. I add about 1/4 cup of wine to the pot once I see brown goodness (or brown stuff to those of you without the culinary eye) on the bottom.

Increase the heat to high and now add the diced tomatoes and sauce to the pot and mix well.

Stir and cook on high heat for 5 to 6 minutes. Add fennel seeds, parsley, basil, bay leaves, mushrooms and black olives and reduce the heat to medium after you have mixed everything. Let the sauce simmer for 20-25 minutes and stir occasionlly. Take a large pot and fill it up halfway with water and add a teaspoon of olive oil and turn on high heat (we will use this later for the pasta).

No Lettuce Salad:

1/4 cup of Olive Oil

1/3 cup of Red Wine Vinegar

1 Cucumber

1 tomato

3 scallions

about half of a small container of feta cheese

Peel and cut the cucumbers in slices add to large bowl. Now slice onions and tomato, plus grab just little less than a handful of feta cheese add to the bowl as well.

Pour over the veggies and cheese

See that red stuff in the bowl with your salad?  That is your olive oil and vinegar you added which is now a vinegrette.  Did you ever think that as a guy you could make your own salad dressing?  Well, guess what, you did.  Now the water should be boiling, add the package of fresh pasta and let it boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off heat on the sauce and go fishing for the bay leaves to remove–you can’t eat them, so make sure you get them out. Your pasta should be done now so remove from the stove and then drain. Put some pasta on a bowl and scoop a good amount of pasta sauce on top of the pasta. I sprinkle fresh cheese on top and here is how I did the plating for tonight.

And finally here is how I did the overall setting:

This is a very simple thing to cook and trust me when you make this meal and say, “I made this sauce myself”, it should knock her socks off, literally and figuratively. Happy Cooking!