This week bounced between quick city lunches and a couple of meals worth slowing all the way down for. There was a new addition to the FiDi Pizza Trail, an Eataly pizza discovery that had no business taking this long to make, a storm that rerouted a whole evening for the better, and a Saturday night at Casa Me in Westport that turned into one of those full, unhurried, multi-course Italian dinners. It closed out with a Sunday spent channeling my nonna over a bowl of flour and eggs. A good week, front to back.
Monday: A Weeknight Favorite — Penne, Broccoli & Hot Italian Sausage
Monday’s dinner is one I keep coming back to because it just works every single time: penne, broccoli, and hot Italian sausage in a garlic wine butter sauce. It’s quick, it’s forgiving, and it always tastes like more effort went into it than actually did. Some recipes earn permanent rotation status, and this one has fully earned its spot.
Tuesday: A New FiDi Pizza Trail Stop at Hank’s Pizza
Tuesday put a new name on the FiDi Pizza Trail. I made my way to Hank’s Pizza on Trinity Place and went with the classics — a plain slice and a pepperoni slice — to get a real read on the place. The verdict: pretty good, and the crust was the standout. Not too oily, nicely structured, just a solid, dependable New York slice without any gimmicks. It’s the kind of spot that earns a respectable spot on the leaderboard without needing to be flashy about it.
📍 Hank’s Pizza | 110 Trinity Pl, New York, NY 10006 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dinner was Monday’s penne making its second appearance, which is always a welcome sight in the fridge.
Wednesday: Errands, Then Gelato for Dinner at Oggi’s New Trumbull Spot
Wednesday was a work-from-home day that turned into an afternoon of errands, and somewhere in the middle of it we ended up at Oggi Gelato — this time at their newer Trumbull location. What started as a stop for a treat basically became dinner, which is exactly the kind of spontaneous, food-first decision-making I can always get behind. Between the Norwalk, Fairfield, and now Trumbull locations, Oggi keeps making it easier to justify gelato as a legitimate meal choice.
📍 Oggi Gelato | 51 Monroe Turnpike, Trumbull, CT 06611 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thursday: Eataly’s Pizza Finally Gets Its Due, Then Storm-Dodging Steak Frites
Thursday started with a lunchtime storm rolling through the city, which meant staying close to the office. The answer, as it so often is, was Eataly — but this time I finally ordered the pizza, going with a margherita and a bolognese pie. I’m honestly not sure why I waited this long, because both were excellent. The bolognese pizza in particular had this rich, layered quality that reminded me almost of lasagna, or even a Chicago deep dish — it brought back memories of Pequod’s, one of my favorite stops back in Chicago. High praise from someone who takes his pizza seriously.
Dinner was supposed to be a night out in the city with my daughter, but the storms made the decision for us — we headed straight back to Fairfield instead. Skies were clear at home, so we ended up at The Chelsea for dinner. I ordered the steak frites, and it hit exactly the way you want a steak frites to hit after a rerouted, storm-dodging kind of day.
📍 The Chelsea | 12 Unquowa Pl, Fairfield, CT 06824 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Friday: Spicy Margs, Smoked Salmon & a Sweet-and-Savory Side Combo
Friday night kicked off happy hour style with spicy margaritas, which set exactly the right tone. From there, smoked salmon took the lead, joined by mashed sweet potatoes topped with melted marshmallows and brussels sprouts finished with guanciale and maple syrup. That sweet-savory pairing across the sides made the whole plate feel a little more special than a typical Friday dinner — comfort food with just enough flair to make it memorable.
Saturday: Furniture Pickup, Then a Full Italian Feast at Casa Me in Westport
Saturday started with house projects and a furniture pickup from Recollective — pieces we’d found the week before finally making their way home. But the real story of the day was dinner at Casa Me in Westport, and it was a genuinely great experience from start to finish. The owner was on-site and friendly, the manager kept the whole table entertained, and our waiter was excellent and funny in a way that made the meal feel personal rather than just well-served.
Drinks opened the night with a Limoncello Spritz, an Aperol Spritz, a glass of white wine, and the Me-Groni for me — everything was excellent enough that we went in for a second round, with me switching to the Montepulciano and my wife jumping onto the limoncello bandwagon.
For appetizers, the Arancini — arborio rice, spicy pork, and mozzarella — was outstanding. I’d had my eye on the Fett’unta with bufala ricotta, grilled pear, and Calabrian hot honey, but the bread had sesame seeds, so we pivoted to the Sfincione instead: Sicilian focaccia with roasted leek, parmigiano, and green garlic butter, topped with 30-month prosciutto di Parma. It was so good we brought some home with us.
Dinner was where things got really special. My wife and daughter both went with the Mafaldine al Limone — lemon zest, parmigiano, crispy capers, and aromatic breadcrumbs — and the homemade pasta made every single bite land. I ordered the special Linguine alle Vongole, done spicy, which only made it better. But the real showstopper was my son’s 40-ounce Bistecca alla Fiorentina. He’d had one before on our trip to Radda, and this one genuinely held its own against that memory — he finished the entire thing.
Dessert closed things out with the olive oil cake and a round of espresso martinis, which was exactly the right way to end a night like that.
📍 Casa Me | 7 Sconset Square, Westport, CT 06880 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sunday: Channeling Nonna — Zucchini Fritters and Homemade Pasta
Sunday started with more house projects until about 1 PM, and then the fun began. I made zucchini fritters — what my grandmother always called “cucuzza frittelle.” They didn’t come out exactly the way I remembered hers tasting, but they were good in their own right, which is really how most family recipes go once you’re the one making them.
From there, I went all in on homemade pasta, channeling my nonna step by step: two cups of 00 flour, three egg yolks and one full egg — just like she always did it — a dash of salt, and a little olive oil. A lot of kneading and rolling later, I had fresh pasta ready to go. While that came together, garlic sausage simmered away in passata with basil, and the end result landed somewhere close to a homemade version of pasta all’amatriciana. It was the kind of Sunday that reminds you why cooking from memory means as much as cooking from a recipe.
Closing Reflection
This week had a nice balance to it — quick city lunches, a storm that rerouted an evening for the better, a genuinely memorable night at Casa Me, and a Sunday spent making pasta by hand the way my grandmother taught me. Some weeks are about discovery, and this one delivered plenty of that: a new pizza trail stop, a long-overdue Eataly pizza order, and a restaurant experience at Casa Me that’s going to be hard to top for a while. And somehow, it still ended with flour on the counter and passata on the stove — which might be my favorite way for any week to close.