Restaurant: Il Pozzo
Location: Monteriggioni, Italy
Date: June 13 & 22, 2011
Cuisine: Tuscan
Rating: Classic Tuscan
This local resteraunt in the cute little walled town of Monteriggioni pretty much typifies Tuscan cooking at its traditional best. We initially went here on the basis of our villa owner’s recommendation. He has good taste, and we came back a second time. This is probably the best of all my reports to get a sense of the classic Tuscan courses.
The restaurant is located in the main square of this qaint medeval village.
The name seems to mean well, shaft, or pit. There is an old well in the square right outside the restaurant, so that’s probably it.
The menu.
The interior is cute and traditional.
And they also have this lovely side patio.
The usual bread.
We started with a white from San Gimignano, Vernaccia, an old school but very pleasant DOC white.
Beetle juice anyone? Compari and soda.
Incredibly common, Tuscan ham with local melon.
Classic, caprese.
Smoked salmon served with a bit of salad and butter.
Local “pici” pasta with basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil.
Spaghetti pomodoro.
Pappardelle al Cinghiale, boar ragu. This was a scrumptious rendition of this wonderful dish, with perhaps a little cinnamon or nutmeg in the ragu.
Pasta with butter and cheese for the under 10 set.
Polenta with porcini mushrooms and cheese fondue — a rare out of focus photo.
A fantastic meat risotto. Basically a Bolognese sauce with rice. Really good.
The basic salad, but very well done.
Zucchini and walnut salad.
Fried fresh zucchini blossoms. Unlike in the states, these had no ricotta inside (which does frankly improve them), but they were still really good.
A good local Chianti Classico Riserva. It’s hard to really go wrong with some of these riservas at the local prices.
Grilled fillet of Tuscan cow. Rare (always)!
Guinea fowl braised and served in a sauce with slices of fresh truffle. No hating this.
Pork Senese, in a sweetish Vin Santo and fennel sauce. I liked this sauce which complemented the pork perfectly.
A total Tuscan classic, Salsicce con Fagioli — franks and beans. Tuscan sausage with stewed fava beans (a favorite of Hannibal Lector, but he uses the other other white meat).
Grilled lamb chops. Tuscans do love their Griglia (grilled meats).
Plenty of aperitifs available to wash down those slices of animal flesh.
The dessert menu.
Vanilla Gelato with hardened chocolate shell.
Creme Caramel. One of my personal favorites.
Tiramisu.
Cheese cake, Tuscan style.
You can really see the rhythm of a Tuscan meal here. The only things missing are the bruschetta and the minestrone, but those are shown in lots of other reports like Trattoria Pepei. First with have the antipasta, in this case cured meats, fish, etc. Then the pastas, then salads and vegetables accompanying grilled meats, followed by the cake-like desserts.
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