These Jersey Italian dishes were the best things we ate this week

Four "Jersey-style" Italian dishes most impressed food writer Kara VanDooijeweert this week.

This column publishes on Saturdays, and typically features standout eats from Morris, Essex, Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and/or Sussex counties.

We've all heard the saying:

There's Italian food, and there's Italian-American food.

In the U.S., food purists claim, chefs pollute their carbonara with cream sauce, "ruin" pizza with shredded mozzarella or destroy spaghetti with meatballs.

Those angered by the aforementioned, though, would be appalled to know that an even less "authentic" genre of Italian exists — and it's found right here in the Garden State.

From garlic knots to drunken vodka subs, Jersey-style Italian is yet another category of carb-heavy, parmesan-topped eats, and it's even farthe