Drunken Noodles, Italian Style

There are some items on a menu that I simply must have or I kick myself for days afterward for not ordering: Kevin Gibson's deviled eggs at Evoe; the cornmeal crusted oysters at Bread & Ink Café; the charred brussels sprouts at Ned Ludd.

Another item on that list is the to-die-for penne alla vodka at Three Doors Down which, depending on the time of year or the whim of the chef, can change to tortiglioni or some other pasta, but the rich, reduced tomato sauce and outstanding house-made Italian sausages remain reassuringly the same.

They also considerately deemed to put the recipe for this addictively luscious dish on their website so that we may have it any time we've a mind to and there are Italian sausages in the fridge. This fortunate confluence of events happened here just last night, and the resulting dish was a fit-for-company triumph.

If time is an issue, the sausages could be boiled ahead of time and kept in the fridge, and the spoon-lickingly delicious sauce could be assembled to the point of adding the cream and then held for the final simmering and baking. But I'm telling you, whether you make it at home or see it on the menu the next time you go to the café, you'll be putting it on your must-have list.

Three Doors Down Penne alla Vodka

1 lb. penne
6 mild Italian sausages
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 med. onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes
2 28-oz. cans Italian tomatoes
1 c. vodka
1 c. whipping cream
1 1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 c. Parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
Fresh oregano, finely chopped, for sprinkling (optional)

In a large pot, bring water to boil. Add the sausage links and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the links and set aside. In a heavy-bottomed saute pan or skillet, melt the butter and add onion and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium-low heat until onion is translucent. Stir in the whole tomatoes with liquid and simmer for one hour. Add the sausage links and vodka and continue to cook at a simmer for another hour. Turn the heat to high, add cream and tomato paste and stir constantly for 10 minutes. Reduce to simmer and continue to cook for another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Drop the pasta in the boiling water and cook, stirring frequently until molto al dente (about 1 minute from al dente-which is tender but firm to the bite). Drain well and toss pasta and sauce in casserole dish with 2/3 cup grated cheese. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup cheese on top. Sprinkle with oregano and serve.

Make sure to serve with a nice crusty italian como or ciabatta bread for dunking in the sauce. We like to drizzle a tiny bit of extra virgin Olive oil over the top right before serving. This is a great dish for company.

Friends Getting Their Props

My friends Bruce and Mary Fishback at Bread & Ink Cafe (mentioned here recently for their ramps specials) just got a love note from Gourmet magazine for Mary's brilliant Waffle Window, which has become a must-stop destination for waffle lovers far and wide. (Mentioned on GSNW right after it opened about...oh...two years ago.) Writer Giovanna Zivny effuses:

"Okay, I’ll say it: This place is adorable. It’s really a waffle Dutch door—a bright blue one in the red brick wall of longtime Portland restaurant Bread and Ink, which opened the waffle shop in 2007. The Liège-style waffles come plain or with creative topping combinations, and the Three Bs (pepper bacon, Brie, and basil, with a spoonful of homemade peach jam; $4) is a crowd favorite. I’m more partial to the scoop of quivering lemon panna cotta with a thick drizzle of huckleberry jam and whipped cream ($4). They’ve set aside a small seating area inside the restaurant for rainy-day waffle eaters."

All I can say to Gourmet is, "What took you so long?"

Details: Waffle Window, 3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Phone 503-239-4756.

In Season: Ramp It Up!

They're in season but, sadly, not around here. The habitat for Allium tricoccum, commonly known as ramps, is pretty much relegated to the eastern half of the US (see map below). But fortunately for us, several restaurants in the area will be including them on the menu in the next month or so.

Our friends Bruce and Mary Fishback at Bread & Ink Cafe love this odd member of the onion family and bring in some every year to feature as specials. We joined them for dinner the other night and got to try several dishes, starting with the sautéed ramps salad with ricotta cakes and orange (top photo). The cooked ramps were tender and tasted much like sauteed green onions, and I asked Bruce why ramps have the reputation of being strong-flavored and stinky when these clearly were not.

His conjecture was that ramps can become more strongly flavored as they mature and these, being about as slender as cooked spaghetti, were extremely young and tender. This was proven by the several strands of raw ramps on the side which were lovely when sliced and eaten with the ricotta cakes, orange and chevre.

The ramps with asparagus and prosciutto on polenta (right) was the essence of spring, the ramps lending a lightly garlic-and-onion backdrop to the crisp green spears of asparagus. The other entree, ramps with spaghetti, wasn't listed on the menu but was basically pangrattato tossed with sauteed ramps, a simple and delicious way to enjoy these unusual harbingers of spring.

Ramps are also being featured on the café's breakfast menu, but you'll need to get in soon or, like spring itself, they'll be gone before you know it.

Details: Bread & Ink Cafe, 3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Phone 503-239-4756.

Waffle Window Hits the Big Time

It's always wonderful when the people you love experience success. New job, children, new house, a long-awaited adventure; it's all worth celebrating, not to mention cheering about. When I originally wrote about my friend Mary Fishback's successful quest to recreate the Belgian street waffles her sons had discovered on a trip to that country, I knew she'd hit on something special.

Then when she repurposed an unused back hallway of her and husband Bruce's Hawthorne restaurant, Bread & Ink Café, and opened the Waffle Window, I knew it was just a matter of time before it hit that special nerve that brings Portlanders running.

Well, it looks like she's hit the big time now, with a photo and mention in the national edition of AAA's Via Magazine about Portland's eastside dining scene. How long will it take for mentions in Gourmet and Bon Appetit? Stay tuned, 'cause I'm betting it's soon. Congrats, Mary!

Details: Waffle Window, 3610 SE Hawthorne at the blue doorway on the 36th Street side of the building. Phone 503-239-4756.

Waffle Window

Remember those old movies about Prohibition where a couple walks down a dark street late at night, into an alley and up to an unmarked doorway? Then one of them knocks three times and a little slot slides open, squinty eyes peer out, secret words are mumbled, the door opens, and sounds of laughter and music tumble out into the dark alley, revealing a brightly lit room full of people drinking and dancing.

A secret spot like that has just opened on SE Hawthorne, and you have to have heard about it to find it. And instead of demon drink, this place dishes out sweet Belgian waffles, muffins, scones, hot chocolate and coffee from its decidedly cheery doorway.

As for those waffles, you may recall a previous post discussing these European treats. The brainchild of Mary Fishback of Bread & Ink Cafe, this blue doorway on the side of the cafe serves these delicious bits of decadence plain, chocolate dipped, with berries and cream, with nutella and banana or with a hot apple pie topping for only $2 to $4. Incredible! (That's Bruce Fishback's boyish mug just waiting to serve you.)

So slip on by sometime soon. The secret password is "GoodStuffNW!"

Details: The Waffle Window at Bread & Ink Cafe. Open 10 am-6 pm Sat. & Sun. On the 36th St. side of the cafe at 3610 SE Hawthorne. Phone 503-239-4756.

More Lunchin', Ladies!

There are some restaurants you go to and you know exactly where you are. Bread & Ink Cafe on Hawthorne feels exactly like a Portland cafe should. Open room, great local history (it was the original location of Fred Meyer's first store in the 30s), comfortable chairs, good solid food with clean flavors. L'Auberge back in the day, or Castagna now. On the opposite end are the corporate restaurants all the way from fast food drive-throughs to places like Chevy's where the one here will have identical siblings in Anchorage and Miami and Kansas City.

Then there are those places like Fenouil that are perfectly lovely but make you feel like you could be in San Francisco or Palm Springs. It's not that they're corporate so much as they somehow lack a sense that they're made from the fabric of the place they are in. Is it just me, or am I missing something?

Regardless, the food here is quite good judging by the lunch I had, a duck confit with flageolet beans, one Armagnac prune (not the advertised plural) and a strange little bit of undressed frisee. The duck was outstanding, the skin crackly and rich with fat, perfectly salted and meltingly tender. The beans had a nice al dente quality and a slightly smoky tinge that made them irresistible.

My dining partner KC ordered the Niçoise salad, a nice version with a big piece of seared tuna on top of greens and surrounded by haricots verts, potatoes, olives and a hard-boiled egg. She was even kind enough to let me pull out my camera and take pictures of the food, a kind of occupational hazard when you agree to dine with a blogger.

Last but not least we had coffee rather than dessert. The only reason that this is worth mentioning is that their coffee service is quite charming, a little set piece of coffee (in a cup, not a mug) with lumps of sugar (brown and white) and a little thimble-full of cream on a white platter.

This is an ideal place to bring your mother, your auntie or your just-graduated eighth-grade niece for lunch. And the large new Parisian-style outdoor dining area facing Jamison Square park looks like the it's going to be a popular place to sit outside on a warm night and survey the denizens (and denizen wannabes) of the Pearl. I just wish I knew where I was.

Details: Fenouil in the Pearl, 900 NW 11th Ave. Phone 503-525-2225.

Raves for Crab Bruschetta!

When the big guys start to notice you, then you know you're on the right track. Our very good friends Bruce and Mary at Bread and Ink Café on Hawthorne have been getting a nice little bit of attention lately from Splendid Table regulars and road food mavens Jane and Michael Stern.

The first couple of highway hideaways feature a review in their latest book, Roadfood Sandwiches, lauding the yumminess of a recent addition to the menu, a brilliant combination of fresh Dungeness crab and wasabi that is baked and sprinkled with pine nuts. Called, naturally enough, Crab Bruschetta, Stern raves:

"You must eat crab when you visit the Pacific Northwest, especially if it’s the local Dungeness. This sandwich is a multi-napkin job. It’s open-faced, so it’s your call if you want to eat it with a knife and fork. You can pick it up, though there’s bound to be some slippage and drippage. But that’s the fun of the crab bruschetta. It can be a tasty hors d’oeuvre or a satisfying meal."

The review was also picked up by Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, and Mary says people have been coming in from as far away as Missouri and Birmingham, Alabama, just to have it. Big congrats, guys!

Details: Bread and Ink Café, 3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Phone 503-239-4756.

Food Alert: RAMPS!

Just got a note from Mary Fishback at Bread & Ink Cafe that they're going to be featuring a very special ingredient from tonight through the weekend. Ramps, or allium ampeloprasum, are wild leeks and, according to the Wikipedia, are found from South Carolina to Canada in the late winter and early spring. They have a pronounced flavor of onions and garlic and are traditionally prepared "fried with potatoes in bacon grease or scrambled with eggs and served with bacon, pinto beans, and cornbread."

This is the second year that Bruce and Mary have brought in ramps from their secret Southern source, and Mary says that from tonight (Tues., 4/3) through Easter Sunday they'll have "ramp pesto pasta and polenta with ramps for evening specials - unless we decide to do something else." Ramps will be featured in breakfast specials on Saturday and Sunday, as well. See you there!

Details: Bread & Ink Cafe, 3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Phone 503-239-4756.

Waffle-icious!

Bread and Ink, that cornerstone of life on SE Hawthorne for more than 20 years now, has added Belgian waffles to their menu. How does a Belgian waffle differ from the regular waffle we're used to seeing at Denny's throughout the land? Well, that's what proprietor and dessert maven Mary Fishback set out to resolve after her sons came back from a month in Europe raving about the waffles they'd bought at street carts in Brussels.

The problem was getting the right texture and flavor combination that allows this hand-snack to be consumed while walking the ancient city. Mary discovered that it's a special kind of sugar, called pearl sugar, that's added to the batter just before pouring it into the waffle iron that gives the yeast batter its unique portability.

They'll be serving these treats topped with seasonal fruits and maple syrup and mascarpone, and you may even see them popping up on the evening dessert menu. So if a trip to Brussels isn't in your immediate future, head over to Hawthorne for this most Belgian of treats.

Details: Bread and Ink Cafe, 3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Phone 503-239-4756.