Dining Guide fall edition is published quarterly by Anton Media Group

AN ANTON MEDIA GROUP SPECIAL • 2020

FALL DINING GUIDE

Benvenuto A La Nonna Bella Recipes and tips to start your Italian food journey

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ITALIAN CUISINE

Benvenuto A La Nonna Bella How chef and owner Lino De Vivo is living his dream

Chef and owner Lino De Vivo at La Nonna Bella (Photo by Emily Sauchelli)

BY EMILY SAUCHELLI esauchelli@antonnews.com

Lino De Vivo came to America with one goal in mind—to open an authentic Italian restaurant—one that would remind him of his hometown. De Vivo is from the southeast region of Italy known as Puglia and grew up in a town called Conversano within the city of Bari.

G

rowing up, De Vivo took on a variety of jobs in the summertime. He worked at a barbershop and at a catering hall.

Ultimately, he found his passion to be within the culinary industry.

“When I decided to pick the direction that I wanted to be [in] I signed up myself for hairstyling,” he explained. “Two weeks before the school actually started, I went to sign up for culinary school and I realized that I loved to do that. Because of

being in a five-star catering hall, I saw a different way of seeing the restaurant [industry]. There were different ways to do it. So, I signed up for that. And then I fell in love with the actual job and I pushed myself to become a restauranteur. My dream always was to have a restaurant and here we are.”

De Vivo attended culinary school in Puglia. He earned his degree from I.I.S.S. Consoli Pinto, Instituto Alberghiero e Tecnico Commerciale

di Castellana Grotte. At 21-yearsold —after being in the army, which was mandatory at the time—De Vivo came to America for vacation. He decided to plant his feet in America as the opportunities were far greater than in his home country to begin his culinary journey.

“In Italy, life is beautiful; you enjoy the life and everything, but it’s hard to move up, unless you come from a very wealthy family and that wasn’t my case,” De Vivo explained. “We were okay, but not wealthy. So, I decided to move over here [to America] and go forth with my dream.”

La Nonna Bella translates to ‘the beautiful grandmother.’ The menu

reflects fresh Italian food with an emphasis on the flavors that you would expect to find in the Puglia region.

“The food from Puglia is so versatile because you are by the water and you are also inland,” De Vivo described. “You got from the gamey meat inland to all the different seafood and fish by the coast, and me growing up five kilometers from the coast, it was right in between the water and the mainland, so I was exposed to both of them so I try to include those ingredients into my menu. I want to keep my roots alive here in the states. I want to show off my customs

see LA NONNA BELLA on page 4B OCTOBER 14 - 20, 2020 • FALL DINING GUIDE | 3B

LA NONNA BELLA from page 3B and where I come from.”

All of La Nonna Bella’s cuisine is made fresh and made to order. De Vivo uses only the finest ingredients for each dish. Every year, De Vivo goes back home to Puglia as part of a business trip to discover fresh and new ingredients to put on La Nonna Bella’s menu.

“A lot of my friends, they own restaurants, own cafés, own bakeries or hotels,” he explained. “All of my family is there. Every summer, I make a point to send my kids with my wife.

We all go so they can know my roots, my customs, my family, my parents, my grandparents and they see the style of life. When I go back there, knowing all those people, reuniting with everybody we exchange ideas. They want to know more about the cooking style over here and of course I want to be more into the new style of cuisine in Italy. That’s why we exchange ideas, recipes, tips and ingredients.”

De Vivo does in fact have his favorites on the menu. His favorites include appetizers, cestino di fava e cicoria and salame di cinghiale. In the entrée category, he enjoys cavatelli conversanese. For dessert, his favorites are sporcamuss and gelato. Cestino di fava e cicoria is fava bean purée and chicory on crostino with fried onions. Salame di cinghiale is wild boar salami with De Vivo’s own spin—walnuts, apples, shaved parmigiano cheese and truffle honey. Cavatelli conversanese is a pasta dish made with handmade cavatelli, carmelized onion, fava beans and spinach. Sporcamuss is a classic Italian dessert, which is a puff pastry filled with Italian pastry cream atop mixed berries and powdered sugar. Lastly on De Vivo’s list is gelato, which comes in a variety of flavors at La Nonna Bella.

La Nonna Bella has been under the ownership of De Vivo and his wife Erica for 11 years, along with a partner. He became the owner of the restaurant through an interesting chain of events.

“I was working for this place and it was called already La Nonna Bella,” he said. “They were in business for about a year. I decided that I didn’t see any future over here in this restaurant for me with the previous owner. I decided to move on to another place. I had a great opportunity that I could take, but before I did that, I asked the previous owner, ‘I’m going to leave. I have this great opportunity, unless you want to sell this place to me. I love the name. I will keep the name, because everyone has a beautiful grandmother.’ She agreed with me and I took over the place.”

To learn more about La Nonna Bella or to reserve a table, call 516-248-0366 or visit www.lanonnabella.com/

Scarpariello: boneless chicken sautéed with handmade sausage, artichoke hearts, lemon, rosemary, roasted garlic in a brown sauce.

Strascinate Pugliesi: fresh leaf shaped pasta with broccoli rabe, handmade sausage in roasted garlic and extra virgin olive oil.

4B | FALL DINING GUIDE • OCTOBER 14 - 20, 2020

Profiteroles: filled cream puffs covered in chocolate sauce.

(Photos by Emily Sauchelli)

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OCTOBER 14 - 20, 2020 • FALL DINING GUIDE | 5B

ITALIAN ESSENTIALS

Think Like An Italian Chef

Top three items you need in your kitchen

BY EMILY SAUCHELLI esauchelli@antonnews.com

Every cook has their staple ingredients that they use on a daily basis. If you’re looking to cook Italian food, there are three ingredients that you should always have on hand. Using these ingredients will make you a star in your kitchen. Once you try these staples, you’ll never want to go back to your previous cooking ways again.

Garlic Garlic is one of the single most-important ingredients you will need if you are cooking Italian food. Almost every recipe calls for it as it works to enhance sauces, can act as a topping and adds immense flavor to any dish. Fresh garlic bulbs are the best to use, however if you’re in a pinch, store bought minced garlic works just as well.

It’s best to keep garlic refrigerated once you open it and you can always put some in your closet to store when you need it.

Use garlic sparingly though as ‘a little goes a long way.’

Extra-Virgin Olive oil Olive oil acts as the base to many Italian dishes. Buying quality olive oil is important as the flavor is what gives your dish a leg up. Olive oil can be used in a variety of ways such as sauces and dressings. The best kind of olive oil to get is olive oil from Italy. You know it is the best and the freshest when it is made in the motherland. If you can’t find olive oil that is from Italy, look for the quality of the oil you’re buying. The

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better the quality, the better the oil tastes. Also, if there is a sale on your favorite olive-oil—stock up. It’s better to have more than not enough.

Mozzarella Cheese Mozzarella cheese is one of the best cheeses to use in Italian cooking. Whether it is fresh or pasteurized, this cheese adds a ton of flavor to a variety of dishes. It’s important to have fresh or pasteurized in the fridge because you never know when it might come in handy.

Mozzarella pairs well with wine and crackers, tastes delicious on pizza and is a great melter.

The options for using mozzarella are endless.

There are so many variations, you can truly make any dish your own.

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RECIPE

A Chance Of Meatballs

Everyone ♥’s

A classic and comforting Italian staple

BY EMILY SAUCHELLI esauchelli@antonnews.com

Meatballs and sauce are the epitome of what it means to grow up in an Italian household. It is such a common comfort recipe and almost every family has their own version. Although everyone’s recipes can be different from one another, one thing remains true—meatballs and sauce aren’t going out of style—its a dish that’s here to stay. Serve with a side salad and pasta—either dried or fresh—and buon appetito.

Ingredients: (Meatballs) 1 lb chopped meat 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs 1/4 cup grated cheese

pinch of salt pinch of pepper 2 teaspoons minced garlic 1/2 cup chopped parsley

1) Using a large bowl, combine chopped meat, breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, cheese and garlic.

2) Using a wooden spoon, stir mixture to incorporate all of the ingredients.

3) Form meat mixture into circular balls and place in pan to brown 4) Brown on both sides first then add sauce on top.

5) Cook meatballs in the sauce for 30 minutes.

Ingredients: (Sauce) 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes (preferably Tuttoroso) 1 can tomato paste 2 cloves garlic olive oil (enough to fill your pot)

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1 teaspoon basil 1 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon basil 2 bay leaves

1) Pour olive oil into pot to thinly cover the bottom.

2) Sauté garlic and put in crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Give a few stirs to blend sauce together.

3) Add salt, basil, oregano and bay leaves and stir to combine.

4) Let sauce simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes.

5) Continuously stir every 20 minutes or so to make sure sauce is well incorporated.

6) Make sure you don’t leave any brown bits at the bottom of the pan.

Remember to scrape pot thoroughly before finished cooking.

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