THE UNDERGROUND GOURMET: Ignacio for Dummies

Altro Paradiso’s meal kits are a welcome reprieve from quarantine cooking.

- ROBIN RAISFELD AND ROB PATRONITE

NOTE TO SELF: Never get quarantined with Ignacio Mattos. The chef-owner of Estela, Altro Paradiso, and Flora Bar will make you look bad. Before we ordered one of the new “Take Us Home” provisions boxes he started selling about a month ago at Altro Paradiso in Hudson Square, we had deluded ourselves into thinking that the dishes flying out of the bustling Underground Gourmet quarantine kitchen were actually pretty good.

Now, having feasted for a couple of days on the contents of Altro’s to-go box after months removed from the pleasures and refinements of the restaurant world, we know better.

Here we were, thinking we were pretty slick ordering ingredients from the wholesale suppliers to restaurants like Mattos’s that have pivoted to home delivery. Here we were, stirring pots. Here we were, deglazing pans. Here we were, busting out the mortar and the pestle. Here we were, in short, cooking up a storm. And here we were—after tasting Mattos’s strozzapreti with basil-and-ramp pesto—wondering why.