Shop local, buy savory food and drink gifts
Need a last-minute gift for a food or drink connoisseur?
The company’s website lists a number of stores around town where you can buy the salsas,
Sauces, salts and pickles
Pasqualino’s in Penn Hills is back to jarring its homemade pasta sauce after a brief crisis when canning jars were in short supply because of the pandemic. A Post-Gazette story about the shortage spurred readers to call owner Frank Pasqualino with tips about where to find jars.
“I drove out to Homestead and so many different areas” chasing down leads, he said. He scrounged up enough jars to fill the gap and also has a large order of jars scheduled to arrive before the end of the year.
His red sauce is $6.95 a quart. The restaurant also sells handmade spaghetti or cavatelli for $3.99 per pound. Call ahead to order pasta for next-day pickup. 412-793-9933; pasqualinos.com.
Two Ugly Mugs Gourmet Salsa Co. in Baldwin is a company owned by an Italian family that makes salsa.
“Yes, when you think salsa, you think Mexican,” said director of operations, Matt Perella. “But we like to think we put an Italian spin on a traditionally Mexican product, yielding an American salsa.”
The company tries to use fresh, local produce as much as possible, he said.
The company’s website lists a number of stores around town where you can buy the salsas,
including Shop ’ N Save stores in Castle Shannon and Rochester, as well as Simmons Farm Market in McMurray, Trax Farms in Finleyville, Whole Foods in Upper St. Clair and Wexford, and five area Giant Eagle Market District stores. Salsas are also available for online ordering through the website. Online, the salsas sell for $24.99 for four 16ounce jars, or there’s a Sweet Heat & Muggin’ Hot Assorted 6-pack for $35.99.
Steel City Salt Co. in the Strip District released Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sugar in the fall, and it’s flying off the shelves, owner John Tarallo said.
“We’ve been grinding a ton of cinnamon and nutmeg,” he said, noting he loves the blend on toast. Others have told him they’re using it in cocktails, pumpkin beer, coffee, hot chocolate and as a topping for eggnog.
“Or you can eat it with a spoon,” he joked.
A 2-ounce “pinch jar” ($4.95) would make a good stocking stuffer.
The shop also sells a variety of gift sets with various kinds of exotic salt, sugar or seasoning blends. Think sriracha salt, dill pickle salt, Creole blackening blend or espresso sea salt.
Mediterra Café, the offshoot of Mediterra Bakehouse in Sewickley and Mt. Lebanon, is offering a delicious Holiday Morning Gift Basket. The package features its housemade English muffins, pecan cranberry loaf, chocolate hazelnut biscotti and granola, plus Paul Family Farms maple syrup, American Spoon buckwheat pancake mix, Parlor Coffee beans and Bonnie’s Jam’s cranberry orange jam. Orders can be placed online and the price is $150.
Bridge City Brinery founder Mark Mammone is touting his Smithfield Sour fermented dill pickles that is named after the Smithfield Street Bridge. The 16-ounce jars run about $7 but vary in price from store to store. The pickles are made the oldfashioned way and fermented in a brine flavored with dill, spices, onion and garlic for eight to 11 days.
They are sold at a variety of local markets, including Stamoolis and Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. in the Strip.
Scratch & Co., the Troy Hill restaurant, has reinvented itself during the pandemic. Owner Don Mahaney launched “MADE by Scratch & Co.” jarred pickles and butters earlier this year. The food is all sourced locally and then prepared and jarred at Scratch & Co. A portion of the proceeds goes to charities that support food insecure individuals.
A special gift set ($12) includes a jar of apple butter, a jar of red sauerkraut, a carrying case, Scratch & Co. sharpie marker, a blank label for you to write a message to the recipient, and recipe ideas. You can also order individual jars ($5.25) of pickled red or yellow beets, pickled heirloom carrots, fermented root vegetables, apple butter or red sauerkraut.
Drinks
Kingfly Spirits in the Strip District has custom cocktail kits for the budding mixologist in your life. Choose from kits for an Old Fashioned with or without bar tools ($120 or $85), party punch ($60) or daiquiri ($45). Each kit includes at least one bottle of Kingfly spirits, all necessary ingredients and equipment, and even the garnish.
Maggie’s Farm Rum/ Allegheny Distilling, also in the Strip District, has a peppermint coffee liqueur ($32 for 750 ml) made with real coffee, locally roasted and cold-brewed in house.
“We then blend this coffee into our white rum with brown sugar and our own house-made vanilla extract” and real peppermint, owner Tim Russell said.
A new offering this season for Maggie’s Farm is fruit brandy. A 375 ml bottle is $25, and it comes in either pear or blueberry.
Dinners
Wine Dinner at Senti: Sea scallops, pappardelle with wild boar sauce, chicken with grilled polenta, chocolate bread pudding, and paired wines selected by Barsotti Wines. 6 p.m. Dec. 27 at Senti, Lawrenceville. $75. 412-586-4347.