Sometimes eating local is just about taking a grocery store staple you take for granted and making a much better version from scratch.  Ketchup is a great example; as a kid I thought anything but Heinz tasted “weird,” but as an adult I can’t imagine choosing the processed corn-syrup-y version over real, tomato-y ketchup made from scratch.  

Local food restaurants are great for this, because not only do they have good ideas for what to make, but they also have the skills to make it right.  Brooklyn restaurant Ortine’s Pasta Night on Mondays is a perfect example.  The restaurant serves local food all week, including some from their backyard garden during the growing season, and I’m sure it’s all made from scratch, but the pasta they serve on Monday is something else.  Owners Sarah Peck and Steve Guidi enlist Steve’s mother to come to the cozy Prospect Heights café and make fresh, homemade, seasonal pasta.  When I went it was Pasta Fagioli with white beans and a thin tomato sauce, served with a simple arugula salad and homemade focaccia.  

The pasta was delicious; I might not have guessed that I could tell the difference between the box of spaghetti in my cupboard at home and fresh pasta made by an expert, but Ortine’s pasta was just the right balance between light and chewy.  The actual ingredients going into the pasta may or may not have been local, but the making of it was, and the beans and tomato sauce are great ways to make eating seasonally still taste good by the end of winter.  I’m not too likely to start making my own pasta at home, but I’m very likely to make my way down to Ortine for another helping.