Italian cuisine :: Page 8 :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for Italian cuisine – Page 8

Eating Milano Marittima – Lo Sporting

Jun20

Restaurant: Lo Sporting

Location: Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 9, 2011

Cuisine: Trendy Italian

Rating: Decent food, but overpriced

ANY CHARACTER HERE

One of the cool things about the beach town of Cervia / Milano Marittima is that there are a lot of shops and restaurants on a lovely tree lined promenade stretching through town.

Notice how the old Italian Stone Pines grow right through the shops!

We stopped for lunch at a likely looking place called Lo Sporting.

The menu was huge, but I only photoed the part that was relevant. Really we had wanted pizza, and the place had the world “pizzeria” on the sign, but when we sat down they told us that the pizza oven was only available in the evening!

So it had to be pasta. My young son got this garginelli pomodoro.

Grilled tuna in balsamic sauce. They were surprisingly cold, and very rare. The sauce was tasty but I think it might have been better with warm fish and cold sauce.

Spaghetti pomodoro.

Mixed fish. On the left tuna in balsamic, in the back sepia (cuttlefish) in a vinegary sauce, and in the front right some white fish — possibly sardine fillets — marinated. This was all very tasty.

Lightly breaded shrimp and octopus skewers. I didn’t try it, but it was reportedly excellent.

Mozzarella salad.

Afterward we went across the street for some gelato. I often find in Italy that the gelato is much better than the restaurant desserts.

This is hazelnut and bacio (hazelnut chocolate with liqueur).

Coconut and pineapple.

Some chocolate being spooned in. Some of these places have 3-5 different chocolates to chose from!

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cervia, Dessert, eating-italy, fish, Gelato, Ice cream, Italian cuisine, Italy, Milano Marittima, pasta, Pizza, Restaurant, Sauce

Eating Milano Marittima – Palace Hotel Breakfast

Jun19

Restaurant: Palace Hotel

Location: Cervia / Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 9-11, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great hotel breakfast

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The Palace Hotel in Cervia fits into an interesting class of European hotel. It’s a beach resort, and elegant, but hosted in a building from the 1960s or 70s that has been newly restored. This is not the kind of old school Belle Epoque place like say Le Metropole in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. But it is very nice and well run.

Breakfast is outside on the beach/pool patio.

Another view. The Adriatic beach is right behind that hedge.

This breakfast puts the typical one at the Hotel Real Fini to shame, but it follows the same basic format of large cold breakfast buffet and a few hot items. Here are the jams and spreads!

And more of them, plus teas and a few other odds and ends.

Then cereals.

Juices and additives for yogurt or cereal.

Have a few Fruits.

Champagne, more spreads, lox, cheeses.

Close up of the cheeses, mostly local.

Some meats, like salami and prosciutto. Note that they have the same spam-like spreads!

Then the regular breads and self-use toaster.

Now we really get our sugar going with the huge sweet pastry table. A lot of these are local too.

And the other side! This selection changed a little every day. There were all sorts of nut, chocolate, creme, and fruit tarts.

Finally there is the hot station. With omelets or eggs made to order, pancakes, and some various hot sausages. Plus you can order fresh squeezed juices and coffee done any way (cappuccino etc). All of this is included with the room! And this is actually just typical of a good larger Italian hotel too.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Breakfast, Brunch, Buffet, Cervia, eating-italy, Eggs, Food, Hotel, Italian cuisine, Italy, Milano Marittima, Palace Hotel, pastry, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, side dishes, vegetarian

Eating Cervia – Locanda dei Salinari

Jun18

Restaurant: Locanda dei Salinari

Location: Cervia, Italy

Date: June 8, 2011

Cuisine: Adriatic Seafood

Rating: Great seafood

ANY CHARACTER HERE

After three days in the Modena/Parma/Bologna area we relocated west to the Adriactic coastal town of cervia/Milano Maritima. While technically still in Emilia-Romagna this is a beach-side community with a much greater emphasis on seafood.

Our first night we check out this Michelin bib-gourmet restaurant.

The menu.

Starting with a nice white.

Note the cool antique interior.

A sub selection of the wine list.

Great breads are an Italian staple.

Carpegna ham and fresh ricotta.

Scallops with grilled tomatos and spring mushrooms.

Local fish crudo. This was super tasty, basically sashimi with a slightly Italian twist.

Some kind of snapper, local giant shrimp.

Some other crustacean (scampi?), and I think a halibut.

Special toast to go with the crudo.

Insalta misto.

Swordfish skewers, with parmesan.

We moved on to a Masi Amarone. I love Amarone, and Masi is one of my favorite vineyards. This was surprisingly cheap too. “The entry-level 2005 Amarone Classico della Valpolicella Costasera is made in a fairly straightforward, fresh style, with perfumed bright red fruit supported by silky tannins. This harmonious red offers excellent depth and lovely balance. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2015.”

A kind of local pasta with fish.

Passatelli with scampi and asparagus. This is a local style of thick worm-like pasta.

Rissotto with peas and raw red shrimps. There was an interesting red sauce in the center that might have been made from their shells or roe.

Rissotto with pheasant.

A zoom-in so that you can all can revel in the rissotto-ness of it all.

Turbot with ricotta and aubergines on potato cake with truffle sauce.

Frito mixto: fried mixed vegetables and fish. These were really lightly friend and delicious, although there was a lot of bone action.

The dessert menu.

Semifreddo of fig ice cream with orange sauce. This was super yummy too, as I particularly love the cool soft texture of semifreddo.

They have a few grappas and the like.

Overall this was a wonderful transition to the more seafood oriented cuisine of the coast. This was a great place.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cervia, Cooking, Dessert, eating-italy, Emilia Romagna, Emilia–Romagna, fish, Italian cuisine, Italy, Locanda dei Salinari, Michelin, pasta, Sashimi, side dishes, vegetarian

Eating Modena – Il Fantino

Jun16

Restaurant: Il Fantino

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 7, 2011

Cuisine: Emilia Romagna

Rating: Big portions, too big!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This evening we took to wandering around Modena. We stopped into a local restaurant at 7:30 or so but they weren’t open yet (in the summer Italians rarely sit down before 8:30 or 9). So we stopped at a nearby bar for…

Campari and soda, with a bit of orange.

They also had these funny fruit teas.

Here after the tea has been added.

Then along to the restaurant.

And it’s simple menu posted outside.

My mother models the bread.

A light start with a plate of mixed local meats.

Cheeses.

And an array off ready prepared cups of lard. Who needs butter? In all seriousness, this is spread on bread and enjoyed straight up.

Our wines of the evening. The lambrusco was of the flat variety. It tasted like a mediocre Beaujolais. The Sangiovese was better, but Emilia-Romagna isn’t Italy’s greatest wine region.

A now ubiquitous instalta misto.

And the local olive oil and balsamic.

We then moved to some pastas. They served huge bowls of each. I mean HUGE! This is a slightly worse variant of the ricotta and spinach stuffed ravioli we had at Cocchi.

Classic ragu.

An interesting gnocchi, with ragu and pumpkin, spiced likely with nutmeg I think. My favorite of the group.

And an extra pasta we didn’t have.

The rub here was that these portions were so big that after we stuffed ourselves silly, we hadn’t even cleared half of each dish. So we had to cancel the meat course, get the check, and go in search of gelato.

Il Fantino was tasty, and the quantities were huge, but the pasta while great by American standards, just wasn’t up to some of the other places in this fabulous food region.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beaujolais, Campari, Cold cuts, eating-italy, Emilia Romagna, Emilia–Romagna, Il Fantino, Italian cuisine, Italy, Modena, pasta, Sangiovese, Tea

Eating Bologna – Trattoria Leonida

Jun15

Restaurant: Trattoria Leonida

Location: Bologna, Italy

Date: June 7, 2011

Cuisine: Bolognese

Rating: Big menu, great food

ANY CHARACTER HERE

We continue our sojourn across Emilia-Romagna. It was a rainy day in Bologna, and we stopped for lunch in this Trattoria in the old town, just east of the pair of leaning towers. It was selected by the intuitive method, glancing inside to see if it felt right.

All sorts of antipasti are stored in a number of display cases and on some tables at the front.

And a bit of roast rabbit on a plate with potatoes!

The tables at the front.

A delicious course of marinated salmon carpacio with olive oil and red peppercorns.

A ricotta and fig torte, declared to be very tasty.

Classic Tagliatelle Bolognese!

Parpadelle with boar ragu. This was an amazing pasta.

Stricchetti with sausage and peas in a pink sauce. Very tasty, although when ordering it I expected a white sauce.

Roast rabbit (taken from the plate above) in a balsamic sauce.

Turkey in balsamic sauce.

The condiments for the salad.

The usual mixed salad.

This pasta must have been awful!

And to wake up, some more expresso.

This random pick turned out extremely well. The food was fantastic, and the other customers only local businessmen.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bologna, Cooking, eating-italy, Italian cuisine, Italy, Olive oil, pasta, Rabbit, Tattoria Leonida, turkey, United States

Eating Modena – Osteria Francescana

Jun14

Restaurant: Osteria Francescana

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 6, 2011

Cuisine: Emilia Romagna

Rating: Amazing Italian Molecular!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Our first fancy meal of the trip was at Osteria Francescana, a modern Italian in Modena with 2 Michelin stars. Francescana has an unusual and creative take on Italian. Most of the dishes have as their basis traditional ones, and the finest local ingredients (in a land rich with fine ingredients), but then they mess playfully with the forms, flavors, and textures. You’ll see.

The restaurant is located in scenic old Modena.

Here is the formal dusgustation menu. There is also an extensive ala carte. We put together a custom (and lengthy) molecular omakase.

First bread course.

We asked the sommelier for recommendations in interesting Italian wines. He started us with this Nero D’Avola, which surprisingly, tasted like a good Burgundy! Arianna Occhipinti bottles Frappato and Nero d’Avola. The two grapes are traditionally blended to make Cerasuolo di Vittoria, which in 2005 became the first style of red wine in Sicily to achieve DOCG status. Only 2 percent of Sicilian wine even merits DOC status (a tier down from DOCG) and only 15 percent is even bottled on the island. Native grape Nero d’Avola gives darkness, and Frappato provides uncommon fragrance. By utilizing native yeasts to begin fermentation, ageing in older and larger oak barrels and farming in adherence to the tenets of biodynamics, Occhipinti finds grace in the fields surrounding Ragusa and Vittoria.

This first dish is meant to represent “rock of the sea” and it’s colored and sweetened with squid ink. Mom says: the black sponge needed more flavor! To be fair, there were supposed to be clams inside, but they were removed to accomodate dietary restrictions.

This is “foam of mortadella di bologna.” Mortadella (seen below) is a classic traditional meat. Here it is basically whipped into a mousse-like consistency and served with a wonderful bit of toasted bread. The meat is spread on the bread and eaten, and it retains the exact flavor profile of the original. This is essentially a baloney sandwich.

Traditional Mortadella.

Various homemade breads and grisini.

Mackerel and salmon eggs.

With a pea soup.

Very tasty!

One of my favorites. The Fois Gras lollipop.

Inside is fois gras, coated with toasted almonds, and injected with a dab of aged balsamic (from Modena of course). This was rich, but pretty much incredible!

This wine was so rare the label is scotch taped on. It tasted like a cross between a Tavel (Rose) and a Pinot Noir, with strong tones of rosewater.

A “tart” of shallots and leeks, with Italian white truffles. This was absolutely delicious, and tasted a bit like Eggplant Bharta, the traditional cooked down eggplant and onion dish from India.

We also mixed in this Moscato, which while still sweet had more subtlety than most of the breed.

This is cod, with sicilian pesto and pistachios. The pesto was tomato and eggplant based. Also yummy.

Parmesan, five ways! This wonderful statement of the varieties of local Parmesan involves taking five different ages of the cheese, and processing them into five different forms and textures. Mouses, foams, sauce, crisp, etc. A very cheesy dish!

This dish was meant to represent a “cow in the pasture.”

It had various spring vegetables, and some fresh cream! Not the most exciting, just lots of types of peas!

This is a “compression of pasta and beans.” There is some fois gras in here too. Which perfectly fine, this was my least favorite dish of the evening.

This 1999 Barbera was rich and smokey, aged such that it had considerable sediment. It tasted like an old barbaresco!

This pasta is a fairly close reinterpretation of Pasta con Sarde. There were anchovies, breadcrumbs, and pesto. The pasta was al dente and the very flavor very refined.

Two raviolis contain cotechino (a very interesting cooked salami-like product) and lentils. The pasta itself was nigh on perfect, and the inside a traditional combination generally eaten at new years in Italy for at least 2500 years – festive pork and beans!

Black cod with potato confit.

A molecular reinterpretation of “bollito misto” (mixed boiled meats). Starting with the clear one at the bottom, and moving clockwise, we have: head, tongue, cheek, belly, tail, and cotechino! This last and the tongue were my favorites, the head and tail my least.

The pre dessert. Yogurt almond galette ice cream, goat cheese, drops of strawberry, mint. Very tasty. Sharp.

The first “real” dessert. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake, and a sort of gelatin cover. The taste was a bit like cassata.

Vanilla ice cream.

With fresh local cherries! My wife loved it.

An indication of the damage.

The petite fours, cheesecake, profiteroles, chocolate truffles, passionfruit gele, chocolate with cherry and tea, something with lemon and maybe shiso!

Our meal was so long that we emptied out the room!

This was a fantastic dinner. I happen to love the playful nature of modern molecular cuisine, which you can also see at my reviews of Calima, Saam, and La Terraza. You can also check the other two Michelin 2-star takes I sampled in Italy: La Frasca and Arnolfo. Like Osteria Francescana they both reinterpret their local cuisines (Adriatic seafood and Tuscan respectively) through a modern culinary lens.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Dessert, eating-italy, Emilia Romagna, Emilia–Romagna, Foie gras, Italian cuisine, Italian wine, Meat, Michelin Guide, Modena, Nero D'Avola, Osteria Francescana, Sicily, vegetarian

Eating Parma – Cocchi Ristorante

Jun13

Restaurant: Cocchi Ristorante

Location: Parma, Italy

Date: June 6, 2011

Cuisine: Emilia Romagna

Rating: Amazing traditional!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Today we ventured out to Parma, home of Parmesan and Prosciutto. We met up with a friend of a friend who took us for lunch to this local place for a spectacular traditional lunch.

Not too much to look at from the outside.

Inside we have a number of rooms, decorated in drawings and paintings from 20th century masters.

The opening bread are various baked cracker like things and thick breadsticks. These are light and crunchy.

Lambrusco is the local drink of choice for these occasions. This was described by our host as the “only Lambrusco Frizzante with subtly.” It tastes like sangra with more carbonation and less fruit.

The first course are just some plates of top notch young parmesan and…

Relatively fresh salame. These were both wonderful. The salame was soft, but very very meaty.

Next course is the traditional Parma way of eating crudo. On these sopapilla-like fried dough puffs.

Here is the ham. They had some name for it, perhaps cutello. It’s a kind of prosciutto, available only in Parma — very fresh. Served with a little butter. Eaten by itself the stuff was wonderfully light and tasty.

Shown here on the puff.

A variety of grilled vegetables.

This was a spectacular implementation of a classic local pasta. Homemade, stuffed with riccotta and spinach, and in a simple butter sauce.

It’s then doused with parmesan.

The tender inside.

Tuna with zucchini and balsamic drizzle.

Another traditional regional dish. Veal stuffed with prosciutto, and an egg and parmesan quiche-like filling. The potatoes were very salty but excellent for their type. This is a sort of the high end version of the dish I was often served as an American in Europe: fries and mystery meat.

An apple strudel-like dessert.

And the obligatory expresso.

The have quite the supply of grappa and the like.

This was one of the hands down best traditional local Italian meals I’ve had. Everything felt not only very typical, but the ingredients were top notch, and the food completely on-point.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cocchi, Dessert, eating-italy, Emilia Romagna, Emilia–Romagna, Italian cuisine, Italy, Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Prosciutto, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salami, side dishes, vegetarian

Eating Modena – Real Fini Breakfast

Jun12

Restaurant: Hotel Real Fini Via Emilia

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 5-8, 2011

Cuisine: Breakfast Buffet

Rating: Typical Italian Hotel Breakfast

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Italian hotels almost always include breakfast. The Real Fini in Modena’s is extremely typical of mid range hotels.

Cappuccino is always available, and unlike in the states is free and not $8. Plus, they know how to make a decent one at nearly any place in Italy.

There are very few hot items, just some scrambled eggs and a meat or two (sausage or ham). But there are lots of typical dry northern Italian cakes and cereal.

A couple fruits.

Yogurts, meats, cheeses. Often regional.

More bread products and jams. There’s always nutella, which makes anything better.

Biscuits and yogurt.

And this unusual selection of different “tinned” meats.

Like this Pate di prosciutto. Better than spam!

And a couple juices.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Breakfast, Buffet, cakes, cappuccino, coffee, eating-italy, Eggs, ham, Hotel, Italian cuisine, Italy, Modena, pate, Travel and Tourism

Eating Modena – Osteria del Pozzo

Jun11

Restaurant: Osteria del Pozzo

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 5, 2011

Cuisine: Emilia Romagna

Rating: Very good casual

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This post kicks off the food portion of my 2011 Europe trip, Eating Italy. We begin our month of gastronomic excess in the heart of Emilia Romagna, Modena — home of both Ferrari and Balsamico di Modena. It’s oddly rainy for June, and exhausted from over 27 hours of air and ground travel we stumbled across the street to this local place.

The have a number of rooms in these cute little tents.

The menu.

A prosecco, slightly sweet.

Caprese of course. Each portion is a whole ball of real buffalo mozzerella! Huge.

Homemade pasta, ham, arugala, cream, parmesan. This was a VERY good pasta by my taste, the in heavy ham & cream style I love (see here or here).

Spagetti and pomodoro.

Bresola, thin sheets of cured beef and parmesan and arugala. Good stuff.

Insalata mixta.

This 15E sangiovese was very drinkable.

Homemade (all the pasta except the spagetti was) with zucchini and shrimp. A nice light pasta.

Potato gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce. These were the kind of amazing gnocchi that are nearly impossible to find in the states, where they are so fluffy they melt in the mouth.

Tortellini in broth. A very traditional dish, little meat pockets in a savory chicken broth.

Classic taggliatelli ragu.Probably mixed pork and beef.

The case of traditional northern Italian desserts. Various cakes and tortes.

The chocolate with hazelnut nougat cake. Very rich.

Cherry torte. It tasted like strawberry rhubarb pie.

A sampler of fresh fruits. The cantaloupe was particularly flavorful and sweet. The cherries were great too.

This place was a perfect choice for the right off the plane choice. It was casual, reasonable, but had very good food. Perfecto.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Balsamic vinegar, Cheese, Cooking, Dessert, eating-italy, Emilia Romagna, Emilia–Romagna, Food, Italian cuisine, Italy, Meat, Modena, pasta, side dishes, vegetarian

Locanda Portofino – In the Neighborhood

May30

Restaurant: Locanda Portofino

Location: 1110 Montana Ave. Santa Monica, Ca 90403. 310-394-2070

Date: May 20, 2011

Cuisine: Northern Italian

Summary: Tasty neighborhood Italian

ANY CHARACTER HERE

For whatever reason Los Angeles has a lot of Italian restaurants. There’s a lot of competition and innovation, and as far as I can tell we’re about tied with NY as the best town in the US for this wonderful (and justifiably popular) cuisine. This also means that there is a total and ridiculous excess of neighborhood Italians. I’ll try any of them once, but I pretty much never go to 75% of them a second time. There are just too many good ones to eat some ho-hum boxed pasta. In any case, Locanda Portofino is one of the good ones.

The menu.

I’m very partial to Amarone. They’re pretty much all drinkable (and grapey).

“Ceasar salad.”

“Bresaola con rucola. Thinly sliced cured beef with virgin olive oil, lemon, rucola and shaved parmigiano.” A very nice rendition of this classic.

“Penne vodka. Penne with light cream tomato sauce, shallots and vodka.”

“Tagliatelle alla boscaiola con salsicce. Green and white egg tagliatelle in a light cream sauce with pancetta, ground sausage, mushrooms and green peas.” I love love this pasta. It’s not far off from al carbonara either, but isn’t eggy in the same way. I love the combo of the peas, the two types of pig, and the peas. No wonder my cardiologist gives me a hard time.

Pretty much anything on the menu here is well done, but this was just Friday date night and so there are only a couple pics. Still, if you live on the Westside, forget those chain Italians, or the lame kitchen “red sauces” and go to Locanda Portofino, Delfini, Palmeri, Osteria Latini or the like. Or if you want higher end: Capo or Drago.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Amarone, California, Italian cuisine, Locanda Portofino, Los Angeles, Montana, Olive oil, pasta, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, Santa Monica California, side dishes, United States, vegetarian

Rustic Canyon 4

May22

Restaurant: Rustic Canyon [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 1119 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, Ca 90401. 310-393-7050

Date: May 13, 2011 & December 2, 2011

Cuisine: Farmer’s Market Californian

Summary: Excellent Seasonal New American

ANY CHARACTER HERE

As a seasonal market driven California restaurant Rustic canyon can be counted on to mix up the menu a bit fairly frequently. It’s a friday night favorite for us, and we return every two months or so. Many of the specific dishes change, but the overall types and categories stay consistant. If you are interested in the previous meals at Rustic Canyon, meal 1 here, meal 2 here, and meal 3 here.

The front.

The menu on the two different days contained in this post.

Spanish style – olives on the table.

I got a glass of Riesling.

“Burrata, roasted artichokes, fava beans, stinging nettle pesto, ramps toast.” This is sort of like make your own cheese bruschetta as the blog of Burrata (here for more on this wonderful cheese) can just be slathered on the toast.

A slightly different take on this in the winter with figs.

“Asparagus soup, asparagus tips, smoked bacon.” It was of course the lardons that made this entire dish.

“Windrose farms dandelion greens. Honey dates, pine nuts, capers, lemon, pecorino-romano.”

“Roasted beets & farro, roasted beets, feta, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, fennel, yogurt.”

“Pork meatballs. Spicey yogurt, pickled chilis, mint.” I’ve had a different version of this here before with lamb.

“squash blossoms. goat cheese, mint.” The classic Roman (as in the city) dish.

This was a special, not on the menu. A squid ink homemade pasta with botarga and fiore di sardo (Sardinian peccorino). Very nice, with a sweet and briny flavor.

“Cripsy duck leg. roasted apples, smocked bacon, brussels sporuts agro dolce.” What could make duck leg confit even better? Bacon!

Bone licking good.

The desserts, which are very good here, but we were full.

Check out other LA meals here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burrata, California, Farmer's Market, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica California, Wilshire Boulevard, Wine tasting descriptors, Zorik Gordon

Palmeri again

May05

Restaurant: Palmeri [1, 2]

Location: 11650 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 442-8446 ‎

Date: April 3, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great, and good value.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Palmei is one of our Sunday regular places. I’ve already covered the basics in my previous review. But it’s an always reliable and reasonable Italian with a very good kitchen.

The menu.

A nice little half bottle of Brunello. Parker gives it 92. “The 2005 Brunello di Montalcino is impressive for its open-knit, expressive bouquet of violets, dark cherries, minerals, menthol and grilled herbs. Medium in body, the wine delivers gorgeous length and a polished, refined finish. It is a strong effort in this vintage. The estate’s Brunello is made from vineyards in Castelnuovo dell’Abate (70%) and Canalicchio (30%). In 2005 La Gerla did not produce their Vigna gli Angeli bottling and opted instead to add that fruit to the regular bottling. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2020.”

Palmeri has very nice bread, including the ever popular homemade grisini.

And best of all, they have this “amuse” (with the bread) ofmarinara sauce and ricotta baked. With bread, pretty much like pizza.

“Special Caprese of burrata and heirloom tomatos, olive oil and basil.” For my detailed write-up on burrata, see here.

Barbiatelli, beets, goat cheese, a bit of nuts and fruit.

Penne pomodoro, for our toddler.

He likes his parmesan.

“Ravioli, Crab meat filled black pasta in a saffron sauce topped with rock shrimp.” I love good pasta in these butter sauces. These are soft and the sweetness of the crab and shrimp go perfectly with the butter.

“Special pasta stuffed with ricotta and spinach.”

Pizza Fornarina. Mozzarella, St. Daniele prosciutto, argugla, parmigiano reggiano and truffle oil. I’m particularly partial to this pizza. The dough is very tasty and thin but chewy. The salad like combo of toppings top notch, and the bit of truffle oil lends a little extra zing.

For our previous Palmeri review, click here.

Or for a different Brentwood Italian.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brunello di Montalcino, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, Marinara sauce, Mozzarella, Olive oil, Palmeri, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pasta, Pizza, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, San Vicente Boulevard, side dishes, vegetarian, Wine tasting descriptors

Seconds at Sotto

May01

Restaurant: Sotto [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035 310.277.0210

Date: April 26, 2011

Cuisine: Sicilian and Sardinian Italian

Rating: Bold flavors, off to a great start!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

We needed a restaurant to celebrate the end of passover that was very bready. Our first choice was Pizzeria Mozza, but even a week in advance they were booked until 10:30, so that was a no go. Instead we went back to Sotto which has a host of extremely robust homemade pastas and pizzas.

For my first review of Sotto, click here.

Sotto is up there on the new (and admirable) trend of having serious mixologists behind the bar. This is a vodka orange martini of some sort. There is more in there, but apparently it was very good.

And this was a vodka, lime, fresh mint, and some really interesting stuff I can’t remember. Again, it was supposedly really good.

The menu.

This unusual Italian white from my cellars was wonderfully flavorful. Almost bright yellow in the glass it had the kind of interesting floral taste that is completely absent from so many generic whites.

“Maharrones de pungiu (sugo semplice, fiore sardo).” A wonderful homemade take on a simple tomato and cheese pasta. The choice of fiore sardo (a Sardinian cheese) gave it a slightly different tang.

“Casarecce (braised lamb ragu, egg, pecorino).” This was one damn fine pasta. The pasta itself had exactly the right texture and firmness of good homemade egg pasta. The ragu was nicely flavorful and meaty. Yum! I love great ragu, and this was my favorite pasta of the night. Some other great takes on ragu can be found here at Drago or at Capo.

“Squid ink fusilli lunghi (pistachios, bottarga, mint).” These long firm ropes had a really interesting texture. There was no overt taste of squid, just a slight sweetness and a rich nutty quality to the pesto-like sauce. Tasty, but also fairly mild despite the “frightening” sounding ingredients.

“Toasted grain capunti (ragu bianco, black trumpets, rapini greens).” Another great pasta. The noodles themselves had an almost whole wheat quality to them, but they still had the nice al-denta pasta fresca thing going on which is a hallmark of all the Sotto pasta. The sauce was cheesy, earthy and delicious.

“Ciceri e tria (tagliatelle, chickpeas, baccalá).” The last of these ingredients is salt cod, and this is essentially a fish pasta. But without any fishiness. Instead it has a creamy salty taste, one of the better fish pastas I’ve had. The noodles were nice and firm, with a toothy feel and the little grissini added some nice texture contrast.

As we move up to the heartier pizzas, I pulled out this Amarone (from my cellars). “The 2000 Amarone has developed relatively quickly. The fruit remains fairly opulent, but suggestions of earthiness and worn-in leather suggest early signs of oxidation are creeping in. Ultimately the 2000 comes across a touch rustic and four-square. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2012.”

“Pizza Marherita (tomato, mozzerella, basil, EVOO).” Your basic Marherita, but well done. These pizzas have a VERY wood fired taste going on, much like those from Gjelina, they are a little over-fired to my taste. The dough is good, but they taste very strongly of the grill (char, smoky flavors). When I do them on the stones in my hot gas grill (see my Ultimate Pizza) they showcase the dough and toppings a bit more.

“Campagnola (sunchokes, fennel, mozzarella, marjoram, house-cured lardo).” A more mushroomy pizza. It was actually fairly mellow, possibly because we had them leave off the lard (which would have added a definite porky richness). Still it was very good.

“Guanciale (house-cured pork cheek, ricotta, scallions, fennel pollen).” This was my favorite pizza of the night. They have REALLy good ricotta here at Sotto, as good as I’ve had outside of Sicily (although certainly not close to that, which is incredible). The mellow softness of the cheese blended perfectly with the rich fattiness of the bacon. This also was not a hit you over the head pizza, but it was very good.

The dessert menu.

Classic Sicilian cannolis. Because of the quality of the ricotta, these were good, on par with the other high end cannolis in town (like from Drago). Still, not in the same league as those in Sicily, but they never are. A slice of candied orange shoved through them would have pushed it up a notch.

“Bittersweet chocolate crostata, hazelnuts, salted rosemary caramel.” This looked amazing, and the texture was fantastic and very chocolaty. There was a slightly odd flavor tone in here, which might have been the rosemary. I’m not sure it added, although certainly I enjoyed it.

“Sheep’s milk yougurt panacotta. Thyme, honey, almond amaretti.” This was a yummy! Like tangy yoghurt with all sorts of sweet goodies. I love amaretti too.

Overall there is a bit of split opinion among our party about Sotto. Some of us love it for exactly the same reason the other don’t. The flavors are bold, the preparations original, traditional (in their own way), and unabashedly not fully censored in an American way. The ingredients are great too. They could probably use to tame down the burn factor on the pizzas, but I love the rest of it, and the pastas are amazing. However, if you prefer the straight up and simpler tones of boxed pasta and sauces with only a single flavor note, look elsewhere.

For my first review of Sotto, click here.

Also, since this is a Sicilian/Sardinian place, I would like to issue my Cassata Challenge. Above is a photo of a Cassata di Siciliana that I took in Palermo. This is perhaps my all time favorite dessert and I have NEVER found anyone who makes it for real in America. Surprise me! Do it!

For my another of my reviews of Sotto, click here.

Or for a review of Drago, another Sicilian restaurant.

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Calabria, California, Cook, Dessert, Food, Italian cuisine, Italy, Los Angeles, pasta, Pecorino Sardo, Pizza, Pizzeria Mozza, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Sardinian (sheep), side dishes, vegetarian, Wine

Sotto – Sicily con Sardo

Apr18

Restaurant: Sotto [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035 310.277.0210

Date: April 16, 2011

Cuisine: Sicilian and Sardinian Italian

Rating: Bold flavors, off to a great start!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

This new venture into the crowded LA Italian scene is a welcome change of pace. Sotto offers very reasonably priced regional Italian dishes (southern, with a Sicilian and Sardinian slant) with an unabashed traditionalism of a sort. There is no real effort on this menu to cater to the long standing American Italian palette, as influences as it is by late 19th century Southern Italian cooking. This is no red sauce (restaurant with red and white checkered table cloths and chianti bottles).

Located in the rising lower Beverly Hills district we had to fight through crowds leaving shul to descend into the packed, loud, and hard surfaced interior.

The short but very reasonable menu.

James Suckling gives this 2004 Poggio Il Castellare Brunello 94 points. “A decadent and ultra-rich red, with plum tart, prunes, cooked meat and berries. Full bodied, with soft and silky tannins and a long, flavorful finish. An aromatically beautiful wine. Best after 2012.”

“Pittule pugliese (vincotto, ricotta).” These little fritters tasted like supreme funnel cake, and were delicious with the fresh ricotta and vincotto (which is a sweet grape must). The amusing thing, for me, about this dish is that it’s pretty much straight out of Apicius, the 1800+ year-old cookbook. Delicious any way you cut it, but very filling.

“Blistered little gems (anchovy garlic pestata, breadcrumbs, pecorino moliterno.” An interesting salad with a smoky grilled flavor.

“Shaved beet and mixed chicory salad (wheatberries, lemon vinaigrette, fiore sardo).”

Olives. There was a little wait between the first and second courses and they brought us these complementary olives.

“Bruschetta lardo.” And this gratis charred bread spread with lard and fennel pollen. Very wood fired (not to mention rich taste). I was in danger of extreme over eating before the entrees even came.

“Casarecce (braised lamb ragu, egg, pecorino).” This was one damn fine pasta. The pasta itself had exactly the right texture and firmness of good homemade egg pasta. The ragu was nicely flavorful and meaty. Yum! I love great ragu. Some of my other favorites are here at Drago or at Capo.

“Pizza Salsiccia e friarieli (sausage, broccoli di ciccio, mozzarella, chillies).” A very nice meaty sausage paired with the bitter tones of the Italian brocoli. Interesting, and good.

After 11 and the place is beginning to thin out a bit. I really enjoyed Sotto and it BOLD take on Italian. This is heady stuff, and the homemade pastas were totally amazing.

For a second review of Sotto, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Upstairs 2 – Modern Tapas, Lots of Wine

Apr17

Restaurant: Upstairs 2

Location: 2311 Cotner Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064 Tel. 310-231-0316

Date: October 10, 2010 & April 15, 2011

Cuisine: Modern Tapas

Rating: Bright flavors and a lot of options.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Upstairs 2 is located just above the Wine House on Cotner. This is one of the two great wine stores on this road, the other being Twenty Twenty Wine Merchants which is even more erudite (and closer allied to my taste in wine). Upstairs offers not only a big wine list and extensive by-the-glass offers (in multiple sizes) but a rich and varied menu of modern American tapas. As you know, I love tapas style dining because of the ability to try more than 2-3 flavors and the much more flexible composition of dinner menus.

This review is a composite of two different dinners. I show both a small set menu and a variety of “regular” tapas off the menu.

The menu.

The bread and olive oil.

Tonight there’s a little tasting menu with wine pairings. It appealed to me so I gave it a try.

This riesling was to my taste.

The cold cucumber soup, creme fraiche, and dill, not as much. I was hoping for something a little closer to middle eastern yogurt salad. This was very cucumber and dill. I enjoy those flavors but the thin texture of the soup (almost watery: the texture not the flavor) put me off somehow.

I funky powerful white.

“Half lobster tail, spinach polenta, black truffle butter.” This was the best dish of the three. The green stuff was rich and creamy and went very nicely with the firm lobster meat.

A pleasant barolo.

The osso bucco itself was tasty. The meat was firmer than a traditional osso bucco, and tasted almost like lamb. The succotash was okay.

I should have ordered ala carte. The dishes were okay, but I could have done better picking myself.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

And so, here is a collection of modern tapas designed to be shared by the whole table.

“Blood Orange Caesar Salad, Pumpernickel Croutons, Shaved Parmesan.” Very close to a traditional caesar, just with a little extra sweetness thrown in.

“Grilled Mahi Mahi, Crispy Corn Pancake, Black Bean Hummus, Avocado Mousse.” Sort of a modern fish taco!

“Medjool dates wrapped in serrano ham, stuffed with asiago cheese.” These are always yum central. The sweetness of the dates, the savory of the cheese, and the salty bite of the ham blend wonderfully.

“Lobster BLT on brioche, bacon, frisse, roma tomato, housemade mayo.” Another winner. I didn’t even mind the tomatoes here.

“Tandoori chicken salad, artisan greens, grape tomatos, raita, meyer lemon dressing.” This was great too. Somehow tandoori chicken does okay on salad.

“Crispened eggplant, fresh mozzarella, ricotta, marscapone cheese, chunky tomato and basil.” Mini pizza-like in flavor.

“Mixed heirloom tomatos, rainbow microgreens, citrus vinaigrette.”

“Lamb sausage flatbread, Moroccan red sauce, asiago cheese.” Not so mini pizza!

“Grilled Local Sea Bass, Purple Potato Ravioli, Ginger Beur Blanc, Black Sea Salt.”

“King crab ravioli, veronique sauce.” I love these butter sauces on delicate pastas.

“Grilled bison hanger steak, yukon smashed potatoes, red wine sauce.”

“Slow Roasted Kurobuta Pork, Sticky Rice, Oregano and Citrus.” This was really tasty, with a sweet asian pork thing going on.

“Moroccan Roast Chicken, Plums, Olives, Capers, Couscous.” Lots of flavor here as well.

“lamb meatballs, ouzo and mint.”

“Pappardelle Pasta, Veal ragu, Fresh Basil, Asiago Cheese.”

Dessert menu.

“Valrhona Chocolate Chip Gelato.”

“Sticky Toffee Pudding, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.” This was good, not amazing, but good, particularly with the ice cream. I wanted even MORE toffee flavor, but I’m an extremist.

Overall Upstairs 2 is a good place, particularly in that it offers a lot of variety and really strong flavors. It’s particularly good with a part of 4 or 6 and people willing to just order up a storm and share it around. The good, extensive, and flexible wine options are great too. Also if you buy a wine downstairs, there’s no corkage.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cook, Cucumber, Dessert, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, Olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, side dishes, Soups and Stews, Tapas, Tasting menu, Truffle (fungus), Upstairs 2, vegetarian, Wine, Wine tasting descriptors

Pecorino – No Sheep is Safe

Apr13

Restaurant: Pecorino

Location: 11604 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, CA 90049. 310.571.3800

Date: April 9, 2011 & August 7, 2016

Cuisine: Abruzzi Italian

Rating: Unusual, tasty, very slightly over priced.

Pecorino is one of the twelve or so Italians on San Vicente in Brentwood. It’s relatively new, and replaced a good new American called Zax at the end of the street. One might ask why the street needed another Italian. Well it didn’t but Pecorino does offer a different (and good) take on the boot. The place specializes in the rustic cooking of Abruzzo, which is not only interesting and good, but certainly underrepresented.

The facade. Inside is cozy and stylish.

The menu.

Pecorino has a number of premium wines by the glass, which is nice. They are a little pricey, but I still like the option. I got a glass of Brunello followed by one of Amarone.

The bread.

And they serve it with this chickpea paste, which is tasty.

Caprino. Warm goat cheese “Crouton” served on a bed seasonal greens with hazelnuts.

Special burrata and tomato and avocado tower.

Baked onion. Whole big onion filled with eggplant, pinenuts, raisins and pecorino cheese with a touch of balsamic vinegar.

Sweet and sour.

Carbonara. Spaghetti with beaten eggs, crispy home made bacon, pecorino cheese and black pepper.

Pappardelle al Pesto. Fresh wide noodles in a pesto sauce with green beans, peas, fava beans and grated pecorino cheese.

Classic penne pomodoro.

Gluten free tomato pasta.

Spaghetti with lobster. Chopped Maine lobster in a light garlic sauce with lobster juices and parsley. This is a really nice pasta. There’s a lot of lobster meat in here too.

Penne. In a tomato and basil sauce with green onions, cherry tomatoes and shaved pecorino cheese.

Risotto Primavera. Rice creamed with mixed season vegetables and parmigiano cheese.

Lamb “Casserole”. De-boned Rack of lamb with pecorino cheese and artichokes “Chef’s Hometown recipe. This is an unusual, rustic, and delicious dish. It’s mildly cheesy, with big chunks of lamb and lots of artichokes.

Pecorino is a very good place, and it’s nice when an Italian gets away from the same old litany of dishes. It is however, mysteriously a bit more expensive than some of the others of fairly equal quality (like say Palmeri down the street). There’s a good amount of price variation in the Italians, and I’m not sure I get it. Still, the food’s very good.

By: agavin
Comments (3)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Amarone, Brentwood, Caprino, Cook, Crowned rack of lamb, Food, italian, Italian cuisine, Italy, lamb, pasta, Pecorino, side dishes, vegetarian

Fraiche Santa Monica

Mar23

Restaurant: Fraiche Santa Monica [1, 2]

Location: 312 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401. Phone : 310.451.7482

Date: March 19, 2011

Cuisine: Cal French Italian

Rating: On the way up.

This particular location adjacent to the Barnes and Noble on Wilshire near the promenade has a fairly checkered past. Two or three years ago the Fraiche group turned it into Riva. This was supposed to be a coastal Italian, but to my taste wasn’t really Italian at all — although they made a decent Pizza. In any case, it failed and they rebooted it as Fraiche Santa Monica with an entirely new menu and staff, albiet an identical interior. This is sort of a spin off of the Culver City location (REVIEW HERE).

One corner of the back room. I didn’t have much of a wide angle lens (food after all). It’s a pretty nice space.

The wine by the glass list.

“Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Les Chapitres de Jaffelin, Burgundy, 2009.” As a burghound this was about the bare limit of drinkability for Pinot Noir. A little sour and acidic and decidedly unbalanced. But then again, I rarely expect much from “Bourgogne” (Burgundy which is not AOC to a particular village or vineyard).

The bread was hot out of the oven, and very nice and crunchy. Oilve, mashed and oiled.

Today’s menu. This is actually the second time I’ve eaten at Fraiche SM (I did so once right after they opened) and in the meantime they have moved the menu to be much closer to the new one at Fraiche Culver City (detailed review of that here).

“POACHED PEAR SALAD, Endive, baby wild arugula, candied walnuts, Point Reyes blue cheese, red wine vinaigrette.”

“Baby Beets, House Made Ricotta / Orange / Pistachio.” Sweetness of the beets meshes with the cheesy sauce. Beet salads have become very passe, but when well done (like this one), I like them.

“ROASTED PEPPERS ARUGULA & BURRATA, Shallots, 12 year old balsamic and extra virgin olive oil.” This was as good a Burrata as I’ve had at a restaurant. They still aren’t quite as sensual as my own take on the cheese.

“Valpolicella Ripasso, Classico Superiore, David Sterza, Veneto, 2008.” Much better than the generic Burgundy. This was a fine wine of the type. Grapey, but not as much so as an Amarone.

“MUSHROOM RISOTTO, Arugula, Pine Nuts, Pecorino.” Nice nutty, mushroomy risotto.

“AGNOLOTTI, Mushrooms, mascarpone, truffle butter.” These are really good. The pasta is nice fresh egg pasta. It tastes mostly of butter and mushroom. Butter!

“GARGANELLI, Mushroom Bolognese, Parsley, House Made Ricotta.” I actually expected this to be a meat pasta, but it’s vegetarian with the “ragu” being made from mushrooms. It was tasty, particularly the ricotta which, being homemade, was more like a real Sicilian Ricotta than one usually gets here. The mushrooms leant it a fairly rich taste, but it wasn’t heavy at all (like a meat one would be).

“Rigatoni, Beef & Pork Ragù / Scallion / Gruyère.” This one was great. basically a Bolognese, but really good. Close even to one of my ultimate pasa favorites, the lamb ragu at Capo (SEE HERE).

We were too full for desserts but Fraiche has really good ones, so I snuck in a photo of the Budino from a trip to the culver city joint. You can look there for a bunch more dessert photos. The dessert menu is nearly identical.

“Carmel Budino, Vanilla Mascarpone, Sea salt.” Mildly carmel/creamy with that nice salt factor. Good, but not quite as good as the similar dessert at Gjelina (SEE HERE).

Fraiche SM seems to be settling into its groove. It was better than last time, and quite a bit better than Riva. It isn’t a lot different than the Culver City location, but the menu is slightly smaller, and missing the assorted “pots of stuff” that are fairly unique over there. It does still have the very good fresh pastas. I need to try I nice meaty one.

By: agavin
Comments (5)

Posted in: Food

Quick Eats: Caffe Delfini

Mar07

Restaurant: Caffe Delfini

Location: 147 West Channel Road, Santa Monica, CA 90402. tel (310) 459-8823

Date: February 6, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Good Italian, great value!

Caffe Delfini is one of our regular “sunday night” places. LA has a lot of neighborhood Italians, and so it’s only necessary to go to the one’s with a good kitchen. Delfini consistently delivers very good fare at reasonable places, and they are extremely friendly too, and very accommodating of our messy toddler.

The official Menu is here.

I got a glass of Amarone. I like the grapiness of this very traditional wine from outside of Verona.

“CAESAR SALAD. Hearts of Romaine lettuce, shaved Reggiano cheese, tossed with light Caesar dressing, and served with homemade garlic croutons. (contains pasteurized eggs).”

“MISTA SALAD. Chopped butter lettuce, radicchio, shaved carrots and sliced tomatoes dressed with extra virgin olive oil and aceto balsamico.”

“INSALATA SPECIALE. Combination of rugola e radicchio, caprese and prosciutto e melone.” My favorite salad, a bit of everything.

“RIGATONI ALLA NORMA. Tubular pasta with eggplant, plum tomatoes, scamorza cheese, onion, garlic, basil, thyme and a touch of red chili flakes.”

“PENNE AL POMODORO E BASILICO. Penne pasta with basil and tomato sauce.”

“LINGUINE MARE (white wine sauce). Linguine pasta with Manila clams, N.Z. mussels, shrimp, calamari, snow crab claw, garlic, parsley and a touch of red chili flakes.”

These aren’t the incredible fresh pastas of a place like Drago, but they are nicely done classics, fresh out of the pot/pan, served searing hot. You could also walk across the street to Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi and get them too, but you’d also pay 2-3 times as much, and get a dose of celebrity attitude too.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Amarone, Caesar salad, Cook, Insalata Caprese, Italian cuisine, Olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pasta, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, side dishes, vegetarian

Piccolo – A little Italian

Mar05

Restaurant: Piccolo [1, 2]

Location: 5 Dudley Ave, Venice, Ca. 310-314-3222

Date: February 26, 2011

Cuisine: Northern Italian

Rating: Neighborhood Italian, hybridizing toward modern.

Piccolo is a neighborhood Italian located in a rather sketchy area of the venice boardwalk. For a previous review, look HERE. I few years ago it was a very Italian place with a veronese regional menu. It’s still very Northern Italian, but under a new chef has been growing more bold and modern. Mostly this consists of deconstructing classic dishes.

The menu.

Parker gives this an 89, “The 2003 Brunello di Montalcino is a pretty, supple wine with sweet red fruit and an accessible personality. The heat of the vintage is felt in the sweet notes of fruit and oak that linger on the finish. Ideally the oak could be a little more integrated and the tannins might be more finessed, but this is a nicely poised effort from Altesino. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2015.”

I would have given this a 90 or 91 myself. It’s a very nice approachable Brunello.

“caprese rivisitata, heirloom tomatoes, burrata, revisited. basil, ligurian olive oil.” Notice we have more or less the traditional ingredients of the Caprese, but they have been deconstructed and reassembled in a new form, as a sort of gelled parfait.

“Tortelli di prosciutto cotto. ravioli filled with truffle-prosciutto cotto, Italian mascarpone sauce, micro celery.” Piccolo has very fine, very fresh egg pastas. This one is stuffed with a bit of ham, and served on a very buttery cheese sauce. The pasta was nicely al dente.

“Large ricotta gnocchi in a butter sauce sauce with a mascarpone foam.” Also a rearrangement of traditional elements.

“agnello al rabarbaro. boneless, natural lamb shank slow-braised in rhubarb-port, tuscan melon-foe gras risotto cake.” At some level an osso bucco with risotto, but with lamb. And slightly deconstructed, the meat is off the bone and piled in these little cylinders. The meat and its sauce was very tasty. The risotto though felt dry and crunchy, and didn’t have that creamy texture I love in good risotto.

The dessert menu.

“Bignole. Pastry puffs filled with Belgian Gianduja chocolate cream.” Close to profiteroles. The inside was mildly hazelnuty, the sauce a classic creme anglais.

“Semifreddo. Imported Amaretto cookies soft-frozen cream.” This was really good. The semifreddo itself a gelato-like ball of Amaretto, with some nice texture too. I love Amaretto, and this tasted very strongly of them, with that nice cold texture. The stripe of sauce is carmel, which made for a lovely convo.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Altesino, Brunello di Montalcino, Burrata, Cook, Dessert, Food, Italian cuisine, lamb, pasta, Piccolo, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Salad, Semifreddo, side dishes, vegetarian, Venice

Quick Eats – Palmeri

Feb25

Restaurant: Palmeri [1, 2]

Location: 11650 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 442-8446 ‎

Date: February 13, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great, and good value.

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Palmeri is one of Brentwood’s vast array of Italian restaurants. It’s one of our favorites though as the food is very good, the prices are extremely reasonable, and the service is very very friendly. Italians in LA fall either have a decent kitchen or they don’t, with only about 25-30% being having any real culinary knack. Palmeri is very solid this way. Everything is tasty and well executed. It’s not the most innovative place in the world, or the best Italian in town, but it serves very good modern Italian at very good prices.

From my cellar. Parker 95. “The profound, dense ruby/purple-colored 1999 Montiano (2,500 cases of 100% Merlot aged in 100% new French oak, and bottled unfined and unfiltered) offers a smorgasbord of aromas, including melted chocolate, espresso, blackberries, cherries, currants, and smoke. Full-bodied, with terrific purity, a multilayered texture, and surprising freshness for a wine of such depth, it can be drunk young, or cellared for 10-15 years. For technicians who care about such things, it has a whopping 37 grams per liter of dry extract.”

Palmeri has very nice bread, including the ever popular homemade grisini.

And best of all, they have this “amuse” (with the bread) of marinara sauce and ricotta baked. With bread, pretty much like pizza.

Barbiatelli, beets, goat cheese, a bit of nuts and fruit.

Carpaccio. Raw “piemontese” beef, thinly sliced, topped with arugula, Parmigiano cheese and mustard. A solid carpaccio, very beefy.

Artichoke soup, vegan.

Penne pomodoro, for our toddler.

Pizza Margherita, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. With some extra mushrooms thrown in. They do a very nice very crisp Neapolitan pizza. They have a real pizza oven.