Every week, I document another dish that impressed and satiated me during my food adventures around New York City
I used to never order pasta at restaurants because it always felt like something I could easily make myself at home. Boil the pasta, make a sauce, toss it together. It can’t be that hard, right? But that was long before I started coming up to Arthur Avenue regularly and giving food tours up here (check them out and use UANYC1 for 10% off).
After my tour ends in the impossibly delicious Little Italy of the Bronx, I start immediately craving a pasta dish and I’m not talking about the kind I can make on my stovetop.
Roberto’s is one of the restaurants I’ve discovered that’s a few blocks away from the main drag of Arthur Avenue and serves some of the best pasta I’ve ever tasted. Locals know one of the signature dishes here is one that I couldn’t even imagine eating in my own home – something called Radiatori in Cartoccio.
The uniquely shaped pasta are spiral nuggets that hold the sauce and flavor tightly in each groove. The other majorly unique thing about this dish is the cooking method. It’s cooked on a grill wrapped in aluminum foil (in cartoccio) which is more common in the chef’s native Salerno.
After released from the foil and scooped out tableside, the steaming pasta has a tender bite that is far more complex than a mere al dente. The pasta fuses with a delicate sauce of cherry tomatoes, meaty porcini mushrooms, and Parmigiano Reggiano.
It’s a pasta dish that I have not seen before on a menu in New York (I’m sure it’s around) and can be found at Roberto’s. So kids, I don’t recommend trying this at home. Instead, just hop a train to Arthur Avenue. Price: $23
| ROBERTO’S |
| 603 Crescent Avenue (at Hughes Avenue), Belmont, Bronx (718) 733-9503 |
| robertosbronx.com |
