Pane Bianco is a small casual urban gourmet sandwich and more restaurant in Phoenix Arizona. Pane Bianco is a sister restaurant of the famous Pizzeria Bianco by James Beard award winning chef Chris Bianco. Pane Bianco focuses on serving a limited but high quality menu of foods that lean towards Italian. The bread made here is from wood fired fermented heirloom grain dough. The most popular sandwich here might be the split focaccia bread stuffed with tomato basil mozzarella sandwich made with house made mozzarella cheese. Pane Bianco offers sandwiches, salads, focaccia slices, calzone, specials, desserts, wine, beer and some dry goods for sale.
Before the pandemic Pane Bianco looked like this.
Today it is pretty much the same but the community tables outside were removed and only one table was on the patio that is now partially enclosed.
It looks like this when you walk in. You can order from the counter or seat yourself in the dining room.
The inside is mix matched in a charming way with lots of character.
We started out by sharing the salad of the day. It was a refreshing but simple watermelon salad with fennel, parsley, salt, and pepper.
For my main I tried the spinach calzone.
It is made up of house made mozzarella, parmesan, ricotta cheese, a little bit of spinach and Bianco tomato sauce.
The dough is paper thin. This calzone is large with a lot of cream rich delicious melty cheese. For some people it might be two meals.
My husband got the Italian combo sandwich today.
It’s made of crusty bread, mortadella, spicy soppresatta, romaine, provolone cheese, and a little vegetable salad garnishes the plate.
Currently but SUBJECT TO CHANGE…Pane Bianco is only open for lunch..But that does change every now and then…….11-3 Monday-Saturday.
I’ve been here for dinner before and used to enjoy the pizza here.
Here are not all but some of the things we tried from Pane Bianco.
soppressata and aged provolone with wood roasted red bell pepper
Tuna Salad
Albacore tuna salad sandwich
Chicken Salad
soppressata with aged provolone and wood roasted onion
focaccia
nutmeg Italian ice
Available for purchase.
I have to say….
Pane Bianco in Phoenix is Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.PizzeriaBianco.com
Everything is subject to change and everything usually does eventually change.
I made this chipotle lime sauce for a squash and then I got the idea to flavor beef in a similar way so I did. This recipe makes 14-15 five ounce mini meatloafs. I think they might be gluten free too because I used masa flour for that flavor and leftover white rice in them instead of breadcrumbs to bind. You don’t have to stuff peppers like I did and just cook off meatloafs if you prefer. I like the pepper cooked so I pre roasted the peppers cut in half for 15 minutes at 450 f. If you want your pepper crisper and more raw don’t precook the peppers.
Ingredients for around 14 servings
3 pounds ground beef (we grind our own brisket and remove most of the fat)
7 peppers – cut in half longways, seeds & seed membranes removed (I used Anaheim peppers)
1 onion – fine chop or grated
6 garlic cloves – ground to paste
2 Tablespoons chipotle powder (you can remove seeds from a dried chipotle pepper and grind it up or buy chipotle powder I buy it from Asiana Market and have bought it from Sprouts too)
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cup fresh cilantro (leaves and only the very tender stems) – chopped
6 eggs – lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon (heaping) reduced sodium Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base (I use this instead of salt because it gives more flavor and has less sodium than salt
1 cup corn masa flour
2 cups cooked rice
1 lime the zest and fresh squeezed juice
1 Tablespoon honey
2 avocados
1/2 cup water ( a little less if your avocados are small)
1/2 cup hot pepper brine (preferable from home made pickled hot peppers) If you don’t have just substitute some vinegar or use more water
1 lime (just the fresh squeezed juice)
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Set oven to 450 degrees F.
Roast off the half peppers cut side down around 15 minutes or until cooked.
When the peppers are out of the oven turn the oven down to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl combine the beef, onion, garlic, chipotle powder, black pepper, oregano, Old Bay Seasoning, cumin, cumin seeds cilantro, eggs, corn masa flour, and rice and mix well.
In a small mixing bowl mix together the lime juice and zest with the honey and add that to the meat mixture and mix well.
Measure out 5 ounces of meat mixture and fill peppers.
Put the peppers on the middle and lower racks of the oven and let them cook till done. (about 20 minutes)
While the stuffed peppers are cooking whip up the avocado cream. Blend together the avocado, water, brine, lime juice, and olive oil.
I’ve been making pastrami and tweaking my recipes for years. My November 2020 recipe is where I have to stop because it can’t be improved……(I don’t want to brag but this pastrami is up there with the best that I have ever tasted!!!)……..I also need to mention that pastrami making is ALWAYS A RISK….Even if you do everything correctly it is possible that your pastrami won’t cure properly and can spoil. That is why most deli restaurants don’t brine their own pastrami and pay others to do it for them. No matter how great the recipe is I have to tell you that the pastrami must be carefully smoked for the very best flavor. I tried to delete my old recipes for pastrami that isn’t smoked but people complain right away if I delete a recipe so I gave up on deleting recipes. Hopefully you will follow my November 2020 Recipe instead of a prior recipe. The last pastrami came out so delicious that I did a whole brisket instead of a half brisket. I doubled the brine…the only difference is that I had some dried chili water from making a salsa leftover so I added that to the water portion of the brine. I did run short on rub so I had to triple the rub.
I squeezed out all the air that I could but it wasn’t enough so I put something heavy on the top so the water would be all around the brisket.
Every day I squished the bag to mix up the brine all around the brisket.
After 6 days the brisket got rinsed and blotted off and then rubbed with a spice blend of mostly coriander, some black pepper and a tiny bit of smoked paprika. My brisket didn’t fit in my smoker so it had to cut it in half.
Then the brisket goes in the smoker for around 7 hours. (It can be longer if you want longer but around 7 hours was perfect for my taste)…….(I used pecan wood that got changed a bunch of times (thanks to my husband)).
Then the brisket gets covered tight in pans and goes in a low oven. (my oven was set at 210 f but I suspect might run lower and all my thermometers read a different temperature so I really can’t tell the exact temperature but I get everything to come out so who cares…)
My bigger dog felt the need to guard the oven with the precious pastrami in it.
The pastrami went in the oven around 7pm……and early in the morning around 5am it still wasn’t done so around five am the oven got turned up to 240 f.
“I am waiting a long time for this pastrami but it smells heavenly”
The pastrami finally got done around 10am.
“I’m waiting for some………..Hurry up…I’m starving”
Then the pastrami sits on the counter till it gets to be room temperature. It fills up the house with FORKING DELICIOUS SMELLS>>>>>>>>>Next it gets refrigerated over night so it can get set and sliced without ripping it apart.
My husband slices up the pastrami better than me so I let him.
The dogs watch and anticipate.,,,,,,
Now they get some.
For a whole day the whole house smelled like FORKING DELICIOUS PASTRAMI.
Forking Amazing Smoked Pastrami
You might want to try my recipes for easy rye rolls and home made spicy beer mustard.
Yotam Ottolenghi is a chef, restauranteur and multi award and James Beard awarding winning cook book author. When you come across one of his recipes you can surely learn something and or taste something incredible. I came across Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for Soba Noodles with Ginger Broth and Crunchy Ginger. I read the recipe and I thought that sounds really good but don’t feel like soup or noodles today (It’s really toasty hot in Phoenix). I figured out how to do his recipe as a vegetable. So that is what this is…..and it came out really delicious! portion size is difficult to judge. I used one medium to small cabbage. For me that is around four side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 side servings
12 Tablespoons olive oil (split into 8 and 4 Tablespoons)
1 Tablespoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
60 grams peeled and grated ginger (around 6 Tablespoons)
2 shallots -peeled and fine chopped
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon black sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cabbage (I used a medium/small one) Cut into 1 1/2-2inch pieces
1 heaping Tablespoon vegetable soup base
1 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 Tablespoons reserved chili oil
Directions
Make the chili oil. – Add 8 tablespoons of oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Place the red chili flakes and the paprika in a small heatproof bowl. When the oil is hot but not smoking add the oil to the small heatproof bowl. Set this to the side to let the flavors infuse. (2 Tablespoons need to be reserved for making the cabbage)
Set oven to 450 degrees F.
Make the cabbage (or if you are taking your time it might be better for you to do the ginger crisp next so you aren’t doing two things at once). – In a large mixing bowl combine the soup base, lime juice, soy sauce, granulated garlic, powdered ginger and reserved chili oil. Mix well. Add the cabbage and mix well. Spread out on a sheet pan and roast in the oven till slightly charred. (ovens do differ but in my oven this took around 22 minutes. Remove from oven when done. Use a slotted spoon so the cabbage is dryer.
Make the ginger crisp. – Add 4 Tablespoons oil to the same skillet that you just used. Heat on medium high. Once hot turn the heat down to medium. Add the ginger and the shallots. Stir often till nicely browned and starting to crisp (10-15 minutes). Add the panko, sesame seeds, and salt. Cook around 6 minutes more till nicely toasted. Transfer to a bowl and set to the side.
Combine and serve. Cabbage gets topped with ginger crisp. Sprinkle with chili oil as desired.
Spiced Cabbage with Ginger Crisp and Chili Oil
ENJOY!
A Special THANKS to Yotam Ottolenghi for sharing his Forking Amazing recipe for Soba Noodles with Ginger Broth and Crunchy Ginger so I could come up with what I made.
Bobby Q Restaurant is la BBQ restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona and also does have a location in Mesa and a smaller location in the Biltmore area of Phoenix. The original Phoenix location is very unique with mature plantings and very large old trees seldom seen in Phoenix. The old building has character and rustic charm of yesteryear. According to Opentable Bobby Q is one of the best 30 BBQ restaurants in the country.
Patiobar areainside looking in by hostess desk
The above dining room isn’t always used and a wall rolls down to close it off.
This place is enormous.
Oh and they sell some souvenirs.
They start you off with complimentary Johnny cakes and soft creamy butter and the rest is up to you.
We shared some of the Q Rolls appetizer.
They are pastry wrapped around the signature 16 hour BBQ beef brisket served with a BBQ sauce and a chipotle ranch dressing.
Each Q roll is very large and is PACKED with lots of tender smoky brisket.
Today my husband got a two meat plate of BBQ sausage and BBQ pork with BBQ beans and macaroni and cheese.
I got the Bob’s salad.
It’s a humble rotisserie chicken salad adorned with some apples, walnuts, cranberries and goat cheese tied together by dijon vinaigrette.
On a past visit I did try the salmon.
I remember that I thought that the salmon was better here from Bobby Q than the more expensive seafood chain restaurant nearby across the highway and it cost around $10. less at Bobby Q.
Once at lunch my husband had the three meat lunch plate.
I tried the BBQ chicken sandwich with peacan slaw as my side.
The apple pie here might be like something a neighbor or a relative might serve you.
They always send you off with bag of complimentary PIPING HOT thank Q doughnuts.
Here is DELICIOUS Sazon Spiced Acorn Squash with Cilantro Chimichurri. You can buy Sazon (General Spanish and or Mexican Seasoning Salt) but here we mix our own because we already have the spices. These flavors annatto, garlic, cumin, and coriander are delicious on acorn squash and the cilantro chimichurri just elevates it even more. Acorn squash do differ greatly in size. The one squash I used was large for an acorn squash. For me it makes 4 smaller side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 side servings
1 large acorn squash – washed well, cut in half (stem to tip) seeds and seed membranes removed and then cut into one inch slices
1/2 teaspoon mild chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground annatto
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 oz cilantro leaves and fine stems – chopped
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
5 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1 small-medium onion (around 6 oz) chopped
2 small hot peppers – chopped (I used chili de arbols)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
optional – 2oz roasted salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) for finishing
optional pickled red onions for serving
Directions
Set oven to 475 F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper
In a small mixing bowl combine the chili powder, annatto, granulated garlic, cumin, coriander, black pepper, salt, canola oil, and apple cider vinegar. Set squash slices in a single layer on parchment lined baking sheet. Paint the contents of the small bowl on the squash on both sides. Use up the whole mixture. Put the squash pan on an upper middle rack for 15 minutes. Flip the squash pieces over and cook another 15 minutes or until squash looks slightly charred.
While the squash is cooking make the cilantro chimichurri.
Blend together the cilantro, oregano, garlic, onion, hot peppers, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
SERVE squash with the chimichurri. Add optional roasted salted pepitas and pickled red onions if desired.
Sazon Spiced Acorn Squash with Cilantro Chimichurri
I got the idea in my head that romesco sauce made with roasted Anaheim peppers would be delicious and it is. Romesco sauce is a Spanish sauce that often is used on fish. It is usually made from roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, sometimes thicken with bread and a few other ingredients. It’s a delicious easy sauce to make. Servings are difficult to judge because I don’t know if you are using only a little or a lot. This makes a good 4 servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings.
6 small roasted Anaheim peppers – peeled, stems removed, seeds removed, chopped (my 6 small peppers were 200ml in my measuring cup)
3 garlic cloves – fine chopped
1/4 cup roasted salted almonds
1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 lemon – the fresh squeezed juice
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Blend.
Anaheim Romesco Sauce Anaheim Romesco Sauce
I used it with smoked paprika roasted cauliflower, pickled onions and crisp apples.
Taco Boys is located in south Phoenix Arizona. They serve tacos al carbon. That translates to meat over fire. It’s actually mesquite charcoal fire.
Here is part of the actual grill inside Taco Boys
They keep bags of the mesquite charcoal under the counter that you order at.
They offer carne asada, pollo (chicken), tripe, cabeza (beef cheek), pastor (pork), barbacoa (beef). You pick well packed street sized tacos in either four or corn tortillas. They also offer vampiros (grilled crispy with cheese), burros, and quesadillas.
This isn’t a fancy place but you come for the food. You can see that they don’t have a cocktail bar here. Beverages offered are sodas, horchata (Mexican rice/milk cinnamon), beers, micheladas (Mexican beer cocktails), and bottled water.
Most of the seating is indoors but a few outside tables are on the side of the building by the parking lot.
A few tables are also to the left side of the front door.
It can get busy in a second here.
You order and try to find a table. They ask you to pay when you are done.
While you are waiting you can make a plate of toppings and sauces for your tacos.
Our order is ready.
Between us we tried all the tacos except for tripe. Everything is good and nothing lacks flavor or is dry so that is a win!
Here are the beef tacos that they offer.
Upper left is barbacoa. It’s flavored nicely and is tender and very succulent. It’s something like a stewed beef cube…
Upper right is the cabeza (beef cheek) This one is very tender with nice developed flavor.
Lower beef taco is the carne asada. It’s tender enough and does have a nice mesquite flavor to it. It is a very good taco.
The flour tortilla tacos are grilled to sort of crispy.
The corn tortilla tacos are best suited for the saucy meats and double shelled like in Mexico.
We were surprised that the Mexican Style beans are spicy and very soupy today. They lack whole beans today. They might have chorizo in them.
Superstition Meadery is a award wining producer of ancient honey wine called mead. The original location is in Prescott Arizona and they have a location in downtown Phoenix Arizona. The Phoenix location also offers chef crafted food parings of sharing boards, small plates and large plates. Parking is easy because they have their own parking lot.
They have the fanciest bike racks that I have ever seen.
When the weather is nice you can bring your furry best friend or friends on the patio.
The patio is much larger than the view I got. It goes down the whole side of the building.
Inside it looks like this.
At the end of the bar are big bottles of mead and maybe some ciders.
I’m not sure if I ever had mead before…..
We decided to share the flight of 12 for $24. (subject to change)
My favorite was the one called lemonade in retrograde. It was bright, refreshing and had a nice lemon zing and wasn’t too sweet. My least favorite was the one called Tahitian Honeymoon made with Tahitian Vanilla bean mead aged in oak…..
There were many sharing boards, small plates and large plates to pick from.
We started out by sharing the piri piri chicken small plate and the warm cannellini bean salad.
The piri piri chicken is spicy chicken breast covered with crushed peanuts and served with some sliced grilled baguette bread.
The warm cannellini bean salad is made up of beans, farro, spinach, Thai basil, and wood roasted onion dressing.
Our main was the gorgonzola & herbed butter skirt steak. Today it came with wood roasted shitshito peppers, radicchio (Italian chicory), mushrooms and arugula.
I thought we were done but the desert of the day sounded too interesting to turn down.
It was blondies with chocolate nibs with Marion berry mead sauce, caramel and whipped cream.
I thought we were done.
But I was wrong again.
They gave us complimentary cookies with the bill.
Everything was delicious and detailed nicely. Service was very attentive and helpful.
This is an outstanding recipe that I found in the internet by chef Ivan Tisdall-Downs for Broccoli Stalk with Confit Egg and Blue Cheese Recipe. This recipe has a lot of steps to it but nothing is too hard to do. I did change only a few things but maybe not enough to take any credit for this recipe. I wanted my broccoli cooked instead of raw so that was one change. I thought the broccoli puree needed chives so I added that. Instead of making blue cheese dressing I just added blue cheese because the creamy extra rich broccoli puree was enough richness for me. I also didn’t have kale so I substituted cabbage and crisped it up in the microwave but I do have to admit that when you use kale like YOU SHOULD that the kale crisp will turn out tastier than my microwaved crisp cabbage. Still even with the slight changes I made this is an exceptional recipe that taste FORKING AMAZING. I do note that this recipe is A LOT OF WORK for only 4 servings…..You make this recipe when you want to make something very special. This recipe is in metric. One thing that isn’t very clear when you read the recipe is how much broccoli to use. I used two very large heads of broccoli for the whole recipe.
Ingredients for 4 servings
4 egg yolks – confit eggs
250ml neutral oil – confit eggs
500g onions – finely sliced – onion jam
75g demerara sugar – onion jam
75ml cider vinegar – onion jam
50ml water – onion jam
1 dash vegetable oil – onion jam
285g broccoli washed and fine chopped – broccoli puree
200ml heavy cream – broccoli puree
100ml whole milk – broccoli puree
77g unsalted butter – broccoli puree
1g baking soda – broccoli puree
1 pinch sea salt – broccoli puree
2 Tablespoons chives – fine chopped – broccoli puree
115g blue cheese crumbled
1 bunch of kale (I used a small head of cabbage that I microwaved the leaves crisp but I do note that crispy kale chips would indeed be better)
1 Tbsp neutral oil – kale chips
1Tbsp sugar – kale chips
1 Tbsp salt – kale chips
180g flour (this batter recipe made maybe twice as much as I needed) tempura radish
1 Tablespoon baking powder – tempura radish
250ml ice water – tempura radish
1 pinch sea salt – tempura radish
12 radishes – tempura radish
neutral oil for frying – tempura radish
2 broccoli stalks only – broccoli stalks
1 teaspoon honey – broccoli stalks
10ml apple cider vinegar – broccoli stalks
1 knob butter – broccoli stalks
sea salt to taste – broccoli stalks
remaining broccoli cut in manageable pieces for eating
Directions
Make the confit eggs. Set sous vide to 63C and carefully add yolks to a small dish and cover the yolks with oil for around an hour. If you don’t have a sous vide you will slightly over cook the eggs in the oven. Confit eggs on the oven should be done at around 150 degrees F for around 30 minutes…Good LucK.
Make the onion jam. Put a sauce pan on medium heat. Add oil and when it’s hot add the onions and cook till soft and golden. Add sugar and cook till sugar turns to caramel and then deglaze with the vinegar. Add water and cook till jam consistency.
Make broccoli puree. Melt butter in the pan and add the milk and cream. Take off heat and add the baking soda. This mixture with the broccoli gets blended till as smooth as possible. Add chives and blend some more. Add seasoning to taste.
Set your oven to 400 degrees F or 200C. Make the kale chips. Spread leaves on baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Set another tray on the top of the kale and cook it for 5 minutes. Then season with the salt and sugar. (I note that I didn’t do this step and just microwaved cabbage leaves in a lightly non stick sprayed microwavable safe bowl for 5 minutes on one side. Blotted leaves dry and turned them over and around another 5 minutes and they were crispy…They do burn easy and I did accidentally burn some)
Peel the broccoli stalks. Slice in half long ways and boil for 8 minutes (I added sea salt and cut in chunks) Then shook in ice water.
Either set up a fryer with oil to 180C or a pot on the stove with neutral oil for frying at around medium heat. Make batter. Flour, pinch salt and ice water till smooth. Batter up those radishes and fry till golden. Drain on cooling rack…Or pan lined with paper towels. Season with salt.
Get a sauce pan with a knob of butter and cook till butter turns brown on medium high heat. Add the broccoli stalks and cook till caramelized. Add the honey cook around 2 minutes and deglaze with vinegar.
While you are doing the broccoli stalks blanch broccoli crown tops in salted water till tender crisp (around 3 minutes and then shock in ice water. Season with salt and pepper.
Put this all together and sprinkle with blue cheese.
Broccoli Three Ways with Confit Egg, Onion Jam, Blue Cheese, Crispy Cabbage and Tempura Radish
When I served this with dinner mine looked more like this.
This REALLY IS a FORKING AWSOME RECIPE!
A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!!!! To Chef Ivan Tisdall-Downs for his FORKING AMAZING Recipe so I could make this.
