Italian Cooking & Language Blog

Fare La Scarpetta means to wipe your plate clean with a piece of bread.

What else could you ask for?

Monday, September 3, 2012

Founding Farmers Restaurant in D.C. and Laico's Restaurant in New Jersey: Straw & Hay Pasta


Founding Farmers' Stray and Hay 

When I was a kid, my grandparents used to take me to eat at Laico's Italian Restaurant in Jersey City, New Jersey. I would always order the "straw and hay" pasta. A ginormous dish of pasta with a creamy sauce, bacon and peas would come out and I'm pretty sure I always ate the whole thing. 

Founding Farmers Restaurant in Washington, D.C., offers a delicious version of this dish with homemade, wide noodles. They add in some vegetables for good measure: asparagus and mushrooms. While a heavy pasta dish isn't a recommended hot-summer's-day meal, it was worth a taste of childhood. 

To prepare your own Stray and Hay pasta dish, you might try Wolfgang Puck's recipe, with or without the two types of pasta (two types seems a little fussy.) I think I'll be returning to my childhood the next time I'm in New Jersey for Laico's (updated?) version of "Paglia e Fieno" with shrimp and scallops and some vodka thrown in for good measure. 

Photos from our Founding Farmers brunch:

Deviled Eggs

Super spicy Bloody Marys and Beignets with three sauces 
(raspberry, chocolate and caramel)

Eggs Benedict

Red Velvet Cake




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