Campo Italian Bistro is a casual full service Italian Restaurant located in Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant is brought to you by a group called Genuine Concepts Group that also have at least five other restaurants or bars in metro Phoenix. Campo Restaurant is unique and does differ a bit on the menu and from the atmosphere of other Italian restaurants.
On the menu for brunch they offer a full bar, baked goods, coffee, fresh juices, toast plates, salads, pizzas, classic breakfast plates with an Italian twist, panini and more.
They offer seating at the bar and inside by the bar are high top tables.
They also offer seating on the patio.
And traditional table seating.
On the special board was a snack of the day that we tried called goat cheese mousse with apples, beets pistachios and a cheese crisp.
It was tasty and not too much.
For brunch I went with the arugula salad with added salmon.
The salad with made with arugula, marinated fennel, pistachios, and citrus vinaigrette. The salmon seemed very fresh and was a good quality really moist salmon with a very crispy seasoned skin. The flavors all worked well together.
My husband had the Italian ham and cheese (prosciutto, asparagus, fontina, béchamel, and fried egg on country bread).
It’s basically an Italian croque madame with potatoes on the side.
I’d say that brunch at Campo Italian Bistro is certainly – Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
Previous dishes we tried at Campo Italian Bistro were –
I had raclette cheese that was getting old and I also happened to have gruyere cheese, shallots and a few more things that I needed to use up. I came across a recipe for macaroni and cheese with pickled shallots and I thought that sounds interesting. I started to follow that recipe and found many errors in the recipe. The sauce was a little flat until I fixed it. The BIGGEST problem that the recipe had was that it used TWICE as much pasta as I put in it…..I’m thinking that it must be a misprint…It would come out bone dry with twice as much pasta……..I fixed up the recipe as I was going along. And it did come out FORKING DELICIOUS>>>>Serving size is difficult to judge. I don’t know if you want a lot of little portions or big portions. It will make around 8 good sized portions.
Ingredients for around 8 portions.
1 cup thinly sliced shallots
1/2 cup leftover mushrooms or around a cup of thin sliced mushrooms that you cook up
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt + salt to boil pasta
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup corn starch
5 cups non fat milk (I used nonfat powdered milk and added HOT water to it.) If you use regular milk you need to heat it up.
14 oz gruyere cheese – grated
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
8 oz cavatappi pasta
14 oz raclette cheese – Most of this cheese is for topping the dish…I only used around a 1/2 cup added to the sauce. ( mine came in slices from Costco and I reserved 10 slices for topping the dish…….You can grate it all and reserve a good amount for topping the dish.
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese – grated
1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin
non stick spray
chives for finishing
Directions
Combine shallots, vinegar, water, sugar, salt in a microwavable bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave three minutes and set to the side. After around ten minutes remove the shallots and add the mushrooms the the pickling solution.
Set the oven to 375 degrees F.
Put a pot of water on to a medium boil with a generous amount of salt in it. When the water starts to boil you add the pasta. You want to cook the pasta 2 minutes less than suggested. Then drain it.
You can start the seconded pot while the pasta is boiling or wait a few more minutes and don’t dirty two pots.
Get out your sauce pot and melt the butter on medium high heat. Whisk in corn starch and whisk constancy till the cornstarch turns light brown and take off the heat. Whisk in the heated milk. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce to simmer and let thicken slightly. Take off the heat and whisk in the gruyere, cheddar and the around a half cup of the raclette cheese. Add the black pepper, white pepper, nutmeg, scallions. Drain the shallots and mushrooms. Add about 1/2 the shallots and all the mushrooms to the cheese mixture and leave it to the side.
Spray a BIG pan or 1/2 buffet pan with non stick spray.
The drained pasta gets mixed with the cheese mixture. Then you put it in the pan.
Top with raclette cheese.
Next top with the remaining pickled shallots
Put in the middle rack of a pre heated 375 degree oven for around 35 minutes.
This recipe is only for the individual turkey meatloafs. They are easy, quick, and delicious to prepare. If you love spicy Thai Basil dishes from Thai Restaurants then you will enjoy this dish. I will tell you how I made the sauce and cured egg yolk too. I make a very concentrated spicy Thai Basil sauce. I used around 2/3 of the sauce to flavor the meatloafs. The remaining concentrated Thai Basil sauce went into a roasted squash that I pureed with a dash of honey and a little water to thin it down. You can take it further if you like by adding cream, coconut milk, butter, or stock if you like. Or maybe you might want to serve the meatloaf in a soup or with saucy noodles. Cured egg yolks are extra easy too but yolks take 4 days to cure so you need to start them in advance. Cured egg yolks are just 1/2 kosher salt and 1/2 sugar mixed together. You bury the egg yolk in the salt sugar mixture, refrigerate and wait for them to become ready.(around 4 days). The cured egg is whole but you have to grate it like cheese to use.
Ingredients for 6 servings
2 oz fresh Thai Basil leaves – rough chop – spicy Thai Basil sauce + extra basil leaves for garnish (holy basil would be first choice, Thai Basil second choice)
1 Tablespoon Golden Mountain Soy Based Seasoning – spicy basil sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce – preferably Red Boat Brand – spicy basil sauce
1 Tablespoon pure honey – spicy basil sauce
1 Tablespoon water – spicy basil sauce
1 lb ground turkey (I used 85% lean today)
1/2 cup scallions – chopped
2 eggs – beaten
1 cup – cooked white rice (I used leftover take out rice that I froze and thawed)
1/2 cup spicy concentrated basil sauce
non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F and spray a sheet pan with non stick spray. Put pan to the side.
Make the spicy basil sauce. Blend together the Thai Basil leaves, Thai Chili, garlic, shallots, brown sugar, Golden Mountain Seasoning, fish sauce, honey and water till smooth. Set to the side.
Mix together the meatloaf mixture. In a large mixing bowl mix together the turkey, eggs, scallions, rice, and 1/2 cup of basil sauce. Let sit at least 15 minutes. The mixture will be soft. Cut the mixture into thirds and cut each third in half so you have six portions. Form 6 meatloafs and space them apart a bit.
Put the meatloafs on the middle rack of a pre-heated 350 degree F oven till cooked threw (20 minutes).
This is an extremely easy and really delicious recipe by vegetable genius and award wining chef, restauranteur, and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi. This time I really didn’t mean to change the recipe at all but I made some minor substitutions to what I had around the house. I will write out what should be used and next to it if I made a substitution.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
2 1/4 lbs Yukon gold potatoes cut in 1/2 inch matchsticks (I used 1 1/2 lbs red skinned potatoes)
2 teaspoons rice flour (I used 2 teaspoons Wondra flour)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt (I used sea salt….)
1 heaping Tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro or parsley stems or a mix of the two (I used a container of radish sprouts)
1 1/2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons olive oill
1/3 cup pine nuts (I substituted around a total of a 1/2 a cup of slightly broken walnuts)
1/4 cup chopped almonds (see substitution above)
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon nigella seeds or black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon urfa pepper flakes
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
3 Tablespoons Greek style yogurt
2 1/2 Tablespoons tahini
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves – minced
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F
On a large parchment lined baking tray, toss the potatoes with the flour, oil and one teaspoon of salt. Spread the potatoes out in a single layer. Cover the pan tight with aluminum foil. This goes in the oven for only 15 minutes just to get the potatoes to soften slightly.
Make the pickled stems (or sprouts). Add herb to small bowl and add the vinegar to pickle it slightly. Set this to the side.
Prepare the nuts. Add oil to a small frying pan on medium high heat. When hot add the nuts and cook stirring occasionally until toasted and slightly brown (around 1-3 minutes). Remove from heat and add the sugar, nigella seeds, urfa and Aleppo Chile flakes, paprika, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer this mixture to a bowl.
Make tahini yogurt. Add the yogurt, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and a quarter teaspoon of salt to a bowl and mix well. You will have to thin this mixture down with water because it will thicken up even more. Start with 2 1/2 Tablespoons of water.
Up the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the foil from the potatoes. Return the potatoes to the oven for 15 minutes. Use a spatula and flip the potatoes over and cook them till nicely golden and crispy (around 20-25 minutes).
To serve transfer potatoes to a serving platter. Drizzle the potatoes with the tahini yogurt. Spoon the nut mixture on the top. Drain the herb and put them on the very top. Serve Immediately.
Yotam Ottolenghi Style Oven Fries with Tahini Yogurt and Smoky Sweet Nuts
ENJOY!
A Special THANKS to Yotam Ottolenghi for another FORKING Amazing recipe.
Francine is a French-Mediterranean fine dining restaurant located in the luxury wing of the Scottsdale Fashion Square in Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant is by celebrity chef/Owner Laurent Halasz. The food served isn’t the typical French style food with lots of butter and cream and is lighter, healthier and seasonal like the food served is like what the chef was raised on in France.
It’s light, bright and airy inside.
They offer a mix of different seating choices. They offer traditional tables, booths, bar, and patio seating.
Today we started with the Stefano Burrata.
We received DELICIOUS thin cut country style toasted bread with rich creamy burrata that was served over caponata. The soft cheese was adorned with olive oil, fresh torn basil and what tasted like Aleppo pepper. The caponata ran heavy with balsamic vinegar and the pine nuts were very marinated and dark colored from the balsamic.
Today I went with the quinoa with added salmon as my main.
I received a moist flaky fish with a nicely crisped skin over many things that included avocado, cabbage, lentils, eggplant, sprouts, and sweet potato. I liked that nothing was oily. Most of the flavors were natural. It seemed like only the quinoa was dressed with flavors.
My husband went with the shaved prime rib sandwich with horseradish cream sauce, pickles and house chips.
I thought the chips were very good with a very nice crispness to them. My husband likes his food saltier than I do so for him the chips lacked salt. I thought the pickles and sauce were very good. I didn’t get to taste the meat in the sandwich because my husband said that it didn’t contain much meat. For both of us the ratio of bread is too much for the meat but the flavors are good and the rich fresh bun was nicely toasted. I thought it was very unusual that the meat on the sandwich was topped with shoestring potatoes. I asked my husband how that was and said that they didn’t really add much to the taste but it gave the sandwich some texture. The sandwich was also stuffed with some watercress.
It was a special day out so we splurged and tried a Francine apple tart. It came out very different than what I was expecting.
I was expecting a little open pie. We got a round of puff pastry lined with a very thin layer of apples topped with creamy vanilla ice cream. You can’t just dig in and eat it because the pastry needs to be cut like a steak. It’s almost like an unrolled croissant.
That was a little taste of Francine Restaurant in Scottsdale.
The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite.
The FORKING Amazing FnB Restaurant is located in the arts district by Old Town Scottsdale Arizona. The restaurant is co-owned by James Beard Award Wining chef Charleen Badman. She serves an ever changing menu of global farm focused contemporary sharing plates that often feature local vegetables. The menu is vegetable heavy but also features enough meat to please meat eaters. Arizona wines are always featured on the menu.
We enjoyed an amazing meal like we always do at FnB but one dish really stood out. So much so that I actually dreamed about it that night. The flash fried eggplant with fresh dill, pickled shallots, garlic, pistachios, and honey…….
You can’t make this dish at home because you’d never be able to purchase the speciality farm fresh eggplant that this dish was made with………..and even if you could find such an eggplant who on earth can give you a big slab of eggplant that is very hard to describer but is firm…that you could cut like a potato, but also sort of custardy. This eggplant was extra special….like an eggplant just grown for the GODS……..The flavors were so different and so delicious and unlike anything imaginable with eggplant. They were a genius embellishment. But what was phenomenal was the texture and taste of the eggplant. This eggplant was sweet like white eggplant and seemed seedless. This was really FANTABULOUS eggplant with fresh dill, pickled shallots and pickled garlic. (I think I dreamed fennel was also in it….not sure if that was real or just added on in my dream ?) All that countered with the pistachios and just the right amount of honey was darn yummy. This eggplant was firm almost like a custardy potato with the skin falling off like the way fish skin can fall off. The eggplant was cooked but wasn’t oily…..It was a magical kind of firm texture but almost custardy texture unlike any eggplant that I have ever had anywhere. It was so light and so delicious and was so easy to whoof down.
The Flash Fried Eggplant from FnB Restaurant in Scottsdale AZ is an official FANTABULOUS Dish.
I was reading the Joel Robuchon menu from Las Vegas just to know what was on the menu. I think the first appetizer I read was called La Betteraue that translates to the beet. The menu described it as beets and apple with herbs, and green mustard sorbet. I searched the web and couldn’t find a recipe for it but I did find photos of the plate with different variations. I came up with something different but it was inspired by what I saw and read from Robuchon’s menu. Serving size is difficult to judge and also makes maybe twice as many tuille as you really need. This is almost sweet and almost dessert like….I thought it is perfect as an appetizer or dessert for people who don’t like dessert. I like for the serving to be extra small….so this makes around ten extra small servings or really about 5 normal servings. This recipe will take two days to prepare.
Ingredients for around ten extra small servings
1 lb beets – peeled – cut into pea sized cubes
1 large apple – peeled, cored – cut into pea sized cubes
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup light brown sugar or natural cane sugar
1 cup water
3 Tablespoons tapioca flour (or just blend up tapioca)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg – beaten
2 oz unsalted butter – room temperature
2 1/2 oz sugar
1 egg white
2 oz flour
1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon pink peppercorns (crushed with fingers)
8 oz jalapeños -core, stem seeds removed – rough chopped
6 garlic cloves
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 avocado
2 Tablespoons cilantro -chopped
big pinch ground white pepper
1 cup assortment fresh herbs and or sprouts to finish.
non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the tuille dough
Mix together the butter, sugar, egg white, flour, mustard seeds, and peppercorns. Wrap with plastic wrap and now refrigerate.
Make the beets.
In a big mixing bowl mix together the beets, apple, vinegar, sugar, water, tapioca flour and salt.
Put this mixture in a large baking dish and cook it on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree F oven for an hour and 15 minutes. Let cool till room temperature.
Now make tuile.
Pull dough out of the refrigerator and let warm to room temperature.
Turn oven to 300 degrees F.
Fill a pastry bag with a line tip. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Get creative and squirt out a design in a single layer with slight spaces. The dough will spread. This dough only needs a short time in the oven…You want them in the oven till the ends lightly brown. The timing varies depending on size. Mine took around 12 minutes. You can leave them harden on the baking sheet or lift them up and dry them on an uneven surface so you can make them into an interesting shape.
Make the jalapeño salsa cream.
Bring to a boil the water jalapeños and garlic and salt. Reduce to simmer and let it simmer ten minutes. Then add the oil, avocado, cilantro and white pepper and blend.
Finish up the beets
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix in the beaten egg into the cooled off beet mixture.
Spray a cupcake pan with non stick spray. Spoon in beet mixture and cook around 15 minutes. Let cool on counter till room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and chill over night.
The next day insert a butter knife at the edges and pop them out of pan. Serve at room temperature and top with herbs, jalapeño cream and serve with a tuile or two.
Not Robuchon Beet/Apple with herbs, jalapeño cream. and mustard seed pink peppercorn tuile
I did a little bit of research on the web to find the best pairings for taleggio cheese. I read on www.LaCucinaItaliana.com that Italian love to pair taleggio cheese with mostarda. You might be wondering WTFork is mostarda. To keep things as simple as possible mostarda is a spicy northern Italian condiment made usually (but not always) of candied fruit and a mustard flavored syrup. I also read on La Cucina Italiana that there are six basic types of mostarda. One happened to be squash and then I got the idea in my head to make a mostarda style acorn squash so I could use that on my taleggio pizza. OMG!!! It was one of the most delicious pizzas that I have ever eaten. Even my husband couldn’t believe how amazing it was…He said that he was frightened of it but when he tasted it he just never imagined that it would be so delicious. You can read on how I make pizza dough on www.TheForkingTruth.com
This is how I made the acorn squash mostarda.
Makes around 8 servings
One squash cut in around 3/4 inch 1/2 rings with the seeds and membranes removed
Spread out squash on a baking sheet with edges or a baking dish. Lightly salt and pepper the squash.
In a small bowl mix up the sugar, lemon juice, mustard powder, mustard, water, Pour it over the squash and cover with foil. Place on the middle rack for 30 minutes. It will be messy but after 30 minutes flip the squash and in around 15 minutes the squash will be done. Use this mostarda style squash to pair with taleggio cheese.
I also added some pickled leeks to the top of the pizza….I was too busy to take a nice photo of the pizza. But here are some other pizzas I made.
Leek pizzaheirloom tomato pizza
Here is the acorn squash mostarda.
Acorn Squash Mostarda
Acorn Squash Mostarda and Taleggio Cheese are FORKING Amazing together.
I had a couple mangos and some cabbage that I needed to use up and that is how I came up with this recipe.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1/2 small cabbage – shredded
1 small onion (I used a red one) – fine slice and then chop
1 carrot shredded
2 small mangos (mine were small) thin slices
1 orange – supreme if you can – or chop
1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce (preferably Red Boat)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons pure honey
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh cilantro (leaves and only the fine stems) – chop
2 Tablespoons scallions or chives – sliced thin
Optional – pickled baby bell pepper rings ( I have a 12 ingredient recipe for pickled baby bell peppers on TheForkingTruth.com or you can simply do a less complex version of just slicing the baby bell peppers extra thin and just let them marinate in apple cider vinegar for a couple hours on the counter or over night in the refrigerator.
Directions in a large mixing bowl add the lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, honey and red pepper flakes and mix well. To that bill add the cabbage, onion, carrot, mango, orange, cilantro, and scallions (or chives) and mix that up. Add pickled baby bell pepper rings if using.
Urban Margarita is an American Restaurant that swings to New Mexican Fusion Cuisine. This restaurant is located in a strip mall in the Arrowhead section of North Glendale that is also known as the Upper West Side of Metro Phoenix Arizona. Urban Margarita was listed in the Phoenix New Times as among the ten BEST restaurants for New Mexican Cuisine in Metro Phoenix.
It looks like this when you walk in. To the right side of the photo is an indoor-outdoor bar with high top tables near the bar.
To the left is the inside dining area.
Behind the main dining area is another room with a bar.
There is also a partially covered outside patio with a indoor/outdoor bar with misters, a fireplace, a big screen TV and heaters.
Today we shared the cheesy corn appetizer.
it came with a bowl of chips. It’s kind of simple…LOTS of tasty melted cheese, sweet fresh corn, some spices a little heat and grassy cilantro. It’s really delicious!
For my main I got the citrus marinated and grilled “Kickin Chicken” in pineapple habanero glaze with black beans and cilantro rice.
The sauce runs a little sweet but it is spicy…..Chicken is tender and the rice is very fluffy.
My husband got the slow braised hatch pork chile verde.
Not all but some of the previous dishes we’ve had at Urban Margarita were-
Baja chop salad is pictured below.
It a mound of spring mix, black beans, fresh corn, red onion, tomato, avocado, poblanos, cotija cheese and Baja vinaigrette. It’s topped with marinated grilled chicken breast. That Baja vinaigrette does have a good amount of acid to it.
Next is the Urban Burrito.
This one was stuffed with carnitas, lettuce, cheese, cilantro rice, black beans and corn. This was topped with what they call Baja sauce. (it looks like green chili sauce to me)
The stuffed Poblano pepper (with queso on the side).
The peppers (TWO) are stuffed with spicy shredded chicken. It came with rice and corn. I liked that this isn’t swimming in cheese sauce like most New Mexican cuisine that I have tried. This is approachable and sensible.
This is the slow braised pork rib in hatch chile verde with rice, black beans and tortillas.
We’ve had other dishes but I can’t find the photos…..I KNOW I had the salmon here.
We tried the bananas Foster ice cream tortas.
These were SINFULLY good.
This was bananas sautéed in Anejo rum, butter, and brown sugar over an ice cream stuffed brioche bun. It sounds weird but was DANG DELICIOUS!
That was a TASTE of Urban Margarita in Glendale AZ
