“Bear with us”: 3rd Street repaving project starting this summer

April 12, 2017 | by Danielle Roth

3rd and Verbeke streets will receive a pedestrian-friendly facelift as part of the 3rd Street repaving project.

Pedestrians, drivers and bus-riders each will have something to gain with Harrisburg’s plans to repave 3^rd Street. But first, the city will experience some growing pains.

“Bear with us,” City Engineer Wayne Martin said at today’s public information meeting at Strawberry Square. “I think everyone is so excited that we are paving roads. However, we are going to try to minimize the inconvenience.”

The repaving and beautification project is slated to begin in July and run through October, wrapping up late next year, Martin said.

The city has not yet determined dates for road closures or parking restrictions, pending selection of a contractor. An online map updated by city officials reflects the street closures, which will include closures on busy 3^rd Street. The city and SP+ will work together to notify residents of parking changes, Martin said.

Construction crews will repave 3^rd Street in small chunks. Work will take place at these three sections of 3^rd Street:

Chestnut Street to Forster Street
Forster Street to Muench Street
Maclay Street to Seneca Street

This project skips the recently repaved strip of 3^rd Street in front of the Capitol complex. However, most of 3^rd Street has not been repaved in 20 years.

Crews will pave at night to minimize road closures that could disrupt commuters, Martin said, adding that loud work, such as jackhammering, will occur during daytime hours to minimize disturbances for residents.

“[It’s] a balancing act,” he said, adding that the city will “scrutinize” any lane restrictions before 9 a.m. and after 3 p.m.

Curb extensions called bump outs will include green infrastructure elements designed to filter storm water. More than 120 trees placed in specially designed planters will naturally filter contaminants before entering the city’s water infrastructure, Martin said. In addition, crews will install more than 150 ramps that comply with accessibility standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Updates to six traffic signals will ease crossings for pedestrians, Martin said. The updates include chirping noises to indicate safe crossing times. Traffic signals will be retimed in a way that’s designed to allow pedestrians to cross safer, he said.

Bus stops will be moved to safer locations and, in some instances, consolidated to be made more efficient, Martin said.

For the project, the city obtained more than $3 million in grants from PennDOT and Impact Harrisburg, a nonprofit set up as part of the Harrisburg Strong Plan. Impact Harrisburg awarded Capitol Region Water $500,000 for this project’s storm water management aspects.

Author: Danielle Roth

City Council Update: Reservoir Park Bandshell to receive fresh paint, general repairs

April 11, 2017 | by Danielle Roth

yellow-ish bandshell image. Ampetheater with a covered stage

Reservoir Park’s bandshell will receive a fresh coat of paint and general maintenance repairs.

Reservoir Park’s bandshell is slated to receive a fresh coat of paint and general repairs by early May. This comes after City Council tonight unanimously approved a resolution allowing the city to move forward with the $50,000 project.

Right now, the wood in the bandshell’s dressing rooms rots while the stage’s paint chips away, said Hillary Greene, city purchasing manager. The contractor, Steelton-based Kemar, Inc., will address these problems in addition to fixing the flooring and other general maintenance and repairs.

These updates will make the bandshell more appealing to performance groups looking to rent the space, Greene said.

“[After these updates], we feel better about renting it out,” she said.

Kevin Sanders, parks and recreation director, said a basic rental for residents costs $150 without using electricity. The fee increases depending on how a group plans to use the facility.

Gamut Theatre’s annual June Shakespeare in the Park is slated to be the first to use the refurbished venue. The contractor aims to finish repairs before the performance, Sanders said.

The bandshell also needs updates to light and sound systems, which may be in the cards for this year, Sanders said.

His department plans to install a video security system at the bandshell in hopes of protecting the area from vandalism.

During a pre-meeting discussion, Councilmen Cornelius Johnson and Ben Allatt requested that the purchase of the surveillance system be sped up.

The city park at 4^th and Emerald streets is also slated to receive video surveillance.

“A lot of these facilities, it takes the community to maintain,” Johnson said during the legislative meeting tonight.

The security system would “identify who vandalized property and deter those actions from happening,” he said.

Also at tonight’s meeting, council approved three members to the LERTA appeals board. This marks a final step in implementing the tax incentive program, which is intended to foster development in the city. Developers can go to the LERTA appeals board if they disagree with the city LERTA administrator’s decisions.

Members of the administration, including Mayor Eric Papenfuse and city Solicitor Neil Grover, were absent tonight as they attended a mandatory Three Mile Island readiness drill.

This story was updated on April 18 to include the cost to rent the bandshell.

Author: Danielle Roth

Opening Night Review: “Uncanny Valley” contemplates life’s deep questions, with a touch of humor

April 10, 2017 | by Danielle Roth

Man with blue collared shirt appears popping out of a wooden desk. The clean-cut man has one arm that touches the forehead of Anne, an older woman dressed in beige.

The scientist Claire (Anne Alsedek) teaches Julian (Jeff Luttermoser), a robot, the nuances to being a human.

Thomas Gibbons’ play “Uncanny Valley” dives deep into timeless questions about the core of humanity, all with only two actors, 90 minutes and a dash of expertly placed humor.

Open Stage of Harrisburg’s production, which opened Friday night, kept me engaged as the perfectly portrayed characters, Claire and Julian, dove deeper and deeper into this intellectual territory.

The play’s opening scene shocked me, which kept me on my toes throughout the play. The humanlike robot Julian (Jeff Luttermoser) appeared as a clean-shaven head popping out of desk in the plain office space belonging to the scientist Claire (Anne Alesdek). She showed Julian the nuances to human movement, as the robotic Julian attempted to move his head side to side.

Luttermoser rose to the challenge of playing a robot, and his well-executed jolts and bumps mesmerized me. Alsedek’s character required less obvious physical demands and a subtler portrayal of Claire’s sadness, which I understood in Alsedek performance from the first scene.

This dynamic and chemistry between Luttermoser and Alsedek are at the crux of this play.

An older woman nearing retirement, Claire—complete with a cardigan—immediately juxtaposed the youth and accompanying curiosity spouting from the newly created robot. As the performance progressed, I realized the characters are near-perfect foils, which added depth to my understanding of the show and its questions.

Then, the scene cuts to dark. I heard the beep, beeping and breathing of a respirator. The stage suddenly is illuminated to reveal that more of Julian—his torso—has risen from the desk.

This transition had the potential to be jolty, but I loved its effect on the play’s pace. It allowed the play to reveal nuggets of suspense. I always attempt to guess how a story ends, and this well-delivered performance kept me guessing.

Each time we met Julian after the lights returned, another section of his body was revealed until the audience met a standing, walking Julian.

His childlike curiosity gave ample opportunity for humor. However, more than just the silly questions children ask adults, Julian and Claire’s well-delivered humor develops a brilliant dynamic in their relationship from the onset. Alsedek and Luttermoser’s on-stage chemistry builds throughout the performance until the end’s thought-provoking and surprising crescendo.

As Julian physically grew and Claire taught him about humanity, his seemingly innocent questions to Claire became surprisingly targeted at the root of human existence. He questions emotions, consciousness and his purpose all to understand his own existence as a robot attempting to become a human.

When he receives an arm, he asks to touch Claire’s face and hair, when he realizes that Claire’s human body comes complete with scars. Julian’s perfectly engineered existence has no such scars. He summarizes his thoughts with this poignant line, “If I fall short, it’s because I lack your scars.”

Julian’s curiosity into Claire’s life shows that Claire has more scars than just physical ones. Like Julian looking for his purpose as a robot trying to be human, Claire looks for meaning as she nears the end of a distinguished career and grapples with family problems.

This play was a great way to spend an evening, but I recommend having an after-show dinner or drink so you can ponder life’s deep questions afterward.

A one-act play, “Uncanny Valley” is directed by Donald Alsedek, founder and producing artistic director of Open Stage. “Uncanny Valley” runs until May 7 at Open Stage of Harrisburg. For more information and tickets, visit www.openstagehbg.com.

Author: Danielle Roth

What’s the Plan? After much delay, city officials lay out timeline to complete comprehensive plan

April 7, 2017 | by Danielle Roth

photo of all Harrisburg City Council members.

Harrisburg City Council held a public workshop on the Harrisburg Comprehensive Plan last night.

After a thrown-out consultant contract and more than a year of delay, city officials have laid out a timeline to get Harrisburg’s comprehensive plan to the finish line.

At last night’s public workshop, city officials said a draft of the document will be released for public comment in June. They expect the final version to be ready in November.

City Council members spent much of the three-hour meeting teasing out how a $200,000 consultant’s contract, which still has not yielded a draft document, became so held up and behind schedule.

After the city did not receive a final comprehensive plan draft by a March 2016 deadline, communication between city officials and urban design consultant Bret Peters slowly broke down, ending with the city terminating Peters’ contract, said city officials.

Consultant Bret Peters addresses city officials, council and residents.

After a negotiation process, the city made a final offer for Peters to complete the project, said City Solicitor Neil Grover. With no response, the city terminated the contract, Grover said.

“[His] demand was for more money,” he said. “From a taxpayer point of view, we cannot do that.”

So far, the city has paid Peters $185,000 of its $210,000 budget for the comprehensive plan. Peters told council that the city owes him at least $30,000 more for work already completed.

However, city officials said Peters did not deliver a complete, 10-chapter draft to them. The city requested “concise informative chapters” with goals and action steps, said Planning Director Geoffrey Knight.

The administration gave council members copies of the current comprehensive plan draft. The incomplete document, still missing chapters, was rife with highlights, question marks and other notes from the Planning Bureau, council members remarked.

City Councilman Cornelius Johnson called the document “incomplete.”

“[There are] sections that are just one-liners right now,” he said.

Peters gave council a stapled document of reasons explaining why his team’s work was not complete by last year’s deadline.

When council members asked Peters about the incomplete documents and the missed deadline, he placed blame on the city. He cited everything from a limited budget, bad communication with officials and the bureau’s limited capacity.

Members of the Planning Commission, a seven-person volunteer board, accepted part of the responsibility for the delayed project and questioned why Peters did not come to the commission’s monthly public meetings with his documents if he encountered difficulty with city officials.

However, as it stands, the city still needs to complete three chapters and polish up the chapters submitted by the consultant.

The city turned to two consultants to complete the chapter on housing and the chapter on energy and utilities. These consultants were sub-contractors who worked with Peters. Director of Community and Economic Development Jackie Parker will complete the economic development chapter.

City officials plan to release a complete draft to the public in early June to receive public feedback. Three feedback sessions are slated for this public comment period. After incorporating feedback from the public and the Planning Commission, city officials plan to have a final draft for a City Council vote in November.

Author: Danielle Roth

Fresh Feed: Harrisburg arts community finds new home in a hashtag.

April 6, 2017 | by Danielle Roth

Instagram users can find some very Harrisburg scenes on the HburgMade feed, pictured here.

Harrisburg’s ever-expanding arts community now has another home, this time on Instagram.

The account and hashtag, both under the name HburgMade, pull together photos shared by Harrisburg’s makers, creatives and artists, featuring their objects, creations and works of art.

With less than two weeks on Instagram, the curator behind @hburgmade, Drew Lawrence, said he’s learned a lot about Harrisburg’s arts community.

“It’s opened my eyes to different artists, events and photographers, not only in Harrisburg, but the West Shore and even Dillsburg,” he said.

Lawrence, 30, spent his 20s working in social media management and advertising in Washington, D.C., after graduating from Shippensburg University.

In D.C., he discovered @ACreativeDC on Instagram and loved the idea of a feed for the city’s arts communities.

“There was a creative movement down there that wanted to showcase D.C.’s creative community a little bit more and make it seem like [D.C.] was more than a government town,” he said.

When the Hanover native moved back to central PA last summer, he kicked around the idea of bringing the concept to his new community. When someone in Baltimore created a similar account, he decided to take the plunge.

He started the project March 28, and the community has latched on. The account has 366 followers and 152 posts fill the hashtag. The account posts and reposts aesthetically-pleasing and community-oriented photos from local creatives.

“I want to show people that there is a creative side of this town,” he said.

He encourages people to use #HburgMade to create a stream of local art.

“It’s not limited to people who make physical objects,” Lawrence said. “Professional photographers, street photographers—anyone can fill the feed.”

Managing the account is easy for the former social media manager, now advertising copywriter. Each day, he goes through the feed and picks a good photo from that day, he said.

“It’s not too complicated,” Lawrence said. “It’s a lot of monitoring, engaging, commenting.”

His only challenge is one faced by many with a side passion project.

“Just trying to not do it during office hours,” he said.

Author: Danielle Roth

Burg Blog: The Price of Protection

April 6, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

The scene from a horrific fire last night on the 300-block of Maclay Street in Harrisburg.

Last night, shortly after 10 p.m., sirens began to wail in my neighborhood, getting nearer to my house until they seemed to be almost on top of it.

In Harrisburg, this sound is not unusual, but these sirens seemed to combine into a single force, coming at me from all directions. And as the volume increased, so did my concern.

I looked out my back window and could see a plume of smoke rising, maybe a block or two away. I put on shoes, grabbed a jacket and hurried out the door.

The fire was actually three blocks away, with two houses already engulfed, a wall of flame at their backs, and, in front, a stiff wind drove embers and acrid smoke across Maclay Street. I took some video, posted it to Twitter, then took in the scene around me: the onlookers, the neighborhood kids who had gathered, the trucks and hoses up and down the street, the many blinking lights. I was impressed, as I always am, by the precision work and professionalism of Chief Enterline’s men, who bravely beat back the flames, saving the entire block from certain incineration.

As I stood there, several other thoughts ran through my head: the safety of the people who lived in these rowhouses, what caused the fire, what the block would look like afterwards, if the houses were owned by “investors” and if they were up to code.

I also thought of a story that had broken several hours earlier—that the state legislature is trying to eliminate “Capitol fire protection” funding from the 2017-18 state budget. This is the money—$5 million in recent years—provided to Harrisburg to protect the Capitol complex’s 40 buildings, a sort of payment in lieu of taxes since the state pays no property tax on its massive holdings in the city.

This payment has been something of a political football over the years. Under former Mayor Steve Reed, it ranged from nothing to a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Former city receiver William Lynch and his people tried to standardize the compensation, arriving at the $5 million figure as a fair price for a year’s fire protection and, let’s be honest, a host of other services the city provides.

Several years ago, when Harrisburg’s financial recovery agreement was hammered out, I was surprised that this payment was not an explicit part of the deal, duly inked and signed. I asked Lynch about it, and he said that he had received assurances from the state that it would continue. I thought it was misplaced hope, and, as it turns out, it didn’t take long for state legislators to renege on whatever gentleman’s agreement Lynch thought he had.

Without a signed deal, this problem was inevitable. For Republicans, the fire protection payment is an easy cut to make, since it doesn’t affect their constituents, and they can even boast back home that they stuck it to Harrisburg (even if, in a weird meta, “Harrisburg,” to their constituents, doesn’t really refer to the city but to the loathed politicians that they themselves elect and send here).

And maybe the payment became even more precarious after the city, denied a commuter tax by the legislature, upped both the earned income tax and the local services tax. However, these taxes shouldn’t be conflated. Workers, not the state itself, pay the LST and EIT. The fire protection payment is really a substitute for a property tax, helping to fund the city’s Fire Bureau (and other vital services) so that the state can safely and confidently go about its business each and every day, including within the priceless Capitol building. That’s no small matter, and it’s not cheap.

In any case, Harrisburg’s representatives are now in the terrible position of having to re-secure that money every year, using every mode of influence they have. And the city is in the terrible position of not knowing if it will receive those funds, which threatens both its fiscal sustainability and its ability to provide high-quality emergency services.

Meanwhile, it’s not like Harrisburg is living large. This money is going to the most basic of services, ensuring that, when that terrible day comes (and it will) that a fire breaks out in a state-owned building, the Harrisburg Fire Bureau will be there, on site, within minutes, with the resources to do its job. Without those state funds, Harrisburg will have to lay off firefighters, Mayor Eric Papenfuse said.

Last night, I watched the fire on Maclay Street with a number of my neighbors, some from Midtown and some from Uptown. One woman cried as she spoke on her phone, describing the horrifying scene to a friend. She later told me that she lived in a house at the end of the row that was on fire.

I thought it was unfortunate that powerful people—members of the state legislature—weren’t also there to witness this tragedy. Then maybe fire protection wouldn’t be some abstraction or a number on a budget spreadsheet that can just get crossed out. They could see for themselves how high the stakes are—what is really at risk—and witness the heroic, critical work of Harrisburg’s firefighters.

Author: Lawrance Binda

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

April 6, 2017 | by Sara Bozich

I’m spending this morning with the GK Visual crew at St. Boniface Brewing Company in Ephrata for another Poured in Pa shoot.

»» Learn more about Poured in Pa. and find out how YOU can help!

Friday, I think I’m not leaving the house, not once. Deliver me food, feed me popcorn, crank up the Amazon Prime.

Saturday morning, of course, I’m hitting the gym then the market, but this time I’ll be setting up a Harrisburg Beer Week table with event guides and information on Battle of the Homebrewers — Buy tickets on-site (cash or credit) – just $25 (or $10 for Designated Driver, who scores not just boring water but nonalcoholic craft sodas from Boneshire Brew Works), benefiting Harrisburg River Rescue & Emergency Services.

I don’t remember what Sunday is, but I’m thinking brunch. I am dying for lemon ricotta pancakes. Anyone serve them? Or do I have to make them myself?

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

TheBurg Podcast, March 31, 2017

March 31, 2017 | by TheBurg Editor

Welcome to TheBurg Podcast, a weekly roundup of news in and around Harrisburg.

Stream this week’s episode on SoundCloud.

March 31, 2017: After a long hiatus, TheBurg Podcast returns. This week, editor-in-chief Lawrance Binda and city reporter Danielle Roth discuss the upcoming primary election, the city’s next steps with the sinkhole remediation project and student behavioral issues within Harrisburg School District. Larry shares his local election ‘bugaboos’ and both offer their take son the “Most Harrisburg Thing This Week.” As an added surprise, you may recognize the voices of those who excitedly welcomed back TheBurg Podcast.

Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music. Check out his podcast, the PRC Show on iTunes.

Find the stories referenced in this week’s podcast:

Sinkhole Solution Nears: City fronts costs for project’s first phase as it waits to receive national grants.

Harrisburg Schools Update: Board, Teachers Union Address Disruptive Student Behavior

Trash Can-Do: The reporters have long moved on, but the struggle against litter, dumping continues.

Mural Majority: Harrisburg Mural Festival aims to paint a prettier city.

March 31, 2017 | by Rebecca Oken

Last summer, Sprocket Mural Works sponsored the creation of five murals around Harrisburg over the course of two months.

The group, founded and run by city residents Jeff Copus and Meg Davis, received plenty of positive response to this inundation of public art, and they were eager to do more. That’s when they got the idea for a mural festival.

“We saw all the excitement of people watching new murals going up,” said Copus, whose day job is program director for the arts group, Jump Street. “So, that’s when we were like, ‘Let’s just really compact this—do a festival type thing.’”

Together with Davis, also known as TheBurg’s creative director, they’ve been planning just that since last summer.

Unifying Effect

Both Davis and Copus long have been interested in public art and community building. Several years ago, when a mutual friend introduced them, Sprocket was born. Its goals were, and still are, to beautify Harrisburg and instill pride in residents, Davis said.

“There’s a really amazing community here of people doing really great things,” she said. “So, part of it is inspiring civic pride through beautification and through art.”

Sprocket’s first project was at Recycle Bicycle at Emerald and Atlas streets in Uptown Harrisburg, a building that, at the time, was riddled with broken windows and spray-painted profanities. Using money she’d earned painting an earlier mural, Davis recruited local artist Ralphie Seguinot to transform Recycle Bicycle’s exterior.

Seguinot shared Davis and Copus’s view on the importance of public art in Harrisburg.

“I think it draws people into the city,” he said. “I think [for] people who are already in the city, it definitely can have a unifying effect.”

Drawing inspiration from other mural groups around the country, Davis and Copus want to reach the entire Harrisburg community with Sprocket’s projects. Employing a wide range of local talent, past murals have gone up all over the city—downtown, Midtown, Uptown and Allison Hill.

The early September mural festival will paint “10 murals in 10 days,” centered around a walkable route in Midtown and downtown. Copus said he envisions visitors taking the train into the city for the day and picking up the “mural trail.”

Community is a recurring theme for Sprocket, and the mural festival is no different. At this stage of fundraising and planning, the group is seeking out community partner sponsorships for the festival’s 10 murals.

“The amount of money that we have to raise for 10 murals is considerable versus just doing a one-off mural,” Davis said. “So, this season, we’ve been looking into more community partners because these businesses and organizations are just inherently interested in supporting the community. It makes a good fit. They’re larger, so they have the funds to do that.”

Hands on Deck

The process of making a mural is an expensive and extensive one. Sprocket prioritizes paying its artists and sourcing its equipment and supplies responsibly. Plus, before artists can even begin to paint, the wall for the mural must be prepped and cleaned. Sometimes, building codes must be considered, factors that also add time and effort.

As Copus and Davis, who run Sprocket on their own time aside from their careers, make plans to do 10 projects in 10 days, it’s no wonder they’re relying on the community so strongly, for both monetary and moral support.

Copus admitted that the $100,000 to $120,000 Sprocket will need to raise for the festival was nerve-wracking at first, but he’s confident about all the good it will do for Harrisburg.

Davis expressed gratitude for City House Bed & Breakfast’s in-kind donation of the lift it rented for its own renovations, an item that will come in handy as artists paint multi-story walls. With partnerships with other Harrisburg-area organizations like Leadership Harrisburg and Lawyers for the Arts, Sprocket has lots of hands on deck to ensure the festival runs smoothly.

“It’s really exciting to see the people who get it, who understand that this is a no-brainer,” Davis said.

That mentality includes artists. Since even before they put out the call for artists in late February, they’ve been getting inquiries from all over the world, Davis said.

“That’s a delicate balance because we want to bring in artists to elevate what we’re doing here, and, if you bring in artists, there will be more national and international eyes on it,” Copus said. “But we know there’s a great talent pool here locally, so we want to make sure local artists have the opportunity to get involved.”

The mural festival will kick off during Kipona weekend with an event featuring sponsor and artist meet-and-greets. Copus and Davis also plan to have events throughout the festival, such as public art talks at local businesses.

“At the end of the 10 days, fingers crossed, all the murals will be done and we’re going to have our celebration,” complete with food trucks, a pop-up HBG Flea and community art tents for families to make art together, Davis said.

“I’ll probably be smiling a lot,” Copus said when asked what he’ll be doing throughout the 10 days of the festival. Smiling, combined with lots of sweating, Davis added.

As Sprocket’s founders look to the coming months and years, they’re excited for what’s ahead.

“We want to get through this mural festival first before we really try to figure out what the next steps are, but I think we both are looking forward to making more murals after the festival,” Copus said.

The Harrisburg Mural Festival will run Sept. 1 to 10 at various locations in the city. To learn more, including how to become a sponsor, visit www.sprocketmuralworks.com.

Author: Rebecca Oken

The Squids Are All Right: Calamari—dining out and at home.

March 31, 2017 | by Rosemary Ruggieri Baer

Early in my cooking “career,” I found myself wanting to cook everything. Every new cookbook was an inspiration to me.

I often laugh when I think back to some of my endeavors: An appetizer made out of Gouda cheese and green olives molded into the shape of a pineapple; hundreds of tiny, bright green shamrock cookies for St. Patrick’s Day; homemade ketchup (not as good as Heinz); homemade apple butter (I scorched and ruined the pan); zucchini pickles (no one ate them); and my own mint jelly (enough to last for countless roast lamb Easter dinners.)

I once spent three days roasting bones and making a demi-glace for a company roast veal dinner. Nothing was too hard. I loved it! And, of course, I tried my hand at cooking all manner of seafood: scrubbing mussels, peeling shrimp, poaching salmon, picking through crab for crab cakes, scalloped oysters and all manner of chowders and stews.

My father, who grew up in a little fishing village in Italy along the Adriatic coast, adored calamari, a type of squid from the octopus family. His little hometown, Vieste, is in the region of Apulia on the Bari peninsula. After my father was gone, I learned that the culinary specialty of this area is stuffed calamari and then understood why he spoke so often of this dish. Most often, the calamari is filled with breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic and Parmesan cheese and is baked or grilled. I never had a chance to make it for him.

My first encounter with preparing calamari was not a pleasant one. At the time, the only calamari I could find at the fish stand was not cleaned, which meant removing the head and “innards” as well as peeling off a thin, purplish membrane that covers the body. But today, calamari can be found headless and cleaned and sold with their tentacles only if you want them.

Most of us are familiar with fried calamari, a popular appetizer served at bars, as well as upscale restaurants. My husband and I enjoy the calamari at several Harrisburg dining spots:

Home 231, which serves them with a chili remoulade sauce
Sammy’s, which pairs them with an unusual ginger dipping sauce
Alvaro, the little Italian bakery turned weekend bistro where they come with owner Lena’s hearty tomato sauce
Note Bistro and Wine Bar, which takes fried calamari to a whole new level by serving them with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette and roasted poblano crème fraiche

But there are other ways to prepare and serve this well-known little squid, and one of them is in a pasta sauce that is easily made at home. With cleaned calamari readily available now (either fresh or frozen), pasta with calamari is a simple dish to prepare and a nice change from pasta with clams, shrimp or mussels.

Pasta with Calamari

Ingredients

½ pound high quality durum wheat spaghetti
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
A pinch of dried red pepper flakes (more if you like a spicier dish)
1 (14½ ounce) can crushed tomatoes (or whole plum tomatoes crushed by hand)
A pinch of salt
½ cup white wine
1 pound of cleaned calamari, cut into ½ inch rings (I skip the tentacles but if you like them, toss them into the sauce as well)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup chopped parsley

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a large skillet, combine olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook on medium for about 3 minutes, stirring gently (don’t let the garlic burn).
Add tomatoes, salt and wine. Reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes.
Bring to a boil and then add calamari and lemon juice.
Add butter and parsley and cook for about 10 minutes. (Taste the calamari to make sure it is tender but do not overcook. Calamari can turn rubbery very easily.)
Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the skillet. Toss together for about 2 minutes so the pasta absorbs a little of the sauce and the flavors blend together.)
Sprinkle the pasta with the chopped parsley.
Serve right from the skillet or a warmed serving bowl.

Pasta with calamari is wonderful paired with an arugula salad, some warmed olive bread and a cold, crisp Italian white wine.

This is such a basic recipe that you can also substitute shrimp or scallops for the calamari or even combine several together. I know my father would have loved it.

Author: Rosemary Ruggieri Baer

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