Italian Sausage and Linguine at the Italian Oven in Stockbridge, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Italians Sausage and Linguine at the Italian Oven in Stockbridge, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

One of my favorite places to eat lunch in Georgia is the Italian Oven in Stockbridge about thirty minutes south of downtown Atlanta. 

On my most recent visit to the Italian Oven, I tried several dishes that I could make at home with a little planning even if I do not have the restaurant’s secret seasoning mix. Every southern restaurant seems to have a secret seasoning mix, which makes it only possible for reviewer’s to give an approximation of a dish’s flavor. However, it is worth describing dishes for their nutritional and economical value. 

The first dish I tried at the Italian Oven is a perfect example of these values: sautéed slices of yellow Italian squash with lemony yellow horseradish mayonnaise. The squash slices were very thin from being cut with a mandolin. Squash is a little bland without a coating of horseradish mayonnaise that clears your sinuses and makes you feel healthy from all the Vitamin C in the horseradish 

My main dish was sautéed Italian sausage with strips of sweet red peppers sautéed in olive oil with garlic with linguine added. This dish requires two sauté pans in addition to a pot of boiling water for the linguine.

In the first pan, you sauté slices of Italian sausage until they render fat. The sausage they use at the Italian oven is pork from an acorn-fed pig. The sausage is dark colored with a nutty flavor. When the sausage is sautéed, it has a beautiful aroma of anise (black licorice flavor) from the fennel that is used to season it. This pan’s contents cook while the second pan also has items cooking. 

In the second pan, you sauté strips of sweet red pepper with garlic and olive oil until they are soft. Then, once the linguine is cooked, you add the drained linguine to the sweet peppers and toss them together. After that, you add the sliced cooked sausage to the linguine as toss them together. 

This aromatic combination arrives at the table sizzling hot at the Italian Oven where they grate Parmesan cheese over it. This dish is delicious for someone like me who likes pork. 

For dessert, I at a classic layered tiramisu dessert made with Savoiardi lady finger cookies, mascarpone cheese, stiff whipped cream, espresso coffee, coffee liqueur, and cocoa powder dusted on top. This dessert is a luscious treat for coffee lovers. 

Without reservation, I would say that this was another superlative meal at the Italian Oven in Stockbridge, Georgia that I would recommend to other diners. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Thriftbooks.com is carrying my books!

Thank you Thriftbooks.com for carrying Eating Soup with Chopsticks!

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chosticks and Marrying France

Thank You Biblio.co.uk by Ruth Paget

Thank you Biblio.co.uk for carrying my book Eating Soup with Chopsticks!

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Mager’s & Quinn is Carrying my Book by Ruth Paget

Thank you Mager’s and Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis, Minnesota for carrying my book Eating Soup with Chopsticks about living in Japan as an exchange student!

Best wishes,

Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe Created by Ruth Paget 

Serves 4 

Ingredients: 

-1 pound bag of cleaned lettuce 

-6 medium Campari tomatoes 

-1/2 red onion 

-black, pitted Kalamata olives (optional)

-4 chicken breasts (about 1 pound all together)

-3 tablespoons olive oil 

-oil and vinegar dressing or lemon juice and oil dressing 

Steps: 

1-Rinse 1 pound lettuce in cold water and drain it to perk it up and chill it. Mound lettuce in a large serving bowl. 

2-Rinse tomatoes. Cut them into sixths. Place tomato slices in a separate bowl. 

3-Peel red onion and slice it thinly. Place onion slices in a separate bowl. 

4-Place black olives in a separate bowl.  

5-Cook chicken for 5 to 6 minutes per side. Cut to verify it is thoroughly cooked. The flesh should be white not pink when it is cooked. Cut the chicken into cubes and place in a separate bowl. 

6-Place on all bowls on table with serving utensils, so diners can personalize their salad.

If possible, sprinkle fresh chopped chives or parsley on the salad.

(Note: You can substitute tuna, canned black beans, sesame seeds, or cheese cubes for the chicken or offer all of them for an eclectic dinner party.) 

(Note: Table wine can easily be turned into vinegar to use in vinegar and oil dressing - 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard for 2 to 3 people.  Maille or Pommery Dijon mustards are both good.  Sunflower oil can be used for a true Burgundy vinaigrette.)

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Salade Niçoise with Salmon at Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, California by Ruth Paget

Salade Niçoise with Salmon at Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, California by Ruth Paget 

Rainy and foggy weather in Los Gatos, California located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains whets the appetite for three-course lunches at Chez Philippe. 

On a recent visit for my husband Laurent’s birthday with our daughter Florence Paget, we all started our meal with escargots, snails baked with butter, parsley, and breadcrumbs. The sauce was excellent for dipping baguette slices in. 

For our main dishes, Laurent ate mussels steamed with white wine and crème fraîche with chopped parsley added at the end with fries on the side while Florence ate steak with fries. Both were reliably great and delicious just like in UNESCO world heritage bistros in Paris. 

It was not my birthday, but I think I got the best main dish – the salade Niçoise with seared wild salmon. Every French chef who lives near Alaska or the Alaska Current in the Pacific would probably choose to use “local” salmon in their American renditions of this classic French dish. 

At Chez Philippe, this spectacular salad comes with:  

-6 seasoned and seared chunks of wild salmon 

-slender French green beans cut into one-inch segments 

-slices of white onion soaked previously in water so they taste sweet 

-meaty anchovies 

-sliced boiled eggs with canary yellow yolks 

-tomato slices

-black olive slices 

-sweet red pepper slices

-boiled potato wedges

 -fresh baby greens 

This wonderful combination was tossed with a vinaigrette made with the addition of Dijon mustard.   (Champagne would probably go well with this dish or a Bloody Mary cocktail.)

Laurent ate a birthday mousse while Florence and I shared a crème caramel. 

We all had fun and ate very well at Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, California for Laurent’s birthday. 

For French food in a relaxed atmosphere, Chez Philippe is the place for lunch Los Gatos. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Shrimp Cocktail and Chile Verde from Super Pollo in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Gulf Coast Fare from Super Pollo in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Super Pollo Taquería in Salinas, California offers delicious Gulf Coast Texan and Mexican fare for everyday dinners and special events. 

For my December birthday, I ordered a tonic winter meal made up of shrimp cocktail, chile verde con puerco, and Spanish rice. 

Super Pollo stuffs a large beverage container with briny shrimp that swim in a sea of pico de gallo salsa topped off with slices of avocado for its shrimp cocktail. 

Pico de gallo salsa is made with chopped red pepper, onions, tomates, and cilantro with the addition of spicy peppers and Tapatío hot sauce for Super Pollo’s shrimp cocktail. I wanted to eat the shrimp cocktail on a blustery day on a sailboat, but was happy at home with a Monterey Beer from Alvarado Street Brewery. 

Chile verde con puerco is made by browning onions and pork and making a spicy green sauce, the chile verde, to go with the browned pork. 

To make childe verde sauce, you roast Mexican tomatillo green peppers (minus the papery skin), jalapeño peppers and Anaheim or Poblano peppers. Once roasted, you place these items in a blender with a bunch of cilantro leaves, chopped yellow onions, and chicken stock and purée the sauce. 

You warm the sauce and browned pork cubes together and then serve the chile verde with Spanish rice. Spanish rice is made with chicken stock and tomato juice and is so delicious you can practically make a meal of it alone. 

This is a large and delicious meal. I add leftover chile verde to chicken noodle soup for a boost of Vitamin C. (I also add leftover salsa to chicken noodle soup for another meal for a Vitamin C and flavor boost as well.) 

If you want a tonic Tex-Mex meal in winter, the shrimp cocktail and chile verde meal I ordered à la carte at Super Pollo is pretty hard to beat.   

Salinas could do food tourism with all the Tex-Mex restaurants we have in town.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books