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
