The Pasta Shop: A Tasty Backup Plan

Apologies again for the late posting! It's been a hectic week, and it promises to be a pretty hectic month as well, and sadly, I don't have as much time as I would like to dedicate to this blog!


For now, however, I want to share one of my favorite places to eat when I need a quick meal that is sure to be delicious: The Pasta Shop! Both their Rockridge Market Hall and 4th Street locations have a wonderful deli with delicious prepared foods, perfect for when you are having a busy day, are hungry and need something tasty fast! 

The Pasta Shop's Prepared Food. A Lifesaver.
Photo Credit: http://rockridgemarkethall.com/pasta-shop

Sure enough, a few days ago, that very situation arose. I had been shooting my friend Estherina (with a camera––don't worry, I'm not going to jail and she is fine!) for her blog, Estherina's World and for her lookbook. I had just finished a long day of classes and was pretty hungry, but I couldn't pass up the chance to spend a few hours with Estherina before she jetted off to London. So after a fun couple of hours of fashion and photogeeking together, I was delirious with hunger and had my heart set on the Pasta Shop! 


I drove us, god knows how, to Market Hall (my favorite place in the world), and we entered the Pasta Shop. This store is a veritable foodie's dream, it has all sorts of cheeses and fancy olive oil bottles and lots of treats to satisfy even the sweetest sweet tooth. But one of the best things about them is their prepared foods and deli section. Whenever I've been so tired and hungry that I can't even think, this is the place that saves me. And this is the place that saved me that very night.


I ordered their Phat Thai, which I had had before and knew was delicious, as well as a Summer Fruit Galette for dessert, something I had been wanting to try all summer and now, I finally allowed myself t.  Estherina, like me, has a strong sweet-tooth and, after ordering herself a slice of Pesto Lasagna for dinner, also got herself a slice of Chocolate Cream Pie and a packet of homemade Italian Butterhorns. After eating a bites of my Phat Thai in the car to ensure that I had the energy I needed to drive us home safely, we made our way back to my place to enjoy our meals together. 

Phat Thai in the Car. Keeping it Classy.

The Phat Thai was delicious, as I knew it would be. Unlike most other Phat Thai I've tried, this is refreshingly tangy and the peanut flavor is complementary rather than overpowering. For me, this is what makes this Phat Thai stand above the rest. I had a few bites of Estherina's Pesto Lasagna, which was good and filling, but probably not the best thing that I've had from Market Hall. (A word of advice: get their pasta salads, they aren't called the Pasta Shop for nothing). I also had a couple of her Italian Butterhorns, which were so sugary, cinnamony, and buttery that I knew they were bad for me, but they tasted sooooo good. I decided to save my Galette for breakfast in the morning, and at the end of our meal, Estherina headed home and, later, off to Londontown to begin her studying abroad adventures. I was glad I got to spend a few hours with her doing the things we loved to do the most: eating, taking photos, and being all around goofy. 

Photo of Estherina taking a photo of lasagna. This is one of the many reasons we're friends. 

The next morning, my Summer Fruit Galette awaited me, and I was so glad I had saved it. It made the perfect breakfast pastry, it was simultaneously sweet and tangy, which if you know me well, these are the flavors that drive me wild! (And the reason why I love orange juice so much.) 

Summer Fruit Galette Morning Wonderfulness.

So what did I learn from this culinary adventure? First, the importance, for me at least, of eating on time. When I don't, I get delirious and dysfunctional and all around unpleasant. Second, the importance of having a backup plan when you can't eat on time. For me, the Pasta Shop provides one of the tastiest backup plans you will ever encounter.

In the Kitchen: PLT with Basil Mayo

Delicious, quick and easy: PLT with Basil Mayo.

PLT? Yes, you read that right. I have discovered my new favorite twist on the classic Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich using...prosciutto! Prosciutto is an Italian dry-cured ham, that has a strong and delicious flavor, and, though it can be a little pricey, I was able to find a cheap-o pack at Trader Joe's for about $5. Thankfully, using prosciutto as a substitute for bacon in this sandwich doesn't seem to compromise the spirit of the BLT. While it may not be any healthier than bacon, in terms of taste, you can hardly tell the difference between the two delicious meats. 


There is one way in which, for me, prosciutto trumps bacon in this sandwich––and that is in terms of its convenience. On my busy days, when I only have a one hour-long break between classes, I want to use the majority of that time to unwind, relax, to not think about the next thing I have to do. It is at these times, when I am at my tiredest and hungriest, that I haven't the time to spend cooking an elaborate lunch. Okay, I admit that frying up bacon can hardly be considered elaborate; nevertheless, I need every little bit of energy and time saved that I can get. (Plus, there are those dishes, and that lingering smell of bacon in my apartment that will tease me when I return, to consider.) So, prosciutto offers me a ready-made, slap-it-on-the-sandwich, unapologetically-lazy alternative to bacon for this sandwich, one that tastes good to boot. 


When I first made this sandwich, however, I wanted it to be extra special and extra delicious, so I did manage to put in just a little extra effort. I had tried Elmwood Cafe's BLT with Basil Mayonnaise, and though generally I'm not a huge fan of mayo, I thought the sauce added a tasty bit of freshness to their sandwich. Since I had mayo in the fridge and had just bought more basil than I knew what to do with, I decided to embrace my love for DIY and try to make it myself.

Cutting up basil. Someone buy me a food processor!

Finished basil mayo, with lemon juice.

 I took a few basil leaves, cut them up as small as I could (these are the times when I wish I had a food processor). I added them to the mayo along with a bit of lemon juice to cut through my least favorite part of mayonnaise: its thick and creamy texture. And voila! I had recreated the Cafe's flavorful spread (albeit somewhat crudely), which gave my sandwich an little something special. And, of course, being the lazy cook that I am, I made enough so that I could have some leftover and save time in the future. Along with grapes and a glass of iced tea, this sandwich made the perfect quick, simple and, most importantly, tasty lunch for a busy student like me.

Blog Backlog + In the Kitchen: Banana Bread

Dearest readers, I must apologize for my lack of blogging in recent weeks. The start of the school year has been keeping me busy (lame excuse, I know). But I'm back and hope to be posting more in the coming weeks, though my budget and my busy student life may necessitate writing posts less frequently or else broadening the scope of this blog a bit. Since I am currently taking an 'Edible Education' class, taught by Michael Pollan and Nikki Henderson, attended regularly by Alice Waters (I sat two rows behind her yesterday, awesome!), with amazing guest speakers so far, I feel that my thinking about food is shifting and that I am becoming more interested in the food movement and food justice in general. So, maybe a few of my future posts will address this theme, along with my regular restaurant reviews and in the kitchen posts. 


But for now, let me bring you up to date on one my culinary adventures from a few weeks ago. I had just returned from Santa Cruz and had lots of leftover food that was too much for me to eat alone. I recruited Ben and ate Zachary's pizza more frequently than I would like to admit and had been making good progress. But there was one item that I received that I was just not interested in eating: three overly ripe, browning bananas. I found this one item to be so frustrating because I really hate throwing away food, especially when there are others out there who are hungry and I was able to get this for free. (This sentiment has only been reinforced by a recent 'Edible Education' lecture by Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food International, who said that in the U.S. alone, we throw away 22 tons of food a day. Eek!). So it felt wrong to waste these bananas, but it seemed I had no other choice, until Ben suggested that I make banana bread. Such a simple idea had never occurred to me, but as soon as he mentioned it, I was thrilled! This way, I got to use my bananas and eat something delicious, win/win. 

Banana Bread: Waste Not, Want Not. 

We decided to spice our banana bread up a bit with some chocolate chips, and after looking up a recipe, ran down to the store to get some. We returned to Ben's apartment and baked up a banana bread storm, which was much simpler to do than I thought it would be. It was, of course, delicious and the bananas were at the perfect overripeness for making banana bread. We did, however, make the mistake of refrigerating the leftover banana bread, which made it pretty tough when we ate some the next day. While it was still edible, it would have been much more enjoyable had we not done that. Overall, though, I felt triumphant in being able to create something pretty darn tasty out of something I was considering throwing away.