I carry an open bottle of San Pellegrino with me on the subway
And other adventures, like dulce de leche banana pudding.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week we order sparkling for the first time in our lives, eat a sardine pasta, and more. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
A Very Large Bottle of San Pelligrino at Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana
196 Spring St, New York, NY 10012
For 30 years I have been operating on autopilot – living in a daydream, really. It had never occurred to me that when the waiter asks “still or sparkling” at a nice-ish restaurant that I had the agency to reply with anything but an automatic “tap is fine, please.” Certainly, I’ve had sparkling water at dinner before, but only when someone else is ordering. So when the waiter at the very nice (nice as in delicious, as it’s pretty decently priced) pasta place asked me “still or sparkling” it was like my life flashed before my eyes when I said for the very first time, on my own, “sparkling.” Then, it slowly dawned on me, as the server popped open the cap to a comically large bottle of San Pellegrino (which I do love!), that when you reply “sparkling,” that means you buy an entire bottle of sparkling meant for the table, not just one glass. Which is how I ended up taking that liter bottle of sparkling home with me, on the subway. I wasn’t about to abandon an $8 bottle of my Favorite Water, but I did learn my lesson.
Bucatini alle Sarde at Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana
196 Spring St, New York, NY 10012
Back to the pasta: Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana is my favorite pasta place in New York because the food is excellent and they do an $11 pasta lunch special. The pastas are so consistently delicious, it’s very worth the fact that you’ll literally be eating on the sidewalk at a very tiny table next to a line of people waiting, which is what we call ~*ambience*~. It’s also worth the fact that a reservation may or may not mean anything. I’m lucky enough to work nearby so I’ve tried several of the pastas before (the gnocchi, which my friend ordered, was so dense and fluffy at the same time without being the least bit gooey I’m spoiled for all other gnocchis forever), but whenever I’m feeling particularly saucy I order the bucatini alle sarde. This is not a pasta for the faint of the heart; while the other dishes feature familiar and comforting red sauces and braised meats this is the fishiest pasta you will ever encounter. It is incredibly umami, with punchy bites of pine nuts, a ton of sweet and sour raisins, and bits of fennel. The flavor profile actually kind of reminds me of Asian food which is why I like to order it, but it may not be for everyone.
Carciofo at Piccola Cucina Osteria Siciliana
196 Spring St, New York, NY 10012
I know, I know, if you order appetizers then you’re no longer eating an $11 lunch at Piccola Cucina, but it’s so worth it. The carciofo was a work of art: Two little artichokes stuffed with avocado cream and gazpacho(?!) topped off with bits of something crunchy and fried, and lovely fat flakes of parmesan. I honestly didn’t think the artichoke-avocado flavor combination would do much for me (I usually see artichokes always paired with soft cheese), but it was really, really nice. The artichoke was really soft and tender so you could actually even slice it all the way through, and each bite felt like it melted on the tongue.
Creamy garlic spinach linguine at home
By okcallie on TikTok.
This creamy spinach linguine is almost the exact opposite of the pasta alle sarde. While it is a brilliant verdant green and very very Instagrammable, it tastes quite mild. As everyone knows my favorite form of passing time is lying on my cat-shredded yoga mat while scrolling through TikTok, which is how I found this pasta by okcallie. I was intrigued because I like recipes that can use an entire bag of spinach in one go, and I actually had heavy cream lying around from making banana pudding (below). Maybe I didn’t add enough garlic (I used half a red onion and maybe 4 cloves of garlic?) but the resulting sauce was quite mild. Not in a bad way, though. It’s at least very pretty.
Dulce de leche banana pudding at home
No recipe, sort of made on the fly.
As we all know, Asian people love sweetened condensed milk, but holy crap, it never occurred to me to reach for the cans of dulce de leche right next to it. Why does anyone ever bother to make any sort of caramel themselves when they could just be buying cans of dulce de leche and putting it in everything? It really makes everything better, including this very simple banana pudding I whipped up on a craving (a box of instant Jell-O banana pudding mix, whole milk, bananas, Chessman cookies, whipped cream, dulce de leche). Banana pudding is always delicious but putting little dollops of dulce de leche in every layer so you get surprise bites of caramel is a whole other level of good. The best part of this banana pudding is where the homemade whipped cream touches the dulce de leche, melting into a creamy, caramel-y bite. The worst part is that banana pudding really doesn’t last more than a day. The banana slices get soggy and the chessman cookies crumble, so savor it while it lasts (or share with a friend!).
Have a good weekend,
Soph
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