Restaurant: Ristorante Maurizio
Location:Via del Duomo, 78, 05018 Orvieto TR, Italy. +39 0763 341114
Date: June 14, 2015 (lunch)
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Hearty good
During a quick day trip to scenic Orvieto we selected this attractive looking restaurant just down the street from the Duomo.
Really, half the reason we sat down was because it was raining heavily.
The vaulting is ancient, but the rest of the restaurant is modern.
The menu.
2013 Barberani Orviéto Classico Vallesanta Secco. Orivieto is a pleasant fruity white, great with food.
Crostino di polenta, caciotta e tartufo. Toasted polenta, truffle, and caciotta cheese.
Grand Antipasto di Maurizio. Another of these great deal big antipasto plates. Various local meats and pecorino.
Plus it includes these various “spreads”: chicken liver, fava beans, tomatoes, a kind of tomatoes sauce, and bacon chips (yeah, just very fatty crispy bacon).
The spreads can but put on the toasts. I loved the liver. Plus there were all those fried vegetables and little fried meat balls.
Caprese. Tomatoes and mozzarella di buffalo.
Insalta Miste.
Penne Pomodoro. You’ll see a lot of these, Alex loves it.
Spaghettoni con pomodori grigliati e recotta salta. Spaghettoni with grilled tomatoes and ricotta cheese.
Ciriole al ragu d’agnello. Big spaghetti with lamb ragu. I loved this hearty pasta.
Pollo alla cacciatora. Chicken cacciatora with tomato and chili.
Piccione in salmi con crostone. Pigeon “Salmi” with toasted bread. Pigeons being a big thing in Orvieto (they used to raise them here in the middle ages), we had to try this. It turns out that “salmi” is a kind of sauce made from the liver of the pigeon and olives. Sounds awful, tastes great. This was a fabulously meaty dish. The rich pigeon meat and the rich livers. Yum.
Agnello alla scottadito. Grilled lamb.
Overall, a very good restaurant and a great lunch to weather (haha) out the rainstorm. This shows off some of the hearty cuisine of Umbria.