Maldon & Mignonette in Sea Cliff serves Halloween pasta
For the Halloween season, Maldon & Mignonette in Sea Cliff is serving pumpkin cacio e pepe pasta in a hollowed-out pumpkin. Credit: Jessica Gerbe
Halloween doesn’t usually inspire flights of culinary fancy, but Maldon & Mignonette’s Rob Occhipinti was moved to celebrate the holiday with a pumpkin-ed out pasta dish that has proved so popular, he’ll be making it until the local nurseries no longer sell pumpkins.
Occhipinti has been making his own pasta by hand since he opened the Sea Cliff bistro in 2019. For this spooky cacio e pepe special, he makes two different doughs, one oranged with pumpkin puree, one darkened by (completely edible) charcoal. Then he rolls them out on a chitarra (a stringed “guitar” that cuts the dough into strands). The pasta is tossed with pecorino cheese, lots of coarsely ground black pepper and more of that pumpkin puree. It’s transferred into a hollowed-out pumpkin and, BOO! It’s ready for service.
Pumpkin cacio e pepe, $35, is not on the menu but is available every day the restaurant is open for dinner, Tuesday to Sunday.
Round out your meal with one of Maldon & Mignonette signature starters, bacon and peanut butter with roasted carrot and red quinoa (trust me, it’s delicious) or the crabcake with brioche crust. Splurge on the Akaushi steak (a luxuriant Japanese breed) or, if you haven’t had your fill of pumpkin, order the Crescent Farm duck with red cabbage and pumpkin puree.
Maldon & Mignonette is at 243 Glen Cove Ave., Sea Cliff, 516-801-3250, maldonmignonette.com.
