When Carbone, the high-profile wiseguys restaurant from Major Food Group, introduced its jarred pasta sauces in 2021, missing from the lineup was the restaurant’s signature Alla Vodka. Now it is finally swaggering onto supermarket shelves and online. Eric Skae, the chief executive of Carbone Fine Foods, said the goal was to replicate the restaurant experience, and that took a long time at the stove. For freshness, they wound up omitting the usual cream from the tomato and Calabrian chile mixture. Instructions on the label have you add it at home. Vodka sauce, pink, spicy, packing some heat but rarely tasting of vodka, may have originated in New York or in Italy decades ago; its popularity is undimmed. So much so that earlier this year, Heinz in England introduced its version of vodka sauce in collaboration with Absolut, the vodka company with its name on the label. In the United States, jarred vodka sauces are ubiquitous on supermarket shelves. For a new perspective, there’s now tomato alla vodka cannellini beans from Heyday Canning, a new company with a line of seasoned canned beans to serve as is or to add wherever your imagination takes you. And here, too, they’ve skipped the cream to make it vegan; coconut milk is the stand-in. The luscious cannellini in vodka sauce is excellent tossed with the requisite penne or rigatoni. Also in Heyday’s line are enchilada black beans, apricot-glazed baked beans, coconut curry chickpeas, harissa lemon chickpeas, and kimchi sesame navy beans.
Carbone Spicy Vodka World Famous Vodka Sauce, 24 ounces, $23.99 for two, carbonefinefoods.com; Heyday Tomato Alla Vodka Cannellini Beans, 15 ounces, $40 for six, heydaycanning.com.
A French Bakery for the South Fork
The sign on the outbuilding behind the Bridgehampton, N.Y., restaurant Armin & Judy says “Bakery” but there’s also a weathered French tabac symbol hanging there. The official name is Armin & Judy Boulangerie & Grocer. Tabac notwithstanding, it’s the bread sold here that’s the draw. The bakery has finally opened after more than three years of incubation, and remains open daily until the breads, including excellent baguettes, rounds of plain, seeded, walnut-raisin and olive sourdough, and breakfast pastries run out in early afternoon. It also stocks French tableware, ingredients like imported pastas, coffee, cheeses, caviar and condiments. The baker in charge of making cookies and pastries in the restaurant’s basement kitchen is Susan Meisel who, with her husband, Lou Meisel, a gallerist who sees to the art in the restaurant, are partners with Judy Bellova, who runs the show, and her husband, Armin.
Armin & Judy Boulangerie & Grocer, 1970 Montauk Highway (Hildreth Lane), Bridgehampton, NY, 631-296-8484, arminandjudy.com.
S’mores and Cheese? Jasper Hill Farm Recommends It.
Jasper Hill Farm’s Harbison, pure ivory satin within a snowy rind wrapped in a band of spruce bark, needs no help. But this summer, to hand a hiking stick to the otherwise elegant disk of cheese, the Greensboro, Vt., dairy has infused the strip of spruce with an essence of smoke. The aroma of an outdoor fire with the embers dying mingles with the cheese’s usual white mushroom presence, ending with a touch of lemon rind. The company recommends serving it with s’mores. Perhaps in place of the marshmallows?
Campfire Harbison $25 for nine ounces, Saxelby Cheesemongers, saxelbycheese.com.
A Fizz and a Slight Buzz Tepache Sazón
Tepache, one of many Mexican homegrown fermented drinks, is said to have originated in the pre-Columbian era and has remained popular ever since. It can be made from many kinds of fruit, though pineapple tops the list. A new brand, Tepache Sazón, made in San Pancho, Mexico on the Pacific Coast just north of Puerto Vallarta, has made its way to the United States. A lightly fizzy, tart-sweet refresher made from pineapple with a smidgen of canela (Mexican cinnamon) and piloncillo sugar, it also has a particular affinity for mezcal. The A.B.V. is seven percent.
Tepache Sazón $19.99 for four 12-ounce bottles, Astor Wine & Spirits, astorwine.com.
All Kinds of Noodle Recipes From Milk Street
If you’re planning pasta without lemons on your shopping list, break a habit. In “Milk Street Noodles,” Christopher Kimball’s in-depth and well-photographed compendium of 125 noodle recipes, many are brightened with lemon, like spaghetti with lemon and Parmesan, and linguine with artichokes, lemon and pancetta, both simple successes. Types of Asian and Italian noodles are defined, and there are instructions for making fresh varieties. The recipes, most of which call for store-bought pasta, are sorted into categories like cold, soup, classics and so forth. Some were inspired by restaurants in various destinations. Cambodian rice noodle salad with shrimp, cucumber and herbs can anchor a summer lunch. Beef chow fun will wait until fall. Mr. Kimball’s cacio e pepe is made with flour, probably a clever hack, but it did not inspire. As for hoisin-ginger noodles? In a heartbeat. Thoughtfully, in the front of the book, there’s a list of noodles from Asian wheat to ziti sorted according to recipe.
“Milk Street Noodles: Secrets to the World’s Best Noodles, from Fettuccine Alfredo to Pad Thai to Miso Ramen” by Christopher Kimball (Voracious, $35).
