Italian at its best
When you walk into an Italian restaurant for the first time, do you ever get the feeling you’ve done this before? The same Italian Café CD is playing in the background, the pasta is from a box and the sauce is from a package? You ask for oil and vinegar for the bread and your server looks at you like you swallowed a cat?
This would never happen here. The servers are Italian. They are professional. They do not spill a drop of red wine on the tablecloth. They do not make fun of you when you mispronounce “penne”. It is probably their family in the kitchen, and they have grown up on the home-cooked food that they deign to bring to your table. They even care about your meal. On a Friday evening there are three parties in the restaurant, two of which are Italian families enjoying a meal together. Twice the chef/owner comes out from the kitchen to check with one of the parties, with whom he is close friends, that they are enjoying their meal. He, of course, asks about their family. He, of course, asks in Italian. He acknowledges the other parties in the room and returns to the kitchen.
The appeal of a true Italian dinner is that you get to order many more things than you would at most restaurants. When there are five, six, or seven courses, plates are either smaller or meant to be shared.
Starting with the Antipasto di mare we are pleasantly bombarded with shrimp, squid, cuttlefish, mussels and clams. Between this and the insalata verde I could have called it a day, curled up and died happy. The marinated seafood was so fresh that I wasn’t sad I opted not to get one of the meat antipasti platters (There are two: The Hunter’s Antipasti with wild boar, duck and some parmiggiana and olives to lighten it up a little, or the Italian Antipasti with every kind of salted pork you can think of, some salty olives, and very unsalty boccocini for balance…or whatever passes for balance at any epic Italian meal. Other features are more standard fare done superbly like Bufala Caprese-fresh mozzarella with tomatoes, olive oil and basil, and smoked salmon with capers, red onion and olive oil. The more unique selections include Bruschetta Sfiziosa-toasted bread with homemade chicken liver paté, olive tapenade and diced tomatoes on the side and Bresaola e Rughetta-dried cured beef drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice on arugula and parmiggiano.
Now that you’re full lets move on to pasta. The gnocchi. Homemade morsels served five ways: Tomato sauce, meat with cream, mushroom with chili pepper and cream, gorgonzola cheese sauce, and seafood in a rosé and chili sauce. Three kinds of canneloni, homemade lasagna, Strozzapreti (hand-rolled thin tubes), porcini mushroom fettucine with wild boar sauce in Barbera wine sauce (a red wine from Piedmont, just like the chef) with truffle, garlic and red chili. To make the decision harder, pappardelle (wide noodles) in a cream sauce with pheasant, raisins and pine nuts. Oh, and two kinds of risotto (seafood, or deer stew sauce, Piedmont red barolo wine, somehow tartufo all in a celery cream sauce).
You thought I forgot wine.
No.
All Italian. Mostly red. Mostly barbera and barolo. Barbera with any tomato sauce to not overpower the food, not cream sauces. Barolo with meat. Prosecco to start. Of course, branch out according to the recommendations of your server and your wallet.
The the osso buco, because you have to try the osso buco. With polenta or risotto. Enough said.
If you’re somehow not sold on the osso buco, then other mains feature veal, beef or fish in some combination of brandy, oil, lemon, garlic, rosemary and balsamic vinegar. Or wait the 30-45 minutes required to make the fish soup from scratch. Just dream of the lobster, king crab, tiger shrimp, monkfish, skate, tuna, swordfish, not tiger shrimp, squid, mussels and clams in a tomato broth. Patience is a virtue.
Even the sides should not be skipped. Well, except for the vendure gratinate (baked eggplant, zucchinni and green peppers with seasoned bread crumbs which tastes like it should have been cooked inside some sort of meat for flavour. Toss the fennel in butter and parmiggiano and stick it in the oven and you do much better. Also worth trying are pomodori e rughetta (arugula and cherry tomatoes in the house dressing with stracchino cheese) and simple cippoline onions in oil and apple cider vinegar.
Dessert is a highlight. I know you’re full but for these homemade specialties, it’s worth coming back again and again. Yes to the plate of biscotti, yes to the tiramisu, yes to the tartufo but the Zabaione (sponge cake with candied fruit and whipped cream topped with marsala custard, and whatever special sounds delicious, are safe bets too.
Grappa or coffee, a comfortable silence, and then you can roll yourself home. Dinner has been a three hour experience. This is Italy.
Plan to Spend: $22 for amazing pasta and a glass of wine, but if you’re truly in for the Italian meal experience, including antipasti, pasta, meat, sides, dessert and the essential bottle of wine (probably red. Definitely shared), maybe throw in a grappa or a café to finish, and you are looking at the best $60 you ever spent on yourself. If neither of these situations describes your dining intentions, then you can safely place your bill somewhere in the middle.
For an endearing picture of the chef’s father and another of his son in matching chef hats, as well as an incredible menu listing, visit Da Gianna e Maria Trattoria’s Website.
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