Last month, the weather finally dropped enough in Roebling that we had to turn on the heat at the One Horse House. If you live around here, you know what that means: the old cast-iron radiators wake up again. There’s this very specific warmth they give off — slow, heavy, kind of nostalgic — and it always feels like the real start of winter.
It seemed like the perfect excuse to have people over for a proper Sunday dinner. And since radiators were the whole theme, I went with the most obvious pasta shape possible: radiatori. The unofficial pasta of Roebling.
I made everything fresh and kept the menu simple but good. We started with burrata and roasted red peppers, with a big tray of crostini. I roasted the peppers the day before, peeled them, sliced them up, and tossed them in olive oil, garlic, salt, and basil. Easy, but everyone loved it.
The main dish was the big one: Radiatori with hot and sweet Italian sausage and broccoli rabe. Total comfort food. The radiatori held onto the sauce perfectly — all those little grooves catching the sausage and greens. I made a ton of it, and somehow we still finished almost all of it.
For dessert I went with lemon sorbet, homemade, nothing fancy. Just something bright and cold after a pretty hearty plate of pasta.
It ended up being one of the nicest Sunday dinners I’ve had in a while — a full table, good conversation, and the radiators quietly ticking in the background. Very Roebling. A perfect way to kick off the cold season.