For years, suburbanite Joanne Orlando had been driving to Chicago to find the Italian specialty items she needed to make her mother’s Sicilian recipes. At first, she just wanted a store closer to her home; then she and friends Maureen Davies and Nancy Mersch took it a step further. In May, they opened a store of their ownbut with ready-made dishes for takeout.
“We wanted to bring Italian home cooking to Park Ridge,” said Orlando, who leads kitchen operations at Pappardelle, an Italian deli and specialty shop at 626 Busse Highway (847-384-5548).
The three combined their best recipes and knowledge of Italian foods to create their own signature dishes; every course from appetizer to dessert is sold here. Homemade hot meals (averaging $5 per serving) include traditional favorites such as meat and vegetarian lasagnas as well as arancini (fried rice balls).
Among the specialty salads ($3 to $10 per pound) made fresh daily is fish salad with fresh mussels, squid, cuttlefish and shrimp. Shoppers also will find imported packaged items; luncheon meats ($4 to $10 per pound); and cheeses ($7 to $16 per pound) that include specialty items such as caciocavallo, a semi-firm cow’s-milk cheese, and crotonese, a cream-colored sheep’s-milk cheese.
“These are the cheeses you would taste in a market in Italy,” Orlando said.
And though Pappardelle specializes in takeout, seating is available for shoppers too hungry to get their Italian feast home.
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