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National Salad Month

Salads get a rep for being boring and repetitive, but we disagree! Salads can be fun and nutritious! You can put a  variety of things in a salad to make it taste good and different! 

If you make your salad at home, there are plenty of ingredients you can throw in a salad. Some of our favorites that you may not think of are

  • goldfish or a cheese cracker instead of croutons
  • dried cranberries
  • almond slices
  • fruit like oranges, apples, or strawberries
  • sunflower seeds
  • corn
  • rotisserie chicken

If you don’t feel like making your own, but want something different, We have a large selection of gourmet salads to choose from. Your classic garden salad to a fun chopped salad, there is a salad for everyone! 

Here are some of our favorite La Bella Romana salads!

Julienne Salad

 Julienne is a type of cut that means the food is sliced into thin strips and this is reflected in the ingredients of the salad! With different types of lettuce, ham, cheese turkey, and a few different vegetables, this is a great summer salad! 

Bacon Ranch Salad

 Our rotisserie chicken mixed with mozzarella, bacon, tomatoes, and croutons tossed in ranch dressing! 

Chopped Salad

A variety of diced ingredients for maximum flavor! This salad has eggs, turkey, ham, cheese, bacon, cucumber, onions, and tomatoes. There are so many veggies and proteins!

Greek Salad

Onions, peppers, cucumbers, feta, tomatoes, and olives… a Mediterranean dream! 

Mexican, southwest, tropical, caesar… there are so many more! 

May is National Salad Month and in honor of it, we are featuring a salad of the week. Every week throughout the month of may, we will be highlighting a few different salads in our ad and in store! Be sure you’re following us on social media to see what unique salad is being highlighted!

From Our Family To Yours

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Homemade Ricotta

Do you love cheese? If you do, you have probably paid a visit to our deli and seen the large selection of imported and domestic cheeses, specialty cheeses, and, a personal favorite, homemade cheese! One cheese that we NEED to have in our fridge at all times? Homemade Ricotta!

Ricotta is made from re-cooking the milk whey leftover from the production of other cheese. The result is a soft, creamy, and delicious cheese! The taste is like no other. It’s fresh, creamy, and versatile– it can be a great compliment to any dish or main ingredient in another! You can change the flavor profile depending on what you pair it with and use it to elevate any dish or meal! 

Here are some of our favorite things to do with ricotta!

Ricotta with honey and cinnamon

Mixing ricotta with honey and cinnamon makes a sweet and delicious topping! Try to put it on toast for yummy breakfast or even mix it with berries, peaches, or other fruit for a nice snack!

Ricotta & Avocado Toast

Italian avocado toast! Mix the ricotta with olive oil, salt, and pepper (also great with bread on its own), spread it on bread or even friselle, then put some avocado and everything bagel seasoning on top. You have a delicious and escalated avocado toast!

A Pizza Topping

Scoops of ricotta on a pizza is one of our favorite pizza toppings! We like to add some giardiniera and sausage too!

Check out our Gourmet Pizza Ideas blog for this pizza recipe and some others!

In a Sandwich

There is nothing like imported prosciutto and arugula on fresh bread with some creamy homemade ricotta. Add a little olive oil for flavor and even throw some giardiniera on it! 

With Lemon Olive Oil

If you’re looking for a light and refreshing bite, this is it! Mixing ricotta with a lemon olive oil or plain olive oil and a squeeze of a lemon is a wonderful treat! You can put it in a salad or even enjoy it with a piece of bread. It is fresh, light, and a great summer snack!

Use it in lasagna, in cookies, in a salad, in pancakes, with eggplant, in stuffed zucchini… the options are endless! Let us know what you use ricotta for and stop by our deli to try out our homemade ricotta… your life will not be the same!

From Our Family To Yours

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Specialty Cakes

No celebration is complete without the perfect dessert. If you’re looking to take your celebration– no matter how big or small– to the next level, order a custom cake from our bakery! The best thing is that the cake will be beautiful and still taste delicious!

Our bakery is happy to work with you to make your event perfect. We have custom, specialty cakes for every occasion and any theme. Just tell our talented bakery what you want and they will help bring your cake dreams to life. 

Our cakes aren’t just pretty to look at, but they’re delicious too! Our cakes are all made in-house. The filling makes all the difference in a cake. We have a variety of fillings that you can mix and match to create what’s best for your event! Some of our fillings include French cream, custard, cannoli, fudge, peanut butter, Nutella mousse, preserves, cookies and cream, chocolate French cream, and more. There are so many options that it’s hard to pick just one! We always like to test out new combinations, and these are some of our favorites that we’ve tried so far:

  • yellow sponge cake with a layer of cannoli filling and a layer of fudge
  • chocolate or yellow cake with cookies and cream filling
  • chocolate cake with cannoli filling
  • chocolate sponge with peanut butter filling
  • yellow cake with cannoli and fresh strawberries

You can never go wrong with the classics like a cream puff cake, tiramisu,  carrot cake, or cannoli cake either! 

We have done simple cakes, wedding cakes, themed cakes, number cakes, cupcake cakes, and more. We are more than happy to work with you and share our offerings. Take a look at some of the custom cakes we have done in the past. 

Follow us on social media where every Sunday we post a new, custom cake for some inspiration for your next event and to see the work of our talented bakery. 

Get a cake that tastes even better than it looks. Order your next cake from our La Bella Romana bakery. 

Email lbrbakery@caputomarkets.com or call (630) 620-4444 ext 1036 for more info or to order!

From Our Family To Yours

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Homemade Tortillas

Did you know we make our own tortillas?

In 2018, we remodeled our Addison store. Part of this remodel was bringing in a brand new tortilla machine from Mexico! This machine allows us to make our very own, homemade corn tortillas in-house every day. We then take it one step further and turn our tortillas into tortilla chips!

Like all of our other prepared foods, our tortillas are all natural and have no preservatives. We offer yellow or white corn tortillas that are made from scratch in this machine daily. The tortillas are made in our Addison location and then sent to each store from there. 

Our tortillas are great for Taco Tuesday and once you have tortillas, our meat department is the next stop. We have a variety of pre-marinated taco and fajita meats and poultry ready to go. They are located behind the meat counter. All you have to do is cook and enjoy! 

We also turn our homemade tortillas into tortilla chips! We cut the tortillas into triangles and throw them in our fryer. They are salted, cooled, and packaged in brown paper bags. 

Our chips also pair wonderfully with items from different departments, especially our homemade guacamole and salsas. Made fresh daily, our guac and salsas are made using items right from our produce section! Guacamole, classic salsa, pineapple salsa, mango salsa, and more! You can also try our chips with our homemade chili! They are great for dipping in the chili on its own or making chili nachos!

Check out this video on our tortillas here

From Our Family To Yours