Recipe Credit - Anna Jones (and adapted by Tejal Rao)
This is yet another quick and easy pasta dish that you can adapt to use whatever fresh (or even frozen) vegetables on hand. This dish cooks entirely in one pan (Okay you boil some water but you add it to the pan). As you can see above, we made that night's pasta with Spinach even though the recipe calls for Kale. You could even try escarole as well.
As Always Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!
TheITGourmet
Where did we crawl? Luna Wood Fire Tavern (223 Franklin Ave, Nutley, NJ)
Category Wood / Coal Fire Pizza
Whose Pick Aileen
Overall rating 6 Thumbs Up
Would we return? Yes
On last night's episode, we decided to go out for take-out pizza and the category we chose was wood fired pizza - Luna's Wood Fire Tavern (LunaWoodfireTavern.com). Ironically enough, we recently received the New Jersey Monthly magazine and they had an article of who has some of the best pizza in New Jersey. After looking through the featured, recommended "top spots" we chose our target establishment?
So, how and why did we choose Luna's? Well it...
Needed to within 30 minutes of home (we were doing take out and we have a 14 week old puppy sitting in a crate)
Must use wood or coal fire for its pies
Should not only feature pizza, but also a mix of other Italian dinner items
We looked up the menu and picked out a few things we had read were some specialties:
The Pizza Margherita (Tomato Sauce, fresh Mozzarella, Basil, and EVOO)
Mezzaluna (Half Calzone with Ricotta / Half Margherita pie)
Luna Salad
Long Peppers and Italian Potatoes
So, we piled into the family truckster (okay okay - the Toyota Highlander) and away we went. Luna was easy to get to and find parking in close proximity to the restaurant on Franklin Ave (one of Nutley's main drags).
Okay... So we started with the Luna salad and the long peppers and potatoes. The arugula-based salad came loaded with Roasted Red Peppers, Fresh Mozzarella, and freshly sliced Parmesan cheese.
The Luna salad comes dressed with their homemade EVOO oil and lemon dressing (that seemed to have some honey in it as well). All in all a very refreshing and tasty salad.
The Italian potatoes and long peppers was also very good. The potatoes were thinly sliced and cooked with lots of chunks of garlic. There was also a decent amount of spicey long peppers (warning the peppers pack a punch) - The whole dish was cooked in olive oil. The portion size was VERY liberal - and there was enough leftover that I enjoyed this AM with a couple of fried eggs for breakfast (they made amazing homefries).
Next came the pizza and "pizza-like" course. Not a single complaint with this either. The Margherita pizza was wonderfully cooked with just the right amount of sauce, fresh mozzarella, and fine slices of basil (with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil). They put just the right amount of heat on the pizza so that it was well-done with some bits of char (which I like), but wasn't burnt to a crisp.
The pizza mezzaluna lived up to its half-moon namesake. It was just like a pizza margherita got together with a calzone and decided to have a wonderfully delicious baby. The Calzone portion is filled (but not overfilled) with fresh ricotta and there is enough of a little bit of margherita pizza sticking out to have it be the "best of both worlds". The mezzaluna comes with a small container of their sauce for dipping.
Luna's sauce was very freshly made, a little bit chunky and has just a little bit of sweetness to it - overall very tasty.
Another good thing to note, was our pizza's were cooked fresh when we came to pick them up - a very nice surprise and testament that they made their pies a la the true Pizza Napoletana technique (because they seemed to be cooked in less than 5 minutes and came out of the oven and into the boxes piping hot!!!
This place is a keeper and we will definitely return!!!
As Always Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!
TheITGourmet
Updated: Feb 28, 2021
There are several family chuckle stories about my mother-in-law, Rosemary, and her cooking, her recipes, and her activity in the kitchen (perhaps lack thereof - except for talking with her family and friends on the phone). While she may not have spent long hours toiling in the kitchen cooking, she did have certain recipes that she was well known for - e.g., Split Pea Soup, Sour Cream Peach Pie, Banana Bread, Chopped Liver, and of course, Hamantaschen.
One thing was certain up until the time where she could no longer cook for herself - When Purim came around, she was sure to bake a few batches and she would either send them to you in the mail (along with some newspaper or magazine articles she clipped - she was a "clipper") or if you were visiting, there would be a carefully wrapped care package of the tasy little triangle goodies to be sent home with you.
Here's a tip of the little triangle pastry hats to you Rosemary!!! This is the time of year for remembrance of Purim, but also of you!!!
Ingredients
1 Cup Sugar (White Granulated)
1 Cup Oil (we use Canola Oil)
3 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Orange Juice, Milk, Water
3 Teaspoons Baking Powder
4 Cups Flour (or more for the bench and consistency of the cookie dough)
Filling - we generally use cherry, lemon curd, nutella - jam or fruit spread is fin
Directions
Combine Sugar, Oil, Eggs Salt, Milk/Water, Orange Juice together in your mixer by creaming them together.
Mix Flour and Baking Powder together thoroughly with a fork (don't want any lumps of baking powder).
Combine the wet ingredients you creamed together with the dry ingredients and mix to combine thoroughly.
When mixed, remove dough from the mixing bowl and wrap with cling plastic wrap.
Place in refrigerator for at least 1/2 an hour.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out the dough to approximately 1/8-inch thick.
Use a cookie cutter or glass to cut hamantaschen out 3-inch circles.
Place a small dollop of your favorite filling into the center of each dough circle.
Wipe a small amount of water around the edge of the dough around the filling (this will help act as the glue to keep the hamantaschen from melting apart.
Bake the cookies on a sheet pan for 15 minutes until done (but not too brown).
As Always Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!
TheITGourmet
