Try a nice piece of fish at Sanducci's Trattoria

Tilapia Francese at Santucci's Trattoria in River Edge can be made without butter. The lunch entree comes with a generous, nicely dressed salad, below; coffee and a free refill.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss lunch at Santucci's Trattoria in River Edge, a recipe for Spaghetti with Garlicky Bread Crumbs and Anchovies, a quinoa salad, a rare visit to Stop & Shop in Teaneck, and signs of life in a Hackensack building that once housed a Korean bakery.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One of my friends wanted antipasto for lunch. The other one was in the mood for a chicken parm sandwich. And I felt like a nice piece of fish.

We all got we wanted today at Sanducci's Trattoria in River Edge.

The menu offered only two farmed fish -- tilapia and salmon.

I chose the tilapia and was impressed with the large, fresh-tasting fillet and how beautifully it flaked, as well as the sauteed vegetables and the size of the well-dressed salad ($12.95).

My friend loved his gooey Chicken Parmigiana Hero ($7.50), and took home half for dinner.

And the other friend was delighted with his Antipasto Plate ($8.95).

The Antipasto Plate at Sanducci's Trattoria.

The chicken in the Chicken Parmigiana Hero is hidden under a blanket of melted cheese.

Tables and booths are available on the restaurant's first level. The people in the family photos on the dining room walls look like they could be your relatives.

Casual service

Lunch service today was casual, even though the dining room was far from full.

The waiter brought my salad first, and my friends weren't served their sandwich and antipasto until I finished and was ready for my fish entree.

While I ate salad, they ate bread, and the waiter happily brought a second basket.

There is limited parking in front, and from the rear lot, you have to take an elevator to the restaurant's second level, then walk down stairs to the main dining room.

The restaurant shares an entrance with a preschool, which explains the mothers and one father I saw picking up their children and strapping them in for the ride home.

Sanducci's offers a buffet lunch for $11.95 Mondays through Fridays, above and below.

Sanducci's Trattoria, 620 Kinderkamack Road, River Edge; 201-599-0600. BYO, parking lot in rear.

Web site: The lunch buffet is back

Pasta recipe needs tweaking

My version of Spaghetti with Garlicky Bread Crumbs and Anchovies from The New York Times has more oil, garlic, parsley, red pepper flakes and hot pasta water than called for.

I also used organic whole wheat spaghetti from Italy I buy at Whole Foods Market.

More liquid?

Pasta swallows handfuls of parsley and baby spinach, and tends to need far more liquid then you think.

Tonight, I prepared a recipe for Spaghetti with Garlicky Bread Crumbs and Anchovies from The New York Times' Dining section.

I used the two egg yolks called for, though I think 1 pound of pasta could stand more, but tripled the 6 cloves of garlic, and used more parsley, extra-virgin olive oil and hot pasta water.

I had hot sauce on hand, but not fish sauce.

I also used capers from a jar in the back of my refrigerator I usually forget is there, and a little shredded Asiago Cheese.

I ate the first portion without the recommended salt, black pepper and lemon juice, but added them to the second, and they improved the dish, especially the fresh lime juice I used.

Organic whole wheat shells from Whole Foods Market with extra-virgin olive oil, baby spinach, chopped garlic, grated Pecorino Romano Cheese and a teaspoon or two of Costco Wholesale's prepared Basil Pesto.

Leftover cooked organic quinoa from Costco Wholesale was easily turned into a crunchy salad with diced scallion, skin-on cucumber, sweet pepper, onion and apple. The dressing is red-wine vinegar, fresh lime juice and extra-virgin olive oil.

After I ate half the quinoa salad for breakfast on Tuesday, I topped the remainder with two organic eggs from Costco Wholesale, above.

Stop & Shop in Teaneck

I needed bread crumbs and parsley for The Times recipe, and didn't want to go out of my way, so stopped at Stop & Shop in Teaneck on the way home.

Stop & Shop is best known for a full line of naturally raised and organic food labeled Nature's Promise and found on almost every shelf and in every refrigerated case.

But prices are generally higher than at ShopRite and other stores.

For example, I saw a 13.25-ounce box of whole wheat spaghetti for $1.59, compared to a full pound of organic whole wheat spaghetti from Whole Foods Market for $1.39.

Two 40-ounce jars of Victoria Marinara were on sale for $10, but I bought them at Costco Wholesale for $8.39 last November and for under $7 when they were on sale.

Half-gallons of Stop & Shop Lactose-Free Milk were $3.99 each, compared to $3.49 for ShopRite's store brand.

The spaghetti recipe was good with the Rienzi Italian Style Bread Crumbs (made with corn syrup, unfortunately) I found at Stop & Shop, but next time, I'll see if I can get  much better ones at Balthazar Bakery in Englewood, where I buy crusty baguettes. 

The signs for a Korean dumpling restaurant remain on a Main Street building across the street from Sears in Hackensack, but the place never opened. Now, a sign says Upsy Daisy will be opening soon, below. A Shilla Korean Bakery operated there at one time.

Upsy Daisy will serve lactose-free ice cream, coffee and other items.

Shopping, cooking and tasting notes

Have you seen these Stop & Shop TV commercials where a woman learns to make pizza at home to save money and invites friends over for dinner? I don't want to learn how to make pizza, but I was interested in mention of  $4.88 for 5 pounds of clementines with a store card -- the lowest price I've seen.

Image via Wikipedia

I visit Stop & Shop about once a month to look over its Nature's Promise offerings that are found throughout the store. These are naturally raised or grown items such as poultry, meat, eggs, milk, organic lemonade and so forth. Yesterday, I went to the Teaneck store for the clementines and to pick up a few things I needed to serve the delightful Syrian meat sandwiches called arayes, which we've enjoyed at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson. (My spelling of arayes is just a guess.)

The box of clementines looked to be identical to those from Spain, but this one was from Morocco. Still, you can't beat the price (reduced from $7.99) and they turned out to be sweet, though harder to peel than their Spanish counterparts. I weighed the box and fruit  in the store and they totaled 5.32 pounds.

For the arayes, I needed parsley (99 cents for a big bunch, most of which will go to waste) and some Nature's Promise ground beef to add to the naturally raised ground lamb I bought the day before at Whole Foods in Paramus. I also picked up Nature's Promise large brown eggs ($2.99 a dozen) and organic, low-fat milk ($3.69).

Chuck, one of my loyal readers, advised me to use a lot of chopped parsley for the arayes meat, which totaled about a pound and a quarter. I also seasoned the lamb-beef mixture with salt, sumac, allspice, cumin and Aleppo red pepper, and added finely chopped onion and red pepper before hand mixing it.

I split two medium-size pocket breads from Fattal's Bakery in Paterson, spreading and pressing the meat as thinly as possible into each of the four halves. I put them under the broiler until the meat was firm and sizzling, then reunited the halves and cut each sandwich into four quarters. (I made lamb burgers with the rest of the meat and put them into the freezer.)

They were yummy and tasted pretty close to what we've had in restaurants. I served the arayes last night with lamb sausage from Fattal's, yellow rice, canned fava beans with my added tahini sauce and salad.

Image via Wikipedia

This morning, I fried one Nature's Promise large brown egg -- sunny side up -- in extra-virgin olive oil, seasoning it with a little salt and a generous pinch of Aleppo red pepper. I toasted one large and one small roll, and ate the egg with this and that -- a slice of Swiss cheese, some tuna-red salmon-sardine salad, wild lox, kimchi and seasoned tofu. Life is good. We've been eating only egg whites for far too long.