Wild Mushroom Agnolotti / Sidney Street Cafe

People are always like, “Spencer, you go out to eat all the time!”

The truth is: I don’t. I’m just like you—I only go out to restaurants 4 or 5 times a week.

Some nights—usually when I see Kevin Nashan’s adorable face on the ‘Gram—I’ll snag a seat at Sidney Street Café’s bar and just throw down an order of their wild mushroom agnolotti. No, it’s not too fancy for a weeknight dinner. The bar is there for a reason. No one will judge you and your jeggings—unless you don’t order the agnolotti. Then they’ll know you’re some kind of a-hole. An even more baller move would be to eat this, then walk over to Peacemaker and have even more food. They call that “The Full Spencer.” They also call it “excessive.”

Agnolotti, of course, is a pasta, typically filled with something delicious, but also sometimes something bad. But not this one! This one started out as their Pasta of the Day special nearly four years ago, and it turns out it was so special, it’s never going away. Just like me. Chef Bob Zugmaier fills a homemade pasta dough (Do I even need to say that? Does anyone reading this thing Sidney Street is buying premade pasta dough?) with a farce made from local mushroom and quark—an Eastern European fresh cheese—then finishes them in a pan with Chinese black vinegar, shirodashi, and a bit of butter. The pasta is then topped with crispy kale and pickled sour cherries.

The result is exactly why Sidney Street won a James Beard award. The pasta itself is wonderful with that creamy, earthy filling, but it's the pan sauce that makes this dish an absolute winner. Chinese black vinegar, a.k.a. black gold, is what you typically dip dumplings into. It’s the best vinegar. Go to Global Foods or Pan-Asia and buy some immediately. It serves as the sharp base, then it’s cut with the sweetness of the shirodashi, and ultimately mellowed by God’s greatest gift, butter. The dish is almost Vista Ramen-esque, straddling that line of Asian and European.

So…this pasta is good. You should eat it. Thanks for your time.

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

black vinegar pan sauce, pickled sour cherries, crispy kale