By Samantha Taylor
It’s always great going to an Italian restaurant, but it’s something even greater when the person making your food is actually from Napoli, Italy and even makes his own fresh pasta and homemade marinara sauce. This family-owned restaurant, called Villa Verde Café, is at 12634 US 41, north of SR 52. After the drive, you’ll actually see how hands-on the family is. When I went in, the husband was in the back cooking, the mother was at the front counter and his wife, Sara, was happily serving the guests.
As I saw the trophy on the counter, which proudly announces their winning third place in the Taste of the Town competition, my excitement for the food grew even stronger. I chose Eggplant Parmigiana, which was the healthiest version I have ever eaten.
As most of us know, eggplant parm means cheese and lightly fried eggplant, so practicing portion control is the technique to making it a calorie-friendly meal.
What I did was have the grilled veggies to help fill me up. You can complement your meal with a small mixed green salad with low-fat dressing and always tell your server, wherever you eat, to not add cheese because it jacks up the calories too high. Enjoy cheese on your main dish and limit yourself to it on salads.
When you order the grilled veggies, tell them to go light on the oil. In this case, grilled veggies were a delectable array of fresh-off-the-grill eggplant, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onions and asparagus.
It was one of the nicest showcases of veggies I have ever seen in a restaurant. Enjoy half the veggies as your appetizer and you will be better satisfied enjoying half of the eggplant parm.
The good thing about this dish is that the fat content isn’t really that high, for it is not smothered in cheese. The small amount of cheese was mostly limited to the inside of the layers of eggplant. Although I normally only eat whole wheat pasta, I was intrigued when the chef and owner told me that he makes his pasta mostly out of egg, basil and a little white flour, and since I have never had freshly-made, authentic Italian pasta, I knew I just had to try some. If you have balance instead of a boring diet and enjoy a little, you are more likely to stick to a healthy eating lifestyle.
Sure enough, it tasted way better than regular restaurant white pasta. Just remember that most restaurants offer white bread with their pasta, so I recommend asking them to not bring the bread.
Many people on a diet stay away from Italian restaurants, but Villa Verde Café is proof that there are Italian options that you can still enjoy. If this restaurant is not in your neighborhood, trust me, this Eggplant Parmigiana is worth the drive.
