All throughout the winter, and now into the spring, we’ve been trying out a bunch of interesting restaurants around New York, so today we wanted to share two of our latest recommendations.  Here we’re featuring two places that have opened in the past year, and that both offer up menus of Italian food.  Not only that – we were also able to eat entirely vegetarian at both spots, so it was really nice to be able to go to two different restaurants and get a good variety of meat-free food.  So here’s where we went and what we enjoyed!

First, we were able to snag a spot at Bar Pasquale, the sister restaurant to the very popular Pasquale Jones.  Bar Pasquale, in Nolita, focuses specifically on pastas, pizzas and Sicilian cuisine, and since we’re a fan of all those things we thought it was the perfect place to try.  We started our meal with the cavolini di buxelles – this salad of shredded brussel sprouts and fennel, tossed with almonds.

We also tried a pizza that was a seasonal special:  the squash agrodolce pie, topped with smoked butternut squash, pepitas, arugula, and pearl onions.

For pastas, Miriam had their version of rigatoni alla vodka, which they make with grappa and a few spicy chiles.

And Cyril got theses culurgiones, which are stuffed with a smoked potato filing and come in a porcini mushroom and basil sauce.

Farther north in Mahattan is Jupiter, which sits in the lower level of Rockefeller Center, across from the skating rink.  Jupiter also has a great selection of pastas, but before we got to that part of our meal we decided to try one of their salads salad – in particular, the insalata di stagione, made with radicchio, arugula, asparagus, lentils, fennel, and Castelrosso cheese.

Then Miriam tried these ricotta and spinach tortellini, in a butter and parmesan sauce.

And Cyril had the pizzoccheri, which is a dish of buckwheat noodles, cabbage, potatoes, and Fontina cheese, all baked together.

Both of these new places were interesting spots to visit:  Bar Pasquale is pretty near Little Italy, so it’s nice to have a more modern and less touristy restaurant where you can get Italian food in the area.  And Jupiter is a great hidden gem (literally – it’s underground) in Midtown, where as a bonus you can watch ice skaters twirling by in winter.  We’ve got a ton of more recommendations coming up in the next few weeks, in both New York and elsewhere, so be sure to check back here soon!