Fresh from the market

You don’t have to be a cook or go out to a restaurant to enjoy gourmet food (though restaurants and other food outlets certainly need our continued support during this challenging time). You can have a great meal at home by getting gourmet foods to go.

Over the last year—from the onset of the pandemic to the present, and presumably beyond—people were madly scrambling to find local takeout places offering healthy, natural, gourmet foods, with many opting for some of Greater New Haven’s vast array of specialty and natural gourmet food markets.

Now, the New Haven Register’s readers have helped narrow down the options. The newspaper’s annual “Best of” poll for 2021 has yielded some tasty results, from homemade soups and sandwiches to dinner entrees and desserts.

Pasta Vita in Old Saybrook (and five other area locations) was voted one of the top three in the Best Gourmet to Go category. Said to be the first gourmet-meals-to-go

business of its kind in the country, Pasta Vita was founded by Rich Cersosimoand chef Lou Castanho in Old Saybrook. As the company has grown, it has stayed true to its original mission to bring high-quality and fresh gourmet creations from their kitchen to yours.

Chef Lou and his team makes hundreds of entrees, salads, soups, vegetables, and desserts every week, but some of their most popular dishes are Beef Bourguignon, Chicken Piccata, Penne with vodka sauce and an all-natural Norwegian salmon that is available five days a week with different preparations.

“Chef Lou and I would like to thank everyone who voted for us as one of the Best of New Haven gourmet foods to go stores. Since the beginning with our flagship location in Old Saybrook over 26 years ago, we have focused on bringing the best, freshest high quality gourmet meals to the public,” Cersosimo said. “The tradition continues in our newest locations at Mohegan Sun and in Wethersfield,

Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Bishop’s Orchards Farm Market in Guilford, which is one of the top three in the category of Best Independent Food Market, offers prepared goods and seasonal specialty items.