Eating Colle di Val d’Elsa – Dietro Le Quinte

Date: June 13, 2011

Rating: Good food, but a little more $$ than some

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We wandered into the town of Colle di Val d’Elsa having no idea that there are actually two towns: the newer one below and the quaint medeval one above. Eventually we found the elevator up to the top of the hill and the old town, and in need of repast (lunch) settled on this place.

They have an outside street patio.

Seen better here.

But they also have this lovely back terrace (down yet another glass elevator).

With its lovely hillside view.

The menu is another one of these gigantic Italian multi pagers.

Bread.

A slight variant on the Tuscan typical tomato bruschetta in that it has cheese too.

Pie with vegetable, mascarpone and taleggio sauce.

Risotto with squids and drops of gorgonzola.

An interesting local shell shaped pasta in pomodoro sauce.

Tagliatelle pomodoro.

A carbonara type Tagliatelle with pancetta, greens, cream, and cheese.

An endive salad.

This place had a fantastic patio and very tasty food. It was a little more expensive — and the portions smaller — than many other places we have been frequenting, as they apparently need to offset the cost of their luxurious buildout 🙂 The cuisine was just ever-so-slightly modernized from the totally traditional Tuscan.

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Eating Siena – Trattoria Pepei

Jun26

Restaurant: Trattoria Pepei

Location: Siena, Italy

Date: June 12 & 19, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Delicious & Fun!

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Our first full day in tuscany and we went into Siena. We selected a restaurant the night before using Michelin, picking a centrally located one that earned a bib gourmet.

Trattoria Papei which is located in the piazza Mercato right behind the Campos.

They have an extensive terrace area under a network of awnings and umbrellas.

The menu.

We ordered this local, inexpensive, and very pleasant chianti classico reserva. Parker gives it 90 points. “The 2007 Chianti Classico Riserva Il Grigio (Sangiovese) comes across as soft and pliant, very much in the style of the vintage. A warm, open bouquet leads to succulent ripe cherries, flowers and spices, all of which flow through nicely to the enveloping finish. Today the juiciness of the fruit makes Il Grigio very attractive, but readers who prefer more tertiary complexity will want to wait for a few years. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2017. “

A typical (you’ll here this word a lot here) Tuscan anti-pasta: mixed bruschetta. Here are tomato and marinated mushrooms, both delicious.

Melon with Prosciutto di Toscana.

More cured meats and bruschetta. The brown mud like stuff is chicken liver. The round salami is Finnochiona, a typical (again) local salami with a bit of fennel and pepper inside.

A truly excellent Zuppe Minestrone. The vegetables maintained their shape, but were cooked wuch that they melt in the mouth.

Tuscan bread and vegetable (mostly tomato) soup.

The kitchen is run my mama, literally.

Spaghetti pomodoro.

Pappardelle al Ragu Di Cinghiale! Wild boar strikes again.

Tagliatelle with ragu Toscana (mixed meat ragu probably).

Tagliatelle with duck ragu. This was deep and meaty. There must have been some duck liver in the sauce too.

Penne pomodoro.

Cheese ravioli with marinated mushroom sauce.

Pici (homemade local pasta) with cheese and pepper. This is a very simple dish, but when done right, as it was here, it’s amazing! The bright black papper flavor stands out. They have this now at Sotto, a new rustic Italian in LA.

Gnocchi pomodoro. The gnocchi here were soft and delicious, although not quite as good as the ones the first night in Modena.

Gnocchi with butter and sage.

Mixed salad (again).

Another salad, arugala or rocket with tomatos.

Pounded veal in lemon sauce. I’m not a big veal fan but this was good.

BBQ Ribs, Tuscan style. These were not unlike spare ribs at a chinese restaurant. They were a bit chewier than I was used too as the flavorful Tuscan pigs are leaner and free range, and the Italians don’t nuke the meat.

Delicious potatoes in a tomato sauce.

Pounded veal in a mushroom sauce — also excellent.

Chicken Cacciatore.

And at the end some free grappa. Ouch! taste-buds still stinging.

Cafe expresso.

This is a fun and delicious place. It’s located in the lovely square above. They may cater to tourists, but they serve amazing traditional Tuscan food prepared with very fresh ingredients. And the service is extremely friendly.

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Eating Staggia – Pozzo dei Desideri

Jun25

Restaurant: Pozzo dei Desideri

Location: Bologna, Italy

Date: June 11, 2011

Cuisine: Tuscan

Rating: Good food, good value

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Today we drove through the mountains between Forli in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, then down past Florence to Staggia a small town near Siena. As this was a transitional day and we were settling into our new (temporary) home we just popped down into town for a quick local dinner.

This joint is in the center of this one horse town.

It has a big menu of typical Tuscan fare and very reasonable prices.

This being the heart of Chianti we chose a local Chianti Classico. This was probably about an 89 point wine, but it had some decent age on it making it fairly nice.

It was old enough that they decanted it.

In this modern age, the old adage, “don’t order seafood in the country,” no longer applies. This was billed as Zuppe di Mare. There wasn’t a lot of “soup” but it was tasty with a hearty garlic tomato sauce and various and mysterious shellfish.

Torte of Zucchini in a Pecorino sauce.

One of the MOST typical of pasta dishes, Pappardelle Cinghiale (wild boar ragu) with olives. The Cinghiale is the local hairy wild boar of tuscany. Click here for some pictures of this delightful creature.

This is a big wide fresh pasta with pomodoro and pecorino.

Gnocci with pecorino, tomato, and arugula.

The omnipresent insalata misto.

And another Tuscan classic, the block of beef. This is a fillet in balsamic sauce.

Notice how it’s served rare. Really rare. Tuscans don’t believe in cooking their beef. It was tasty though. Leaner and a bit tougher than an American filet, but full of flavor.

Overall the place was very good for just being a casual inexpensive local spot. We did however run an odd service quirk when they brought out a second steak a full hour after everyone else got their food (they had forgotten the order). Unlike in America they didn’t want to pull it from the bill (although it was only about 10 euro) and instead insisted on boxing it up for us.

Then we walked across the street for gelato. The place was humming at 11pm, packed with kids.

The didn’t have a lot of flavors, but they are all artisanal and very good.

Some various gelato cakes too.

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Eating Milano Marittima – Al Caminetto

Jun24

Restaurant: Al Caminetto

Location: Cervia / Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 10, 2011

Cuisine: Adriatic Seafood

Rating: Great service, great food

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For our anniversary my wife, me, and our family went out to what the locals described as “the best restaurant in town.”

This is a large, lovely, and lively joint — packed to the brim with large parties. We must have observed at least half a dozen birthdays or other assorted celebrations.

The poured us all glasses of prosecco right out of the gate.

And brought some pre-bread, basically pizza dough.

Then tehy came around with these steamed clams and chickpeas.

Seen here closer up. We thought these were all freebees, but they did turn up on the bill!

Just a bit of menu!

We started with this Gavi white. Not bad, but not really my favorite Italian white of the trip.

Various butters.

Pickled onions.

Raw food, eaten on toast with the onions. Yum.

Salted peel and eat shrimp, like at a chinese restaurant.

Fritto Misto!

One portion.

Insalta Misto. You will continue to see a lot of these.

This wine i really liked. Soave is a very nice white.

Some mongo crabs in the tank, about twenty inches across each.

Penne gorgonzola.

Linguine with salmon and cream.

Mixed grill! I don’t know what the flat purple backed creatures are, and while they tasted fine, they sure had a lot of legs.

Grilled veggies.

Spaghetti del mare.

A single portion.

Close up.

The wave of desserts begins with limon sorbet mixed with prosecco.

Mixed cookies.

Some moscato. Two dessert drinks!

An anniversary tiramisu with sparkler.

A slice of that. Tasty, full of cream.

Then they bring by the dessert cart.

And I can’t resist a slice of cassata. I never get cassata, and while this is only the mainland Italian type, and not my all time favorite cassata di Sicilianna, it was still good.

A profiterole, drowned.

Then some “bonus” (again on the bill) fruit. Pretty spectacular.

I wander to find they have a pizza oven. What doesn’t this place have?

Ladies even get a parting gift of merengues. This place was pretty darn fun. Everything tasted wonderful too. The only downside was the bill, but hey you only have your 10th anniversary once (well at least you SHOULD only have it once).

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Eating Milano Marittima – Notte E Di’

Jun23

Restaurant: Ristorante Notte E Di’

Location: Cervia / Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 10, 2011

Cuisine: Pizza etc

Rating: Great pizza place, bug menu

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After a morning touring ancient mosaics in Ravenna we were hanking for pizza — having reached a certain saturation level on good pasta (how would have thought that possibile?). We located a likely prospect on the Milano Marittima main drag, this time making sure that the pizza oven was on.

They had a huge menu, but i only photoed the pizza section.

Insalta Misto.

And the condiments. This place had a hot oil!

One of us evidently wasn’t ready to make the pasta -> pizza transition. Pistoli del mare. Look at that squidy goodness!

Pizza fungi.

Four cheese with arugula.

And my brother and I went for the “house for two,” which requires this stand.

It had prosciutto, arugula, sausage, mushrooms, and various cheeses. Mmmm good. The crust was perfect too.

Check out the size!

And they brought us Limoncello (nicely chilled) at the end. Like melted lemon drops with a kick.

Cafe!

And a bit of foam for those that need to take it as a macchiato.

This was a fantastic pizza place, just what we wanted.

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Eating Milano Marittima – Ristorante La Frasca

Jun22

Restaurant: Ristorante La Frasca

Location: Cervia / Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 9, 2011

Cuisine: Adriatic Italian

Rating: Top top traditional

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A mere two nights have gone by without a truly elaborate starred restaurant dinner, so we headed to Ristorante La Frasca. Literally one block from our hotel this is a Michelin Two Star place specializing in local seafood.

The entrance, located on one of Milano Marittima’s pretty circles.

We began with a little bubbly, and then set down to ponder the…

The menu. They were a bit more flexible than our previous two star, Osteria Francescana. Not that their food wasn’t awesome, but they required strict matching of tasting menus at the table. La Frasca was anything goes so this report includes both the medium and jumbo menus.

The first round of bread includes rolls stuffed with mortadella. We are, after all, still in Emilia-Romagna.

This lovely Soave is 92 points from Parker. “The 2008 Soave Classico Calvarino is a touch more buttoned-up and vibrant than the La Rocca. Here the fruit shows gorgeous focus and drive in a taut, energetic style. This, too, possesses great overall balance, and may ultimately be the better wine to pair with food. Light floral, honeyed tones ring out on the finish. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2018.”

Amuse. Tuna, caramelized onion, candied orange, orange sauce.

Amberjack sashimi, green apple.

Raw scallop, passionfruit, cucumber.

A fish called Baccala (Italian Salt Cod). Balsamic. Green apple sorbet. Slightly bitter.

Sole. Spinach. Truffle. Mild fish and pleasant white fish dish.

Scallop roe, Sardine, Black truffles, and spinach mush. Looks funny, but tasted great.

Pistelli pasta (local) with fish and clams. An excellent implementation of this traditional local dish.

Tagliatelle with scampi and lemon. This was a delicious pasta, absolutely delicious. It basically tasted like candied lemon, which worked perfectly with the al dente pasta and the succulent shrimp.

This was a lovely medium bodied red selected for us by the Sommelier.

Typical of Milano Marittima the restaurant has a tree growing right through it!

Pacalri pasta tubes, with lobster and tomato sauce.

The same dish, prepared with turbot instead of lobster.

There is also a missing photo of sea urchin gnocchi with pecconino beans. Boo hoo, as this was a spectacular dish.

Then turbot and veggies in butter sauce.

It is also worth illustrating the example of finished plate art in concert with one of last years at La Terrazza.

I’m always a big fan of Aldo Conterno, ever since meeting him at his winery in June of 2000. Parker gives this 92, “The dense ruby/plum-colored 1996 Barolo Bussia Soprana exhibits a promising, classic Nebbiolo/Barolo bouquet of tobacco, cigar box, rose petals, melted tar, and copious quantities of sweet black cherry fruit. Although impressively full-bodied, powerful, tannic, and dense, it is oh, so young and backward. Patience … please! Anticipated maturity: 2010-2025.”

Black cod. Pumpkin sauce. Corget flower.

Quail breasts stuffed with fois gras, with the legs tempura fried. This was rich but delicious. Like a poultry Beef Wellington.

A pre dessert of zabaione and cherries. Wonderful.

Stracciatella merange. Chocolate and Vannilla creme.

Chocolate candied fruits grame cracker and passion fruit ice cream. Delicious!

La Frasca’s wine room.

Various petite fors. Creme puffs, little fruit and creme tarts, chocolate truffles, etc.

This was a wonderful meal, more traditional than Osteria Francescana, but perfectly on point.

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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

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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!

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Eating Cervia – Locanda dei Salinari

Jun18

Restaurant: Locanda dei Salinari

Location: Cervia, Italy

Date: June 8, 2011

Cuisine: Adriatic Seafood

Rating: Great seafood

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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.

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Eating Modena – Il Fantino

Jun16

Restaurant: Il Fantino

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 7, 2011

Cuisine: Emilia Romagna

Rating: Big portions, too big!

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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.

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Eating Bologna – Trattoria Leonida

Jun15

Restaurant: Trattoria Leonida

Location: Bologna, Italy

Date: June 7, 2011

Cuisine: Bolognese

Rating: Big menu, great food

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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.