Atlanta chefs are making it easy for you to season a meal, or bake restaurant-quality pizza, all in your own home.
Margherita pizza kit from Varuni Napoli
Pizza that travels home just isn’t as wonderful as pizza enjoyed a few feet from a huge wood-fired oven in your favorite pizzeria. But, in this season when we’re eating at home more, chef Luca Varuni of Varuni Napoli makes it possible for us to have pizza at home almost as good (do you have a wood-fired oven?) as what you can enjoy in his two restaurant locations. His pizza kit comes with one can of Varuni-branded San Marzano tomatoes, four balls of his very special pizza dough, fresh basil, flour, pecorino Romano, buffalo mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil from Sorrento — everything you need to make four delicious pizzas. Be sure the ingredients are at room temperature when you’re ready to follow the directions and assemble your pies. They’ll bake in 7 to 10 minutes, depending on your oven. (Of course, it’s less than 2 minutes baking time with super hot wood-fired ovens.) The dough is prepared fresh for each order, so give the restaurant 24 hours notice before you want to pick up your kit.
$70 for a kit making four Margherita pizzas. Call 404-709-2690 to order 24 hours in advance, and pick up at Varuni’s Midtown location, 1540 Monroe Drive, Atlanta. Closed Mondays. varuni.us/midtown.
Credit: Jennifer Hill Booker
Credit: Jennifer Hill Booker
Deep South SeasonAll from Your Resident Gourmet
When we got our jar of chef Jennifer Hill Booker’s Deep South SeasonAll, we intended to use it to season whatever was next on the grill, and to stir it into a pot of greens. But, it smelled so delicious that we sprinkled it on the cottage cheese we were having for lunch that day. Then, we stirred it into our big batch of Chex mix in place of the seasoned salt the traditional recipe calls for. And, we used it on our post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. Yes, we plan to put this mix of salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, onion, smoked paprika and cumin to use in more sophisticated ways, but we love that it works just as Booker intended, to “season all.” It’s one of her growing line of Your Resident Gourmet seasoning mixes and sugars.
$12.50 per 6.5-ounce jar. Available at chefjenniferhillbooker.com/pantry.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Classic pesto collection gift box from Bella Cucina Artful Food
Longtime Atlantans will remember when Alisa Barry opened her Buckhead cafe and served food that reflected her culinary training in California and her time traveling the hill towns of Italy. The pestos she used in her cooking were huge customer favorites, and it wasn’t long before she began offering those pestos in little glass jars, perfect for enjoying at home. Gradually, she expanded her offerings to dozens of pestos, crackers, oils, condiments and other pantry staples, as well as dinnerware and other essentials for dining and entertaining. But, the classic pestos remain a favorite — so much so, that she’s boxed three of our favorites into a perfect gift package. The set includes jars of basil pesto, olivada olive pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto — the first three pestos she offered for sale. The recipient will enjoy using them in the recipes found on the Bella Cucina website — if they don’t just spoon them right out of the jar onto crackers or toast.
$45 per set of three 6-ounce jars. Available at Bella Cucina in the Buckhead Village, 270 Buckhead Ave., Atlanta, or at bellacucina.com.
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