Holy Cannoli!

It’s fried.

It’s creamy.

It’s sweet.

It’s amazing.

Not all cannolis are created equal. Not by a long shot. It is possible to mess up a seemingly simple combination of fried dough and sweet cream. The pastry can be dry and tasteless. The filling can be have a weird consistency or taste. When it happens, it is heart-wrenching.

This is never the case at Nana Rosa Italian Food. Just look at this picture, then go and get some. There’s really nothing more to say.



Okay, one more thing to say: I can never eat cannoli without thinking of this SNL skit with Adam Sandler and the great Chris Farley. RIP Chris.

Hot Chicken Pasta - Amerigo, Nashville

Fried chicken and pasta? What’s not to like?

Last week my colleague and I went to Amerigo for lunch. It’s a good Italian restaurant, so I expected to order one of the traditional pasta dishes I’ve had before, a caeser salad or maybe a Panini. I hadn’t been in a while and the menu had changed. Immediately the special of the day jumped out – hot chicken pasta. Fits perfectly in my strict high-carb diet.

Unless you are from Nashville, have visited Nashville, or some Southern city that replicates hot chicken, you can’t truly understand hot chicken.

If Emeril were to describe it, he might call it Southern fried chicken “kicked up a few notches,” followed by a “BAM!”

It’s a secret combination of spices that somehow adds a firey kick without compromising the juiciness. To understand it is to experience it.

Check out this video as background.

Former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell is so obsessed with it that he created the Nashville Hot Chicken Festival. Mrs. H-CC and I attended this year for the second time. Only a glorious celebration of fried chicken and locally-brewed beer would lure us to stand in line for an hour to eat hot food outside, in the middle of the day, in 100 degree weather, with thousands of strangers.

But back to Amerigo…

While it may not be on par with Nashville’s Prince’s, it tastes pretty authentic. And the pairing with fettuccini and cream sauce is unique. It’s not something you could pair with a tomato sauce. Could have done with more scallions on top, for variety if nothing else.

The dish was good enough that I’d order it again. But it really just made me want more hot chicken.

Brooklyn’s in the House

*I acknowledge up front that this post is too long for a blog; go to Nick’s and you’ll see why.   

The old Nick’s Italian Deli was a highlight of my first career stint in downtown Nashville.  Our small group of friends and co-workers were there about once a week.  I couldn’t get enough. 

Then I took a job in the ‘burbs and was never able to make it to SoBro for lunch.  Time passed and I heard it closed.  I made my way through the standard grieving process – denial, anger, despair, and finally acceptance.  My cravings for pepperoni rolls and chicken parm subs went unsatisfied because I knew no other place could ever measure up. 

Then...one day...I stumbled across something online and learned a Nick’s location was open in Franklin, just down the road from my office.  Guess where I had lunch the next day?

These days I am conveniently in the area twice a week, and in the last couple of years have become a solid Nick’s customer again.  Not with the frequency of the old days, but with a more important mission: Schooling MiniMe on the difference between Chef Boyardee and good Italian food.  And she’s eating it up.  Literally.

What makes Nick’s special is that it is authentic.  It’s real.  It’s quality.  Whatever I order, and I've had a lot on the extensive menu, is consistently exceptional and priced fair.  And it all comes with a side of Brooklyn attitude.

The ambiance has changed a little over the years.  Ritzy Williamson County has different standards than downtown Nashville, I guess.  But two distinguishing characteristics remain: NY Yankee memorabilia, and art tributes to the classic wise guys in Goodfellas, The Sopranos and, of course, The Godfather.

Nick is the real-life Don of Italian food in Middle Tennessee.

Fuhgeddaboudit!

 

“Something amazing happens when you taste it!”

My four-year-old daughter summed it up well with that statement.

The Garlic Knots at Knead Dough Pizzeria in Hendersonville, Tenn., is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.  Period.

It’s that stick-to-your-ribs kind of bread that is filling but gets better with every bite, so you keep going until they are gone, which for us is a few short minutes.  There is a thin, golden brown layer of crust, just on top.  The “knots” label is given on account of the twisted dough that forms random sections of deliciousness, like a good homemade cinnamon roll.  No two rolls are the same shape.

The inside is dense and always warm and soft, cooked to that perfect point just beyond doughy.

The bread itself is amazing.  But then...the rolls are swimming in a pool of melted butter, garlic, sprinkled cheese and Italian herbs.  I would eat a stranger’s sweaty sock if it were covered in this nectar. 

As if the taste isn’t enough, this appetizer lists for a modest $3.50.

Bravo, Knead Dough.  Bravo.