Pancetta

HERE ARE a couple of recipes using Severino pastas. First is a traditional variation on ragu that replaces the meat with tuna. Be sure to use imported tuna packed in olive oil. You'll use the oil in the cooking. In the second recipe, the baby peas, mint and green peppercorns add a brightness that just feels like spring.   Pappardelle & Tuna Ragu 8-ounce imported tuna packed in olive oil 2 cloves smashed garlic Red pepper flakes (optional) 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes Fresh basil, chopped Fresh parsley, chopped Pinch salt Pinch pepper 1 pound fresh pappardelle Bring six quarts of salted water to a boil.

There was always a pinch of magic to the pancetta-scented air inside the old Melograno. With little more than 34 seats, an open kitchen, and a bare-white decor, that bright corner room became one of the city's best trattorias and a jam-packed emblem of the BYOB revolution. But Melograno's owners, chef Gianluca Demontis and his wife, Rosemarie Tran, encountered the same fate that confronted so many other early BYO pioneers, many of whom have since sold out, expanded or acquired liquor licenses: These tiny dining-room stages simply weren't built for longevity.

It's already too hot to crank up the oven every night. This recipe employs the toaster oven instead. While its ingredients sound high-class, they're available at most large grocery stores. For this recipe, it's best to use firm dry-packed scallops. If you don't like scallops, try large shrimp.   Scallops With Pancetta and Saffron Makes 2 servings 2 tablespoons olive oil 8 ounces dry-packed sea scallops (preferably 18-20 count) Leaves from 4 stems flat-leaf parsley (may substitute leaves from 6 to 8 stems chervil)

Want to build a better salad? Lose the chill, ditch some of the fruit and get the proportions of the vinaigrette right. That's the advice of Jacques Pepin, one of the nation's premier culinary voices, star of a new public television series - Essential Pepin - that will air in the fall. Pepin says a great salad can be simple, so long as the ingredients are fresh and the proportions are right. Too many berries or other fruit produces a salad that is too sweet. Likewise, most salads taste best when served cool, but not cold.

Using seasonal vegetables and fruits, and substituting less pricey cuts of meat or ingredients in a recipe can make all the difference when you are preparing a holiday meal on a budget. We asked two local professional chefs for cost-cutting alternatives to some Thanksgiving dishes. Chef Patrick Feury, of Maia, in Villanova, suggested a dish with inexpensive fresh cranberries. Chef Pippo Lamberti, of Old City's Positano Coast, offered a cost-cutting main dish that subs pork loin for rabbit or turkey, and a dessert using vanilla extract where a recipe might call for an upscale addition like vanilla beans.

Two chef-brothers from Queen Street in Queen Village have come home to open a restaurant six blocks away. Village Belle (757 S. Front St., 215-551-2200), a neighborhood-oriented Mediterranean, has taken the longtime home of Frederick's, next to the park overlooking I-95. Joey and Lou Campanaro maintained the dark, romantic vibe of the old-time barroom but stripped down the overdone dining room in favor of comfortable burgundy banquettes, simple tables, and hardwood floors.

  Bacon Bloody Mary, Mixto Restaurant, 1141 Pine St., 215-592-0363, www.mixtorestaurante.com. Lamb "bacon," hearts of palm and baby leeks over matsutake ice cream and creamy uni, with bacon caramel sundae for dessert, Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square, 215-546-9000, www.LacroixRestaurant.com . BLT Salad with creamy Gorgonzola dressing and sherry tomato jam, Avalon Restaurant, 312 S. High St., West Chester, 610-436-4100, www.avalonrestaurant.

La Tavola Italiana (William Morrow, $22.95) divides Italian cooking into three geographic regions - north, central and south - and then stitches them back together with the common thread that Italians call cucina casalinga (home cooking). This cookbook is written by wine consultant Tom Maresca and his wife, Diane Darrow, a food and travel writer. They have compiled more than 200 classic recipes and have matched them with appropriate wines. Their well-written book is intriguingly structured into three smaller cookbooks, each representing one section of the country.

BACON LOVERS are a serious group. Serious about bacon, that is. Anyone who knows the nirvana of thinly sliced smoked pork belly, cured with just the right amount of sugar and spice and fried until perfectly crisp - but not too crisp - agrees. Don't even think about sneaking turkey bacon onto a BLT or, heaven forbid, trying to put some of that veggie streaky strip hoo-hah into our carbonara. Anything less than the finest of swine just won't cut it. Bacontarian, the Bacon Show (one bacon recipe every day, forever)

HERE ARE a couple of recipes using Severino pastas. First is a traditional variation on ragu that replaces the meat with tuna. Be sure to use imported tuna packed in olive oil. You'll use the oil in the cooking. In the second recipe, the baby peas, mint and green peppercorns add a brightness that just feels like spring.   Pappardelle & Tuna Ragu 8-ounce imported tuna packed in olive oil 2 cloves smashed garlic Red pepper flakes (optional) 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes Fresh basil, chopped Fresh parsley, chopped Pinch salt Pinch pepper 1 pound fresh pappardelle Bring six quarts of salted water to a boil.

It's already too hot to crank up the oven every night. This recipe employs the toaster oven instead. While its ingredients sound high-class, they're available at most large grocery stores. For this recipe, it's best to use firm dry-packed scallops. If you don't like scallops, try large shrimp.   Scallops With Pancetta and Saffron Makes 2 servings 2 tablespoons olive oil 8 ounces dry-packed sea scallops (preferably 18-20 count) Leaves from 4 stems flat-leaf parsley (may substitute leaves from 6 to 8 stems chervil)

Want to build a better salad? Lose the chill, ditch some of the fruit and get the proportions of the vinaigrette right. That's the advice of Jacques Pepin, one of the nation's premier culinary voices, star of a new public television series - Essential Pepin - that will air in the fall. Pepin says a great salad can be simple, so long as the ingredients are fresh and the proportions are right. Too many berries or other fruit produces a salad that is too sweet. Likewise, most salads taste best when served cool, but not cold.

Two chef-brothers from Queen Street in Queen Village have come home to open a restaurant six blocks away. Village Belle (757 S. Front St., 215-551-2200), a neighborhood-oriented Mediterranean, has taken the longtime home of Frederick's, next to the park overlooking I-95. Joey and Lou Campanaro maintained the dark, romantic vibe of the old-time barroom but stripped down the overdone dining room in favor of comfortable burgundy banquettes, simple tables, and hardwood floors.

BACON LOVERS are a serious group. Serious about bacon, that is. Anyone who knows the nirvana of thinly sliced smoked pork belly, cured with just the right amount of sugar and spice and fried until perfectly crisp - but not too crisp - agrees. Don't even think about sneaking turkey bacon onto a BLT or, heaven forbid, trying to put some of that veggie streaky strip hoo-hah into our carbonara. Anything less than the finest of swine just won't cut it. Bacontarian, the Bacon Show (one bacon recipe every day, forever)

  Bacon Bloody Mary, Mixto Restaurant, 1141 Pine St., 215-592-0363, www.mixtorestaurante.com. Lamb "bacon," hearts of palm and baby leeks over matsutake ice cream and creamy uni, with bacon caramel sundae for dessert, Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square, 215-546-9000, www.LacroixRestaurant.com . BLT Salad with creamy Gorgonzola dressing and sherry tomato jam, Avalon Restaurant, 312 S. High St., West Chester, 610-436-4100, www.avalonrestaurant.

There was always a pinch of magic to the pancetta-scented air inside the old Melograno. With little more than 34 seats, an open kitchen, and a bare-white decor, that bright corner room became one of the city's best trattorias and a jam-packed emblem of the BYOB revolution. But Melograno's owners, chef Gianluca Demontis and his wife, Rosemarie Tran, encountered the same fate that confronted so many other early BYO pioneers, many of whom have since sold out, expanded or acquired liquor licenses: These tiny dining-room stages simply weren't built for longevity.

Using seasonal vegetables and fruits, and substituting less pricey cuts of meat or ingredients in a recipe can make all the difference when you are preparing a holiday meal on a budget. We asked two local professional chefs for cost-cutting alternatives to some Thanksgiving dishes. Chef Patrick Feury, of Maia, in Villanova, suggested a dish with inexpensive fresh cranberries. Chef Pippo Lamberti, of Old City's Positano Coast, offered a cost-cutting main dish that subs pork loin for rabbit or turkey, and a dessert using vanilla extract where a recipe might call for an upscale addition like vanilla beans.

Cary Restaurant & Bar might well be the new kid on the block - 15th Street just around the corner from Striped Bass, Circa, Susanna Foo, Le Bec-Fin and company - but already it is attracting quite a bit of attention. And let's make that well-deserved attention. Owner-chef Cary Neff has been creating a lot of pleasant waves with his seafood dishes, as well as his overall concept of a casual environment with food that's visually striking and extremely palate-friendly. The setting is comfortable and the noise level, mostly favorable for private conversation.