Tangy with lemon and spicy with sausage, this easy pasta dish is a keeper. Photograph by Chris Leaman.

When Barry Koslow took over the kitchen at Tallula in April, he knew he wanted to have three fresh pasta dishes always on the menu. This bowl of cavatelli with garlicky sausage, bitter escarole, and piquant chili flakes is the only one that’s never changed. Koslow says the kitchen makes so much cavatelli—about ten pounds on the weekends—that he has to buy a new cavatelli machine every month.

If you can’t find cavatelli (short, rolled tubes of pasta), you can use garganelli (an angled penne) or orecchiette (which look like tiny bowls), all shapes that Koslow likes for their texture and the way they carry the sauce. Choose your sausage wisely, too. Look for veal or pork, and avoid anything that’s lean. For a dish this simple, Koslow says, “timing is everything, so make sure to have all the ingredients ready and close by.”

Have a restaurant recipe you'd like sniffed out? E-mail recipesleuth@washingtonian.com. 

This layer cake gets an extra kick of flavor from coconut milk. Photograph by Chris Leaman.

Until two years ago, the makings of the Majestic’s layer cake changed daily. Chef Shannon Overmiller decided, however, that she wanted to “do one cake and do it well.” Employees from the Majestic and its sister properties—Restaurant Eve, Eamonn’s, and PX—held a bake-off to determine which cake would be a menu mainstay. Overmiller’s coconut cake—she tweaked a recipe from the Internet—triumphed over approximately 15 other entries.

The dessert is a tall, fluffy creation that gets an extra kick of coconut flavor from the fruit’s milk—Overmiller suggests using Chaokoh brand—in the cake batter and brushed between the layers. Because the filling needs to chill overnight, be sure to start the cake the day before you’re going to serve it.

Have a restaurant recipe you'd like sniffed out? E-mail recipesleuth@washingtonian.com. 

The maroon sweatpants and white jersey trimmed in red and gold give it away: Although Daniel Bortnick grew up in Wisconsin, he’s a big-time Redskins fan.

Suited up and ready to go, the chef at Firefly in DC’s West End has accepted the Frugal Foodie challenge and agreed to cook a tailgate party for 15. Not including drinks or standard pantry items—sugar, flour, olive oil—the bill can’t exceed $75.

At the supermarket, Bortnick studies his meat options before choosing a roast sirloin and two large packs of wings. He then powers through the store, snagging bread, artichokes, chickpeas, and other ingredients. Grand total at the cash register: $71.38.

Not your average chicken wings. Photograph by Chris Leaman.

In the lounge at Wolfgang Puck’s Penn Quarter restaurant, the Source, General Tso’s chicken gets a gourmet upgrade from chef Scott Drewno. He offers wings—an unlikely finger-licking snack in such chic surroundings—glazed with the familiar-sounding sauce, but they bear no resemblance to the gloppy mess that most Chinese takeouts serve. Instead, the chicken sports a thin but crispy skin with a sauce that has hints of spice and vinegar.

The recipe, a collaboration between Drewno and Lee Hefter—Puck’s corporate chef—uses lots of Asian ingredients that Drewno says can all be found at H Mart (locations in Fairfax, Falls Church, and Wheaton). You’ll have the crispiest skin, advises Drewno, if you eat the wings right after they come out of the fryer.

Have a restaurant recipe you'd like sniffed out? E-mail recipesleuth@washingtonian.com. 

Steve Mannino isn’t messing around.

The newly appointed chef at Rustico in Alexandria researched grocery stores, scoured the Web for deals, and joined Harris Teeter’s VIC program for extra savings for this Frugal Foodie challenge.

“I signed up for their program just so I could get this special,” says Mannino pointing to an ad with an offer for a five-pound bag of potatoes for $1. “I planned everything around this.”

Mannino has agreed to cook an Oktoberfest-themed dinner for six. Not including the beer or standard pantry items—sugar, flour, olive oil—the bill can’t exceed $25.

With the potatoes tucked into his cart, we take off through the store picking up the rest of the ingredients he needs. Mannino admits how out of practice he is when it comes to shopping at an actual grocery store instead of through wholesale purveyors.

Jeff Heineman's rich, autumnal fricassee. Photograph by Chris Leaman.

When Jeff Heineman was a sous chef at Cashion’s Eat Place ten years ago, he and then-owner Ann Cashion created an appetizer with sautéed mushrooms over a crispy polenta cake. He took the idea with him when he opened the Bethesda wine bar Grapeseed in 2000, then tweaked the recipe. Heineman’s version, with oven-roasted mushrooms and creamy polenta, is one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, and it’s never come off the menu.

A reader requested this recipe over the summer, but we waited until the colder weather hit to feature the dish, which Heineman describes as “rich and comforting.” He’ll use whatever mushrooms his purveyors bring him—he prefers shiitakes and creminis—but he says oyster mushrooms, hen of the woods, and even morels (in springtime) work well, too. If you’re not up for making the truffled polenta, you can also ladle the fricassee over rice or mashed potatoes.