Foodie Field Trip to Freddy's

There's a little Italian gem that is near and dear to my heart, it's located on a corner in a very unpretentious neighborhood, the name of that gem is called Freddy's Pizza, but don't let the name fool you, this is so much more than a pizza place, Freddy's is a landmark!
We've been going to Freddy's for years, ever since my kids were little, and today with families of their own they still continue to go, it's that kind of place, once you go, you're hooked for good!

Last week my girlfriends and I went to Freddy's for lunch, we arrived right before they opened , got a little table in their screened in area and managed to order our lunch before the constant flood of patrons started forming a line. This is a small place, the aisles are tight but nobody cares because you're here for the food, Italian ice and gelato, and it's so worth the wait!

Owner Joe Quercia who emigrated from Naples, Italy and his wonderful wife Ann Marie treat you like family when you walk in, no matter how busy they are they never seem to get flustered and always take the time to walk around asking how everything is, always making you feel welcome.

The aisles are filled with imported pastas, oils, giardinara, eggplant salad and various other Italian goodies, ( too many to mention). Farther down the small aisle you'll hit the deli section filled with imported cheese and meats, fresh mozzarella, homemade sopressata and the most delicious Italian sausage. Warm crusty bread and foccacia is brought out before you and smells are so enticing you just can't resist! Have I mentioned the pepperoni bread? Oh my, when you see it you can't hesitate for a second, because it will be gone!

A slight turn from the deli and you start seeing all the fresh homemade Italian specialties lined up, platter after platter of beautifully presented food. This is old world cooking made with loving hands and the taste confirms it all!

Lemon chicken, eggplant, meatballs, sausage and peppers, Italian beef, prosciutto sandwiches on focaccia, to name a few.

Antipasto everywhere, seafood salad, fried artichokes, roman style artichokes, garlicky rapini, ( Outstanding, I get some every time) arancini, salami salad, caprese, garbanzo bean, I could go on and on!

As you walk along the counter it's almost impossible to make choices because everything looks so amazing!

Thin crust, thick crust, Neapolitan style pizza with every different combination you can think of coming out of the oven piping hot!

Homemade ravioli, gnocchi, and various other pastas bathing in the most delectable sauce.

In the mood for risotto? No problem, it's there for you in all it's creamy glory!

That prosciutto just melts in your mouth!

We have a system when we go there, someone holds the table and a couple of us go up and start ordering, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, old favorites and something new, it dosen't matter what you get, it's all good!.
We bring it back to the table and savor every bite.

No fine china here, heavy duty paper plates with plastic forks and spoons, this was our glutinous table we could barely fit all the plates on. I'm still dreaming about those green olives, so creamy and buttery, I made sure they were all gone before we left.

After we're done eating we go back in for dessert, gelato and Italian ice is a must!

When we're done with dessert it's time to shop for goodies to bring home. A loaf or two of pepperoni bread will always go home with me along with a couple pounds of sausage.

Their Italian ice, what can I say, I crave it on a hot summer day, let's just say we've made many trips out there just for that over the years. Their gelato is amazing, no wonder it has been voted "Best gelato in all of Chicago" by Chicago Magazine!

One lick and you're transported to Italy!

So when you go you absolutely have to try both the Italian ice and the gelato, it's a must!

Here's my friends loaded down with goodies to take home.

I did some shopping too!

I told you I love the pepperoni bread!

In close, if you live in the Chicagoland area and have never been to Freddy's plan to go ASAP, you'll thank me later!

Freddy's Pizza

1600 South 61st. Ave.

Cicero (2 blocks West of Austin Blvd)

M-Sat 10 - 7

Closed Sundays

Cash Only!

The Thrill of the Grill!

I made this fish yesterday, it was 98 degrees out and my oven wasn't going on. It's so quick to put together, it cooks up fast and the taste? Well, you'll just have to try it, all I can say is that you won't be disappointed!

I take a shallow baking sheet and wrap the top and bottom with tin foil. Drizzle olive oil on the bottom, and add thinly sliced garlic on the top. Place your fish fillets over the sliced garlic, I used tilapia.

Season your fish with salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of paprika for color. Toss in some fresh herbs, I used parsley and basil. Add sliced cherry tomatoes, and kalamata olives and a small handful of capers. Scatter a few lemon slices around and add some of the juice. Finish off by drizzling olive oil all over.

Place the pan on a hot grill and close the lid. The smell is intoxicating as the garlic starts cooking and infuses the fish. When your fish is firm to the touch, it's done! This is great for a crowd, you can even use shrimp and a 1/2 sheet pan for more space. For my 4 fillets I just used a 1/4 sheet pan.

The flavors all blend together leaving an exceptional taste!

Straight from the farmers market, fresh asparagus and sweet knobby onions. ( that's what I call them.) You got to have some veggies on the side!

When I see pretty artichokes I can't resist them, I love them grilled and I often make them throughout the summer, a great way to start out your meal!

Basically I trim and quarter my artichokes and slowly boil them until tender. I let them cool completely down, then I pull out the choke and prickly leaves. Place the quartered artichokes in a bowl, drizzle olive oil all over, place grated romano cheese between the leaves along with salt, pepper, finely chopped garlic and fresh parsley. Place them on a hot grill turning them over until the cheese gets crusty and garlic cooks, it just takes a few minutes.

So good!

NRA SHOW 2011

Recently I attended the 92ND Annual National Restaurant Association show at McCormick Place, Chicago. Oh what a fun time it was, sensory overload in the best kind of way! Celebrity chefs cooking up close and personal, chit chatting with the audience while the room filled with the smells of their signature dishes. The day I arrived at the culinary showcase arena, Chef Kevin Sbraga, winner of Top Chef DC Season 7, was demonstrating how he smokes olive oil, a trend that's really taking off, (more about that later) and right after that, Chef Rick Tramonto, a well known Chicago chef and cookbook author, started cooking up some good old fashioned Italian comfort food.

Rick Bayless, Marcus Samuelsson, Wylie Dufrense, Gayle Gand and many others were a part of this years show.
The visuals were a food lovers dream, sort of like Disneyworld for foodies! Walls and walls of the latest gadgets, top quality knives of every kind, beautiful platters and plates in all different colors, shapes and designs.
Food companies from all over represented their very best, I was surprised to see how many Italian products were featured, breads, olives, oils, vinegars, pastas, gelato, coffee, espresso, desserts, cheese everywhere you turned, meats, believe me I could go on and on!
Did I tell you there were samples everywhere! Smiling faces ready to pitch their products, and eager for you to taste. I told you it was fun!
High end pastas in wonderful shapes coming straight from Italy.
Entrepreneurs of all sorts looking for distributors.
Dietz and Watson always had a huge crowd around them as the fumes of their gourmet chicken sausages filled the air!
Innovative technology was the focus on equipment to run any type of restaurant or food service business.
I want one of these on my kitchen counter!

And this pizza oven in my back yard!

Vendor after vendor representing all the top brands in cookware, bakeware and specialty pots and pans. Waffle and crepe makers filling the air with sweet smells! Panini grills, meatball machines, honestly I haven't even scratched the surface!

Are you ready for some dessert now? How about some Chicago based Eli's Cheesecake.

A little chocolate never hurt anyone!

Or maybe you prefer gelato?
I had a great time navigating all the isles and looking at all the beautiful displays of food. Thank goodness I wore comfortable shoes! I came home with lots of goodies too.

I have to give a shout out to two of my favorite products, Flamous Falafel Chips, they come in original and spicy, all I can say is... FIND THEM!

So addictingly good!

My ultimate favorite food product of the show was this smoked olive oil from a company called, The Smoked Olive. A Napa Valley couple created this award winning olive oil using their own innovative process to infuse extra virgin olive oil with wood smoked flavor without exposing it to light or heat. There business has taken off in a direction they never could have imagined, they knew they were on to something good when celebrity chefs starting endorsing them and international companies started calling.
When I tasted the samples, I immediately fell in love with the flavor, it's so unique, imagine using it with scallops or any type of seafood for that matter, it enhances meats and all sorts of veggies, a little pricey but worth every luxurious drop! There are 3 different versions
do check them out when you get a chance.

The NRA show unfortunately is not open to the public.

Pizza on the Grill

Want something fun to cook on your grill this Memorial Day weekend? If you haven't tried grilling pizza yet, forgive me, but what are you waiting for? The texture you get from the dough cooking on the grill is incredible! Light, crispy and crunchy!

Start with good quality dough, either homemade or storebought. Let it come to room temperature before you even attempt to roll it out. I like to cut my dough ball in half, it's much easier to manage on the grill.

Make sure your grill is super clean and all that former BBQ sauce has been burned off and scraped clean. Get the grill nice and hot, coasting on medium high. Your dough is going to cook up so fast, so don't walk away, it can burn!

Fresh, lighter ingredients work best for grilled pizza, have everything ready to go because things go really fast! For this pizza I used veggies that I grilled the day before, eggplant, zucchini, red and yellow peppers with fresh mozzarella for my cheese, all on top of a light tomato sauce base.

In the past I've made many margherita pizza's, you can't go wrong with that, or just melt your favorite cheese on the dough and when its done add some prosciutto and arugula, actually that's one of my absolute favorites!

Think caramelized onions, pancetta with blue cheese, feta or goat, cherry tomatoes tossed with fresh basil and olive oil spread all over creamy bubbly cheese. Another favorite of mine is shrimp with pesto, I could just ramble on and on for an hour about all the good combinations you can make! Chicken is good too, alright, alright I'll stop!

No matter how hard I try my pizza never comes out round, I roll it out round but when I plop it on the grill it morphs into another shape, who cares, it's all about the taste!

And believe me it tastes phenomenal! Pour yourself some wine or grab a beer, ice tea or lemonade and enjoy casual dining at it's finest!

Here's what you do:

Heat your clean grill up to a medium high heat, I like to oil my grill grates a little too.** While the grill is heating up, roll your room temperature dough out and brush the top with olive oil** Place dough, oiled side down on grill, don't move it, it will start to bubble up and cook, use tongs and check the bottom side it should look crispy with nice grill marks, once cooked it will be easy to flip** Pull it off, lower your heat and add all your toppings on the cooked side.** Place pizza back on the grill and when the cheese is all melted and bubbly and the underside is cooked it's done.

Happy Grilling!

My Idea of Fast Food

Whenever I need to make a quick dinner, my go to meal is always something made with pasta. Having my pantry stocked with a variety of pasta shapes, we never ever get bored! There's always fresh vegetables handy here and using just a few other basic Italian staples you can get something fresh, fabulous and fast on the table in less than 30 minutes!

My pasta of choice for this meal was Tripoline which looks like the long curly edges of lasagne. Put a pot of water on for the pasta and while that's heating up, take a saute pan and drizzle the bottom with olive oil then add in 4 or 5 cloves of chopped garlic. When the garlic gets golden brown toss in a pint or more of cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half and seasoned with salt and pepper, cook gently until softened.

Drain the pasta ( I used a 1/2 lb.) and stir it into the skillet. Add a handful of arugula or two, and 1/2 cup of cubed and drained fresh mozzarella, asiago is good too! Toss until the leaves wilt and the cheese melts slightly. Add some reserved pasta water if needed, more olive oil and a generous handful of grated romano or parmesan cheese.

The combination of flavors blend so well together it might not make it to the table!

Just saying!

No doubt you'll have some arugula leftover, don't waste it, toss it into a bowl and make this incredible salad of arugula, shaved fennel, toasted walnuts with a simple dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, all topped off with thin shavings of Grana Padano.

This is so good, I promise you'll want to make it over and over again!

Buon Appetito!