One of my absolute favorite restaurants is a small place off of south beach in Miami called Macaluso’s. My family and I discovered it during a trip to Florida because the restaurant has same name as my step-family. One evening we made our way towards south beach, not knowing what to expect. We envisioned a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint but instead encountered an intimate fine dining restaurant. The owner of the proudly describes his restaurant as the only one in south Florida that serves home cooked Italian recipes from Staten Island. The food is fantastic! The recipes are for traditional homestyle meals, but they are presented elegantly by attentive and well informed wait staff.  The menu is unique in that it does not exist- the wait staff recites the entire menu right at the table in addition to explaining each variety of pasta with visuals in the form of a gift basket. Sometimes it is difficult to remember the first few items on the list by the time the server finishes their presentation, but it really doesn’t matter because you can’t go wrong with any of the dishes. Every time I go to Macaluso’s I fret over which meal to order, but always end up content since they all come family style and are thus easy to share. My favorite has got to be the house salad with a marinara meatball on top. It sounds strange but the combination is phenomenal; I never would have thought of it but now I almost always order salad with a side of meatballs when I go to an Italian restaurant. Still- it can’t ever compare to Macaluso’s.

Even though I could never hope to replicate the recipes served there, I have to give it my best effort every once in a while since I cannot hop on an airplane every time a craving hits. Therefore, I recently created my own versions of Macaluso’s linguini with clam sauce and escarole with cannellini beans. I must say, it turned out pretty well.

Ingredients:

 Linguini With White Wine Clam Sauce

• Linguini Pasta
• Clams
• Clam Juice
• Olive Oil
• Parsley
• White Wine
• Red Chili Pepper Flakes
• Salt and Pepper

Escarole With White Beans

• Cannellini Beans
• Chicken Stock
• Chopped Garlic
• Minced Shallots
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil

Both of these dishes are extremely easy to make.  The escarole with white beans produces a thick and salty sauce when it is simmered and the linguini is delicate from the combined light and aromatic flavors of parsley, white wine and shallots. This is simplicity at its finest, all soaked up down to the last drop by a hunk of doughy baguette. Don’t waste a bit.