Sunday, May 31, 2015

Festa! part two

Cardona, May 30, 2015—
HOW TO DESCRIBE our dining on this very special day, one of the most beautiful and emotional days of my life?


For years I've wanted to get my extra-American friends together, to get to know one another, and (I must admit it) to enjoy seeing the interactions that might develop among them. The story begins a little over a century ago, when Lindsey's father, ten years old, immigrated from Italy.

It resumes thirty-five years ago, when our oldest daughter spent a year abroad with a Dutch family. When we visited at the end of that year we discovered her Dutch parents, a few years older than us and quite different in background and tastes, were our semblables, people whose hearts had an uncanny resonance with ours, and we have been the best of friends, really brothers and sisters, ever since.

Then a succession of foreign students came to our house in Berkeley — a Swedish girl for only three weeks, to polish her English; a Brazilian boy for six months, to sigh for his tropics; a French girl for a year, to escape small-town Provence I suppose. They became our own children, we their own parents. I can't explain our luck in finding such big-hearted, generous, tolerant, and fascinating teen-agers.

Our youngest daughter married a Czech immigrant, and their children have traveled and built their own international relations. I'm not sure how many languages are spoken by our children and grandchildren; more than I'm bothering to think of at the moment — for this is, after all, not a biographical website, but an account of Eating (mostly) Every Day.

I decided Lindsey's birthday was a suitable occasion for getting as many friends and family together as possible, and ended with twenty-six altogether — Italian, Dutch, French, Swedish, and Brazilian, along with a sprinkling of our extended American family who happened to be in the area. I found rooms for everyone nearby, and we met in various configurations throughout the morning, and by two o'clock some had gone off on independent expeditions related, I'm sure, to lunch.

The rest of us — ten, supplemented by two who arrived late and had to be content with a separate table — drove to a restaurant in a nearby village, a place we've liked before, and sat down to a light lunch: a series of five or six antipasti, like Russian salad, insalata da gallovitello tonnato, this carpaccio, very nice peperoni filled with tuna sauce, and I don't recall what else; then a big mixed salad, just lettuce leaves and tomatoes.

After lunch I mentioned to our waiter that we'd had a memorable conversation with his mother last time we were here — she was then the cook, and the second generation to own and run this place, and was by no means a young woman. "She died seven years ago," he said, with a moist eye. Passono gli anni, I said; the years go by. Increasingly quickly.

Dinner — but that will have to wait for another post…
Cortona bianco; Grignolino
Ristorante Da Maria, via Roma 131, Zanco di Villadeati (AL); +39 0141902035
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Big dinner, short notice

Cruda
Cardona, May 29, 2015—

THE PARTY BEGINS: fifteen of us at table tonight, a little more than half the extended family — let's drop that "extended": we are all, as far as I'm concerned, family — that is assembling hereabouts this weekend to celebrate an important birthday. Tomorrow's dinner is the main event, and is pretty well planned, but what to do tonight?

I called a restaurant we've liked in a nearby town. May I reserve a table tonight? Certainly, sir, at what time? Oh, say 8:30? Certainly, sir, for how many?

Here I paused a moment, then bravely plunged on. I think twelve or fourteen, I'm not sure yet.

No problem, sir, call again when you have the exact number…

We arrived to a nearly empty restaurant; I don't know why — Friday is not a popular restaurant night, apparently. Fourteen chairs were at a long table, but at the last minute we were now fifteen. No problem: another chair was brought, with table service; plenty of room.

We ate simply, each ordering from the menu. I began with my beloved Cruda di Fossone alla monferrina con piccoli germogli e sbrisolona al parmigiano, veal tartare with little lettuce sprouts and crisp, cunning little Parmesan soufflés. The beef — what we called "baby beef" in my childhood, too mature to be veal, not yet full-grown beef — was sweet and clean, lightly seasoned, beautifully formed, and the tiny lettuces — which I've never had before — complemented it perfectly.

Next, a plate of Bottoni all'uovo Ricotta e Spinai novelli con pesto leggero di pomodori secchi, olive taggiasche e pinoli: good-sized round ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach with a light "pesto" combining sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and pine nuts, in a butter so sweet, floral, and grassy you knew you were in Piedmont, whose cows provide the best butter in the world as far as I'm concerned…

Dessert: Zuppetta di ciliegie al Malvasia di Casorzo, meringa alla liquerizia e gelato alla Viola. This was an extraordinary thing, I think: a "soup" of strongly flavored local cherries, neither sour nor sweet, sweetened with the wine, set off by crisp little meringues discreetly flavored with licorice, and softened by a beautifully made violet-scented ice cream. What a combination of flavors and textures! A marvelous creation…

Arneis, Roero, 2014; Grignolino, Bricco del Bosco, 2014; Dolcetto

•Ristorante Il Centrale, Piazza Giuseppe Romita 10, Moncalvo; 0141 917126

Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Provisional dining

"La Riviera", Arignano, 28 May, 2015—
LONG DRIVE TODAY, and we ate very casually — out of bakeries, salumerias, and the like. Lunch was bread and salami at a rest stop, washed down with water. Dinner a little better: the same, followed by a delicious melon we bought the other day and have been ripening. Tomorrow will be better, but I should not two coppette of gelato: cream and fior di latte, of course, snd my belief it is that the Gelateria Pino Pistacchio is one of the best I've run into.

• Gelateria Pino Pistacchio, Via Vittorio Emanuele II, 73/A, Chieri; 011 9414241
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Slow food




 Grosseto, 27 May, 2015— 

A QUICK SURVEY of restaurants discussed on the popular websites turned up what looked like a serious and interesting place just a hundred meters from our hotel, and barring a glacial pace it turned out to be quite rewarding.

After a complimentary glass of Banfi frizzante I dove into a delicious mound of Tartara di Chianina, lightly accompanied by shallot, cornichon, chopped carrots, and a hen's egg. Chianina is Tuscan, not Piemontese, and lacks the distinctive sweetness of the Fossone I had the other day, but this was delicious just the same, especially with lavender-lemon flavored sea salt.

Afterward, Pici alla selvaggina di Maremma: very nice house-made thick spaghetti, cooked just right, in a ragout involving cinghiale, wild pig. No complaints.

Sangiovese-Merlot blend, Tenuta Gramineta (Tuscany), 2014
• Ristorante Enoteca Wine-Bar L'Uva e il Malto, Via Mazzini 165, Grosseto; 0564 411211
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants




,

Back to Litro; on to Enzo

Viale di Villa Pamphili, May 26, 2015—

TWO LAST MEALS for the time being in the Eternal City, both en famille — wife, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, boy friend. Because of employment constraints, lunch at Litro again, where this time instead of vegetables I concenrated on meat, having noticed battuto di fassone on the menu. Fassone: a familiar word, untranslatable by Google, unknown by the fluent Italian speakers at the table, so we're reduced to asking — oh yes; it's the breed of cattle specific to Piemonte, where the beef is so sweet, so clean, so beautifully raised and prepared that it's traditional often to eat it uncooked.

But first, to nail down that northern Italian context, another serving of that excellent giardiniera, if you don't mind — the supple crispness, if that makes sense, of these pickled vegetables provide just the right foil for the smooth but nubby texture of the crudo. I could lunch like this every day.

white, in carafe

•Litro, Via Fratelli Bonnet, 5; (+39) 06 4544 7639

THEN, AFTER AN AFTERNOON strolling and shopping — and stopping in at Fatamorgana again for an excellent gelato — we accepted the urgent recommendation of our Rome host and stopped in at a very popular trattoria in Trastevere. We were thankful to sit at a table outside the door, one of a number: it was jammed inside, and the noise and the air couldn't have been comfortable, especially for a party of six.

I like pasta carbonara and amatrigiana and grigia and especially cacio e pepe as much as anyone, but I like it with fettuccine, or tagliatelle, or even spaghetti if necessary; I've developed a quite ridiculous dislike — well, disaffection — for penne or rigatoni. And that's what the pasta is here. Oh, my Roman relatives claimed, that's traditional here in Rome, it's always rigatoni. Goed so. Not at, for example, da Lucia; not at, for example, Perilli. But I bite my tongue, and do not order pasta.

Instead, after a quite delicious artichoke alla giudia, flattened and fried crisp, I went directly to my secondo: as delicious a saltimbocca alla romana as I've ever had, the veal and prosciutto flavors perfectly balanced, the sage leaf pungent and fresh, the pan liquor salty and savory. And then, since I was still hungry, the abbacchio also alla romana, grilled lamb flavored with garlic, sage, a hint of rosemary, and a few drops of olive oil; salt and pepper of course, and a bit of juice squeezed from the lemon garnish. Again: perfectly cooked, and perfectly delicious.

white (Trebbiano) and red in carafe

•Trattoria da Enzo al 29, Via dei Vascellari 29, Roma; 06 581 2260

Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Back to Litro; on to Enzo

Viale di Villa Pamphili, May 26, 2015— TWO LAST MEALS for the time being in the Eternal City, both en famille — wife, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, boy friend. Because of employment constraints, lunch at Litro again, where this time instead of vegetables I concenrated on meat, having noticed battuto di fassone on the menu. Fassone: a familiar word, untranslatable by Google, unknown by the fluent Italian speakers at the table, so we're reduced to asking — oh yes; it's the breed of cattle specific to Piemonte, where the beef is so sweet, so clean, so beautifully raised and prepared that it's traditional often to eat it uncooked. But first, to nail down that northern Italian context, another serving of that excellent giardiniera, if you don't mind — the supple crispness, if that makes sense, of these pickled vegetables provide just the right foil for the smooth but nubby texture of the crudo. I could lunch like this every day.
white, in carafe
•Litro, Via Fratelli Bonnet, 5; (+39) 06 4544 7639

THEN, AFTER AN AFTERNOON strolling and shopping — and stopping in at Fatamorgana again for an excellent gelato — we accepted the urgent recommendation of our Rome host and stopped in at a very popular trattoria in Trastevere. We were thankful to sit at a table outside the door, one of a number: it was jammed inside, and the noise and the air couldn't have been comfortable, especially for a party of six. I like pasta carbonara and amatrigiana and grigia and especially cacio e pepe as much as anyone, but I like it with fettuccine, or tagliatelle, or even spaghetti if necessary; I've developed a quite ridiculous dislike — well, disaffection — for penne or rigatoni. And that's what the pasta is here. Oh, my Roman relatives claimed, that's traditional here in Rome, it's always rigatoni. Goed so. Not at, for example, da Lucia; not at, for example, Perilli. But I bite my tongue, and do not order pasta. Instead, after a quite delicious artichoke alla giudia, flattened and fried crisp, I went directly to my secondo: as delicious a saltimbocca alla romana as I've ever had, the veal and prosciutto flavors perfectly balanced, the sage leaf pungent and fresh, the pan liquor salty and savory. And then, since I was still hungry, the abbacchio also alla romana, grilled lamb flavored with garlic, sage, a hint of rosemary, and a few drops of olive oil; salt and pepper of course, and a bit of juice squeezed from the lemon garnish. Again: perfectly cooked, and perfectly delicious.
white (Trebbiano) and red in carafe
•Trattoria da Enzo al 29, Via dei Vascellari 29, Roma; 06 581 2260
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Monday, May 25, 2015

Wine bar

Giardiniera
Viale Villa Pamphili, May 25, 2015—
WE WENT AT THE SUGGESTION of our granddaughter, who works nearby and finds it a convenient place for lunch. Litro has ambitions, as its website will suggest — particularly in the direction of organic and even biodynamic food and wine. This does not keep it from offering an amazing selection of Mezcals, of all things; and, hidden away on the menu, a "cocktail martini," which of course I ordered, even though it is neither Friday nor Saturday. (They're fungible, and I haven't had one since May 2.)

Soon after ordering it a young woman came to the table to verify that that was indeed what I wanted, and did I want it extra dry, or dry, or what? Dry, I said, but not too dry, with vermouth in it, and lemon rather than olives. And soon enough there it was, not cold enough of course, and made with a sweeter (but white) vermouth than I'm used to, but not bad.

With it I had various vegetables. This giardiniera, for example, made according to a recipe from the Veneto I was told, with cauliflower, red sweet pepper, carrot, and onion, in a perfect agrodolce swee-sour vinaigrette. The vegetables were crisp and retained all their flavor: this was beautifully made.

I had pickled artichoke hearts, too, served with mushroom caps and a few leaves of lettuce — very nice.

BruschettaAnd I ordered bruschetta aglio e olio, simply bread — very good bread — toasted, rubbed with garlic, and drizzled with good olive oil, just as we do it at home.

My companions had ordered more substantial things: a tuna salad; a serving of baccalà with potatoes. And at another table I overheard a man ordering four bottles of wine with a neutral American accent, and after we'd finished lunch I apologetically intruded on him and his companion for enlightenment. They turned out to be Georgian; at least she is; he's an American expatriated to Georgia, where he paints, runs a winery and restaurant, and shares enthusiasms for polyphonic a capella song, food and wine, and as rich and natural a lifestyle as possible — and it does seem possible. Perhaps our next jaunt should be to the Caucasus.


Muscatedda (Moscato), Marabino (Noto, Sicily), 2014: beautiful golden color, unfiltered, biodynamic, supple, reasonably dry, and delicous
Litro, Via Fratelli Bonnet, 5; (+39) 06 4544 7639
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Da Lucia

IMG 0636
via di Villa Pamphili, May 24, 2015—
THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN one of my favorite restaurants in Rome, and I wanted it to be better than it was this time. I was worried when we approached, at 9:30 pm, and saw dozens of diners at tables out in the street. Inside, the dining rooms were also full, but for the table reserved for our party of six. Still, it's a wonderful room, and good simple menu, and good honest cooking and serving, and we enjoyed ourselves.

We did order too much. Three platters of anchovies; three plates of pasta (alla gricia; caccio e pepe), two orders of long-braised chicory, two of vignarola, which I'll explain later.

Then we went on to secondi of our choice. Mine was the veal spezzatini you see above: a simple dish I've had here once or twice before, just chunks of veal, cooked in the manner of the French blanquette de veau, served with peas, such a standby in this part of the world.

IMG 0634Speaking of peas: Vignarola is a vegetable dish involving artichoke, peas, favas, and onion. There's a recipe here, if you read Italian; I think I'll make it when we get home, if there are still fave on the market.

And, oh, those anchovies… we do love anchovies, all six of us at the table…


Poggio d'Oro (Toscana), 2014 (like most Tuscan wines, not to my taste); rosso della casa in carafe (better)
•Trattoria da Lucia, Vicolo del Mattonato 2, Roma; 06 580 3601
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Neither trattoria nor restaurant

IMG 0572
Via Villa Pamphily, May 23, 2015—
ALMOST TWO O'CLOCK Saturday afternoon: where to eat today? The first two or three places we phoned were full, of course, what with wedding parties, graduations, and whatnot.

So we did a little websurfing and my contessa came up with this place, a ten-minute walk from our apartment. And here I feasted:
Saltimbocca di Capasanta con la sua Mayonese, Patata fondente, Rapa rossa e Chips di Fiore di Zucca

Tagliolini all'Uovo con Ragú bianco di Piccione con Cipollotto Asparagi e Lamponi

Il Controfiletto di Scottona marchigiana con Lardo e Radicchio brasato
which is to say,
Sea scallops with mayonnaise, puréed potato, beetroot, and fried zucchini blossom
Egg noodles in white pigeon ragout with onion, asparagus, and raspberry

Grilled heifer steak with lardo and braised radicchio
or, basically, surf and turf.

This was a very rich meal for me — in the last few years I have not been able to eat rich foods as easily as in younger days — but I shouldered my way into the meal and did myself credit, I think.

The scallops were of course not really saltimbocche but managed to look like them, which was the point; and the preparation was both rich and delicate, very nicely balanced, with potatoes slightly tasting of white truffle.

The tagliolini were perfectly cooked, the onion and asparagus chopped and softened in olive oil along with chunks of previously cooked (I think) pigeon. The raspberries were puréed and drizzled over the completed preparation, garnished with what looked like very young purslane.

The steak, oh my, that was quite delicious, cooked perfectly to order, salted but innocent of further flavoring — well, maybe a little olive oil — and the braised radicchio a fine complement, slightly bitter, neither tender nor tough, a vegetable that can stand up to a beefsteak.

The service was friendly and knowledgeable, and the cooks quick, deft, and gifted. I would go back here any day of the week.


white, then red
•L'Osteria di Monteverde, Pietro Cartoni, 163, Roma; 06 5327 3887
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Back to Perilli

NewImage
Via Viale Pamphily, Rome, May 23, 2015—
WE HADN'T KNOWN YESTERDAY when we decided to lunch at Perilli that tonight's dinner had already been reserved there — a family affair in honor of our granddaughter's graduation from the American University in Rome. There were six of us at table, three generations; we arrived a little late, about quarter of ten; and we were welcomed with very friendly hospitality.

I ate simply: an artichoke alla romana , a plate of spaghetti carbonara; another of fave with guanciale; zabaglione for dessert. Others ventured further into the menu; we were all more than content.

The artichoke was delicious, and I asked the waiter about its flavor. C'e cotto con timo ? Is it cooked with thyme? No, signore; mentuccia. In a flash he was back with a small saucer on which lay a spray of catmint and a small bowl of chopped ordinary mint. Considerable discussion ensued. It's a nepeta, says Wikipedia, who kindly provided this photo; and it's selvaggio , wild, said our waiter — another roadside botanical contributing to the rich and locally specific Italian kitchen, like the silex that flavored a memorable risotto four years ago.

We were too much immersed in family and in celebration for me to think of taking photographs; I'll refer you to yesterday's — which as it happens shows the precise table we occupied well into the night.


white and red in carafe
•Perilli a Testaccio, Via Marmorata, 39, Roma; 06 575 5100
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Friday, May 22, 2015

Rome! Perilli!

Perilli
Viale Villa Pamphily, Rome, May 21, 2015—
ARRIVED HERE about ten, unloaded rental car, and returned it — that's a story, but not for an eating blog — and found ourselves at the improbable Piramide, a little bit of Luxor at the gates of Rome. Well, since we're walking into Testaccio, why not lunch at Perilli? It's one of my favorite restaurants in the (by me) known world, so why not?

We opened the place, but other tables began filling up soon enough — many local businessmen, some eating alone, others in twos, threes, and fours; a few tourists; a few young couples. The waiters are imperturbable and professional. The menu — well, I doubt it ever changes much, nor does there seem any reason it should.

CacciopepeI had one of the dishes that defines Rome, for me: fettuccine cacio e pepe , dressed simply with grated pecorino and black pepper. The combination of semolina, really good cheese, and pepper was bracing and substantial, and I was very happy. Afterward, a simple lettuce salad, dressed with oil and juice from the lemon accompanying my companion's dish of green beans. A perfect lunch.


Frascati in carafe
•Perilli a Testaccio, Via Marmorata, 39, Roma; 06 575 5100
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Eating Cheap

IMG 0459
via di Castelfusano, Ostia Antica, May 20, 2015—
A GOOD HALF-DAY on the road brought us to this port town outside Rome, where the first order of business was to get something to eat. But it was nearly three; trattorias were closed, and we weren't in the mood for snacks.

I'd parked, as it happened, right in front of a fried-fish joint, so we went in, not expecting much. A couple of plastic tables; a woman at the till looking bored, a giant of a man waiting for her to get off work, a guy clearly not European at the fryers.

But a surprisingly extended menu, from which we chose this platter: battered and deep-fried cod; French-fried potatoes, and deep-fried zucchini blossoms. For dessert we had a couple of deep-fried apple rings. Everything was clean and delicious. I looked back into the kitchen and store-room: they use sunflower-seed oil, a lot of it, and I bet it isn't GMO, not in this country.
House white
•Pesce Fritto e Baccalà, via Rutilio Namaziano 4, Ostia Lido; 06.5690835
IMG 0510THEN IT WAS on to the Roman ruins for a few hours, and check in to our hotel, and be damned if I wasn't a little hungry again. So we simply stepped into the trattoria next door, which offered a three-course dinner for ten euros.

I started with a very nice penne all'amatriciana. One bite and the combination of tomato, oil, garlic, and Pecorino said I was eating pasta in Rome again, first time in quite a while, and good to be back.

Then on to this Pollo alla brace, grilled chicken — chicken that tasted as if it had run around a chickenyard every day, eating weeds and bugs, and had grown a few feathers in its day: and yet chicken that had been roasted while retaining surprising tenderness and moisture. It was good.

I had a simple salad of lettuce, which I dressed with lemon juice and olive oil and salt; and then a lemon tart that had whole cooked (chopped) lemon for a filling, zest pith meat juice and all — a variation of a Shaker lemon pie, Lindsey said, and she should know. Not bad; not bad at all.

House red
•Il Frantoio, via di Castel Fusano 23a, Ostia Antica; 06.83086501
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The best yet

IMG 0440
Campobasso, 19 May, 2015—
I SET THIS PHOTO here to suggest the elegant simplicity and the total taste-genius of this place. The waiter was almost excited when he told me the artichoke came from within a few kilometers of the restaurant, also the potatoes. Their flavors, their sweetness, the freshness they both spoke, their textures, even something about the shapes they took on the plate — all those things said two things, in perfect harmony: faith in their quiddity; reliance on simplicy of treatment.
IMG 0435


We'd chosen the place from Slow Food's Osterie d'Italia 2015 , and I can't believe the book will often be as perfectly descriptive as it was on this page.

There was no menu, of course, and after a tiring drive my Italian wasn't up to the waiter's, so I asked him to repeat, and I wrote things down on the paper tablecloth:
PRIMI
Pizza minestra
Pasta e fagiole
Taglialini, fagiole verde, pomodori, basilico
Tagliatelli, spinaci, favi, finnocchio
I chose the last; my companion the Taglialini. Both plaates were absolutely delicious. The idea of combining pasta, string beans, cherry tomatoes, and basil had never occurred to her; I'd bet we'll be having it at home this summer. The basil was very discreet, as was the fennel — the fronds only — in my tagliatelli. Then came
SECONDI
Spezzatini al sugo
Bollito di manzo
Coniglie al vino
Scamorza arrosto con pere
Fegato di maiale
Uove con la ciambotta
Salsiccia arrosto

and, the waiter almost forgot, that artichoke with potatoes.
IMG 0439
My companion chose the rabbit, roasted in wine as if it were veal; I had the veal spezzatini, delicious in a very pointed tomato sauce. And afterward, of course, that artichoke.

Dessert was, for me, a chocolate torte, bittersweet, dense, substantial.

This is one of the best places I've been to. In the kitchen, three women, the oldest in her seventies I'm sure. Two waiters. Two dining rooms packed with, say, forty very happy diners.


House white (dry moscato, very nice) and red of the locality in carafe
•Trattoria “La Grotta” da Concetta, via Larino 7, Campobasso; 339.614.4678
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Monday, May 18, 2015

Eating ordinarily again

Anchovies
Gallipoli, Puglia, May 18, 2015—
IT CAN BE DIFFICULT, finding a good restaurant in Italy on Monday. Most are closed following the big weekend ruch. The one really promising possibility turned out to be closed for the week on family business.

So we drove out to the other coast, after spending the morning and noon hour in Lecce, and ate at an ordinary trattoria specializing in seafood. We begaan with the anchovies you see here — in fact this is about a third of them; it was an enormous serving, quite delicious, dressed with very good olive oil and a little white vinegar and accompanied by extaordinarily sweet chopped lettuce.
Fish
I went on to filets of cernia — a kind of grouper, as far as I've been able to determine — cooked à la Pugliese, in tomatoes and black olives and, I think, a little mint. The Greek presence is still influential in this part of Italy's heel. Afterward, a mixed salad, and no room for dessert…

Fiano, "il bianco dei Vespa" (Salento), 2014: Nice color, good flavor and body
•Trattoria Scoglio delle Sirene, Riv. N. Sauro, 83, Gallipoli; 0833.261091
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Another perfect ordinary

eggplant and mushroom
Via Torchiarolo, Squignano (Lecce), May 17, 2015—
WE FOUND TONIGHT'S agriturismo completely per caso , by accident: we decided to take a lesser road south from Brindisi (which we'd bypassed entirely) toward Lecce, and simply stop at the first place we saw that sounded good. The first pannello , signboard, by the side of the road promised LA CRIANZA AGRITURISMO. "La Crianza," I mused, that's familiar, I like the sound of that, let's go there.

So we did. We're the only people here tonight, in a building with perhaps six bedrooms, next to a huge building where probably a hundred could dine comfortably, on a 25-acre farm that grows nothing but olive trees. Well, probably a few chickens, and a small orto for the tomatoes and such.

What a meal:
• Green house-cured olives, with pimento and peppers
Melanzane con menta; Cardoncelli: grilled eggplant with sautéed wild mushrooms
Pomodori dell'orto : their own tomatoes, ripe, forward, substantial, meaty
• Stuffed mushroom caps, with polenta-tomato-onion "lasagna"
• "Orecciete" with fennel-sausage, tomato sauce, and mushrooms
Cardoncelli are a kind of local mushroom, highly prized, that grow where you find beach thistles. They're meaty and deep-flavored like porcini, but more intense, They are delicious. They rather deadened our first wine, but married well to the second.
IMG 0297
This meal was similar to the one three days ago, and Montenuovo — very ordinary in technique, very special in flavor. Afterward the man of the house asked me if I hadn't found it rather salty. Yes, I said; and to tell the truth my companion had mentioned that to me while we were eating. But it pushes the wine nicely, I told him, and he chuckled, and I could see him file the comment away for whenever it might come in handy…


white and red in carafe
•Agriturismo La Crianza, via Torchiarolo, Squignano (Lecce); 08155 84006
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Botteghe

Antipasti
Vico Fornaci, Matera, May 16, 2015—
BIG MEAL MIDDAY today, since we were to be at a concert from seven to ten, and Hermes knows how we'll find the place. Getting to lunch was tricky enough: on the map it looked an easy walk, but it was down hundreds of rough stone steps…

I chose the restaurant from the Slow Food website, and was happy I did. We started with the degustazione Botteghe , a selection of antipasti including
"cialled": bread, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, basil, oregano
•Caprese salad (mozzarella, tomatoes, basil)
•Prosciutto
•Zucchini "spaghetti": zucchini cut very thin with vinaigrette
•two or three frittatas
•a couple of croquettes
•a large serving of whipped cream with chopped Treviso chicory
Then we went on to other local dishes:
Fave e cicorie: beautifully supple purée of fava beans and olive oil, with sautéed bitter chicory greens
Tegamino di baccalà alla menta: salt cod baked in tomato sauce flavored with mint
Patate alla brace: potatoes baked in their jackets
White agleanico in carafe
Ristorante Le Botteghe, Piazza S. Pietro Barisano 22, Matera; 0835 344072

PizzaThis did not keep us from getting a pizza alla marinara at midnight, just to keep in shape, at the local
•Girotondo Pizzeria, via XX Settembre 30/A, Matera
It was fine except that weirdly it featured a few black olives scattered on top. We are not in Napoli.
The rest of the Malandrina from the other night
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Friday, May 15, 2015

Metaponto

Ceccatelli
Between Metaponto and Bernalda, May 15, 2015—
ANOTHER ÉTAPE CHOSEN from the iPhone app Agriturismo.it, and as different from last night as night and day or, as our English cousins say, chalk and cheese (though I've always suspected a good deal of cheap English cheese is, in fact, made of chalk).

Last night the setting and the appearance, while very nice, were less than palatial; the cooking was personable, authentic (as far as I could tell), enterprising, quite grounded. Tonight's digs are very impressive indeed; the cuisine was perfectly satisfactory but in no way special.

We began with a fine platter of antipasti. Well, wait a minute: we began on the terrace with a glass of white wine and a generous bowl of olives, both made on the premises, both very nice.

The antipasto included prosciutto, speck, small hard dried salami, coppa (very piquant, that), Pecorino, ricotta, and deliciously light and fluffy eggplant croquettes. Molto bene.

Then the primo : Ceccatelli con pesto. I mentioned the other day the idea of making cavatelli by pushing your two first fingers into the just-right-sized cylinder of raw pasta, pulling it to you, then releasing: ceccatelli are made exactly the same, but with four fingers. They looke to me like strozzapreti  but I'm not about to tell a professional, friendly, graceful, competent Italian waiter what his pasta is really called.

From here, Vitello stracotto — braised sliced veal; or roast veal that has been sliced, and is served with a rich gravy — with patate sfoglie, potatoes cooked with chopped artichoke leaves and a few other things, including cheese, an baked in a timbale, though served freed from such constraints.

Well: the antipast was delicious, and may well have been mostly from the premises. The cavatelli, my Companion thought, may have been made elsewhere: but quite well, though perhaps — comparisons really are odorous — not quite up to those we had in Napoli a few days ago. And the pesto, she said, was not up to mine, which made me feel pretty good.

The veal was okay but rather routine. The potato dish was marvelous.

And then for dessert we had a chocolate pudding so unctuous, liscio, and so well flavored that I thought perhaps another cook had moved into the kitchen.

Don't get me wrong: this was a good dinner; I'd come back here any time. But it didn't stand out, partly because it was competing with its site — which is, I must say, so attractive we gave some thought to scrapping our touring ideas and just staying here.

Wines from the locality: white: "Ovo de Elena," blend with local grapes; 2014, honey-brass color, nice nose and palate, clean and very pleasant; red: Malandrina, Primitiveo 60%, Merlot 30%, Cabernet sauvignon 10%; rich and ready and reminding me very much of Preston of Dry Creek Zinfandel
•Masseria Cardillo, SS 407 km 97.5, Bernalda; +39 0835 748992
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Basilicata!

Secondo
Calvera (Potenza), Basilicata, May 14, 2015—
SO MUCH OF IT, and all of it so delicious, I will give you only one photograph, and let a simple recitation of the menu do for the rest:

Antipasto: Prosciutto; salame; red peppers stuffed with ham and cheese folded over; salame; green and yellow peppers a la grecque, an omelet cooked within a lidded pan and consequently molded perfectly; another cooked within a thin shell of bread dough like a calzone and sliced, coppa, extraordinary fried dried pepperoni.

Primo: Homemade fusilli with fennel sausage, porcini, and cherry tomatoes

Secondo: Lamb chops and local sausage flavored with rosemary, thyme, and oregano

Green salad

We declined any dessert.
House red (60% Sangiovese, 40@ a local red, solid and nutitious)

This was as good a dinner as we've had in a long time. We were really excited. All of it local; much of it from the tenuta, all of it organic.

Bioagriturismo Tenuta Montenuovo, 85030 Calvera (PZ), Italy; +39 338.6368133

Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Dinner in the country

San Cipriano Picentino, Salerno, 13 May 2015—
HOW DELICIOUS AFTER a week in the city to dine with only one other couple at a comfortable table in a quiet country house on good authentic local cuisine, especially when cooked this well and served this graciously!

We began with little rolls of stewed escarole, capers, raisins, and onions, rolled up in a thin sheet of simple bread dough and baked. Following that, marvelous ravioli stuffed with borage. Then roast chicken with potatoes, artichokes, and peas. And at the end a fine tiramisù and a glass of homemade limoncello.

We stayed in this fine county place five years ago — a very comfortable bed in a spacious room overlooking the garden; old mulberry trees; a lemon grove…


Local white (Trebbiano), rosé, and red in carafe
•La Vecchia Quercia, Via Montevetrano 4, Località Cantina di Campigliano, San Cipriano Picentino (Salerno)
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Telephone first!

Insalata
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, May 12, 2015—
LIFE LESSON no. 13,472: Always telephone to be sure they're open! Finding ourselves downtown, having toured the magnificent Teatro San Carlo, we felt a real need for food. (Our breakfasts remain minimal even while on tour: a couple of cafés au lait, a slice of bread or two.) So I checked the Osterie 2015 app on my phone and found a very promising place only a twenty-minute walk away, open daily lunch and dinner, closed Tuesday dinner. Note well the last word in the preceding sentence.

The walk was enjoyable, past dozens of cafés, bars, restaurants; many with people sitting at outside tables, obviously enjoying themselves while taking in nutrients. On a walk like this you can’t help getting hungrier and hungrier, even while your spirits continue to mount in the certainty that an exceptional experience awaits.

You already have guessed what happened: when we got to the place in question, it was shut down tighter than, well, whatever the simile. On the door a sign: Weekly closing. Thank you for understanding.

And, of course, there was only one other place anywhere near where we might eat. So we sat down at a table outside the unpromisingly named Caffeteria Marino and looked at the unpromising menu, almost illegibly written out on a crumpled piece of paper handed us by a rushed and not terribly engaging waiter. Nothing on the short list seemed remotely Neapolitan, but one makes do when one must: my companion had a spaghetti carbonara; I had a plate of prosciutto and arugula. And, you know, it wasn’t all that bad.
White house wine
•Caffetteria Marino, Vico Giardinetto 3/4/5, Napoli

Then in the evening, our last evening in Naples this time, our hosts asked us into their apartment for dinner. John answered the door with flour on his hands, apologized for running late, and returned to the dining table where he was making cortecci: he'd made a simple flour-and-water dough, let it stand a few minutes, and was now kneading and stretching it into cylinders about the diameter of a fat pencil, which he cut into sections three fingertip-widths long.
IMG 9897
Working on a lightly floured board, he pressed the first three fingers of his right hand onto the pieces, one by one, and quickly drew them toward him, lifting his fingers as he pulled. The result: dimpled piece of uncooked pasta, rather like gnocchi. The shape, he explained, held the sauce nicely.

Paola was meantime making the sauce, and soon we sat down to a delicious plate of cortecci. Then came an amazing assortment of goodies: salsiccia di Lovero cooked with potatoes in nothing but red wine and a tiny bit of olive oil, chicken-breast rollatini, zucchini in vinaigrette, red peppers à la grècque, stuffed eggplant — and, for dessert, slices of perfect orange, each with a tiny strawberry fresh from their garden, first of the season. And a glass or two of a limoncello, a very nice one, made by a neighbor. We felt honored.

Red wine of the locality: sorry, forget to note the label
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Monday, May 11, 2015

Penne with lemons

Lemonsauce
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, Napoli, May 11, 2015—
AFTER ALL, WE HAVE a kitchen here; why not make use of it? And, since it's our wedding anniversary, why not cook together?

Cook rinsed and dried the arugula for salad, and cooked the penne, bought at the alimentario up the Corso. Meanwhile I minced a couple of cloves of garlic very small — my Opinel pocketknife comes in handy for such things — and softened them without browning them in good organic olive oil from the local supermarket. (Carrefour, if you want to know.)

While the garlic was softening, I chopped a lemon rather roughly but still in fairly small pieces, and added it to the garlic and oil, along with salt; then I added maybe half a glass of white wine. I cooked this just enough to soften the lemon rind; more cooking would have brought out the bitterness of the white pulp, which I didn't bother to cut away.

Toward the end, aftee taking the photo above, I added some red pepper flakes, since they were handy. The penne were done by that time, and Cook drained them, then blended the lemon sauce with a tablespoonful or so of the pasta-cooking water and added that back to the penne.

We grated Parmigiano on top of our plates. Delicious! Afterward, the arugula, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, and a couple of See's chocolates, since it's a special day.


Biancolella, Casa d'Ambra (Ischia), 2014: soft, very slightly sweet, fruity, quite sound and well balanced, forward but with some finish, reminiscent of (but quite different from) some Vouvrays.
PenneRestaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Antica Pizzeria da Michele

DaMichele
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, Napoli, May 11, 2015—
CONTINUING OUR SCIENTIFIC survey of pizza where it was invented (so they say: but flatbreads are universal around the Mediterranean), we went today for midday meal to one of the two or three pizzerie generally acknowledged to lead the pack here.

When we approached Da Michele, about one o’clock in the afternoon, there was a disheartening crowd in the street outside. I stepped inside and asked a waiter if there were a list; he simply pointed to the old man at the cash register.
 
I repeated my question. He asked how many we were, then tore a little slip of paper and handed it to me. It was blank save for the number: 77

I went back outside and asked someone what the last number called had been. Fifty-five, was the answer. It was hot and we were tired; we’d been on our feet a couple of hours. Down the street there was a bar with a couple of tables on the street.
 
There we went, and drank a couple of bottles of mineral water and a glass of white wine, and after half an hour or so returned to ask the same question. Seventy-six, was the answer. Ah: just in time. But just then a waiter called out: Seventy-eight!

Attende, per favore, I said, io sono settantasette, I’m number seventy-seven. But he explained that number 78 was a party of four; and that made sense, you wouldn’t seat a couple at the last empty four-top, then wait for another four to clear before seating the next people in line. And just as all this registered in my mind, our number was called, and we were told to go to the second room.
 
There the only empty table was — a four-top: so we took chairs side by side, our backs to the wall, and glanced at the menu, and just then two young Italians, college students by their looks, seated themselves across from us.
 
Michelepizza
I like limited-menu restaurants, and this is one of them. There are two pizzas: Marinara, which is tomato sauce, a little garlic, and basil; and there is Margherita, which adds mozzarella to the mix. And there are three sizes: small, medium, large. To drink you choose Coca-Cola or beer or water: and if beer, Peroni Nastro Azul, which in my opinion is Italian for Pabst Blue Ribbon.

The pizza arrived almost as quickly as the beers, which is to say almost immediately. I think perhaps it arrives too quickly, and while I’m no pizzaiolo I think the pizza may  not have been cooked long enough. The bottom of the crust is nicely blackened, but in spots too big, leaving whiter spots that also seem too big. I’m sure the oven was up to temperature, but as we left I watched the pizzaoli at work: there were two working the one rather large oven, one shoving uncooked pizzas in, the other dragging cooked ones out.

The tomato sauce was fine, though perhaps not as dense as at Starita. The dough was very hard to cut with the table knives we were given. (I should explain: in Naples one eats one’s pizza with knife and fork, and they arrive at table innocent of any kind of pre-cutting: you don't lift a wedge already cut and eat it from your hand. Non si fa: it isn’t done.)
 
Anywhere else this would be a marvelous pizza. In my opinion, here in Naples, it wasn’t quite up to its closest competitor — and I do like a glass of red wine with my pizza!

•L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Via Cesare Sersale, 1/3, 80139 Napoli; +39 081 553 9204
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Da Donato

DaDonato
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, May 10, 2015—
LOOKING FOR A SIMPLE place to have dinner with our Naples hosts tonight, I took another look at my Osterie 2015 app, keeping in mind my contessa's desire for meat tonight for a change. A reasonable request, I thought.

The first couple of suggestions were closed tonight, it being Sunday, but the third worked out. Our hosts drove us to a part of town we hadn't been to yet — a sketchy part of town, they thought; they took the precaution of emptying certain accessories from the car before the trip, and did a little research on where to park.

In the event, though, there was a spot on the street exactly across from the restaurant, well lit. And at eight o'clock we had our choice among a number of tables, though the place was full by the time we left, and a couple of guys in the doorway looked hungrily at our table when we stood up.

I ordered simply: a bowl of Ziti con ragù Napolitano , which turned out to be in a red sauce cooked exactly as Cook does back home: long and slow, the tomato sauce becoming dense, toward caramelized, rich and deep. There were a few meaty knuckles or perhaps tailbones in the sauce, too, and the right touch of oregano.

Dessert: a delicious lemon gelato capped with frozen whipped cream, served absolutely frozen, in a Champagne flute. Quintessentially Neapolitan, you'd think, but we had our doubts, and in fact it turned out to be made and supplied by a big restaurant-supply wholesaler up in Torino. How they ship these without breaking the glasses is anybody's guess. The gelato, however, stiffened with just a bit of gelatin, is delicious; ditto the cream.

Irfinia, Campi Taurasini, Vadantico, 2010: At home, I'd call this Cheap Campania red, and note that it's simple, forward, fruity, full-bodied, and pleasant.
•Antica Trattoria E Pizzeria da Donato, Via San Cosmo Fuori Portanolana, 26/28; +39 081 287828
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Veritas

Duck
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, May 9, 2015—
IN VINO VERITAS, it is said; truth emerges from wine. But so does slumber, and to tell the absolute truth I write this the next morning (as in fact I often do, back-dating); and the slumber began apparently when leaving the restaurant, as I forgot to ask the waiter if he'd noted down our menu.

Only to find this morning an e-mail from him. Past midnight, I hope over a glass of that excellent sparkling Aglianico Rosè he'd started us out with, he typed out the menu and mailed it — while I, having done nothing that day but walk seven or eight miles, and eaten gelato, was sleeping the sleep of the wine-connoisseur. This is what he sent me:

Cena al Veritas 09/05/15

1° Benvenuto dello chef: peperoni arrosto con trancio di coccio scottato
    1° Welcome chef: Grunar with peppers
2° Benvenuto dello chef: trancio di Pezzogna con tapioca al pomodoro, noci, basilico e aglio giovane
     2° Welcome chef: Catch of the day with tapioca tomato, basil, nuts and fresh garlic
Ravioli di melanzane in brodo di anguilla e cipolla con mozzarella di bufala ( Signore )
     Ravioli with aubergine soup, onions, smoked eel and mozzarella
Linguina con vongole e asparagi ( Signora )
     Linguine with clams and asparagus
Anatra con peperoncini verdi e crostini burro e alici ( Signore )
     Brest of duck with green chilies and anchovies crunchy bread
Baccalà con insalata ci fave, sedano rapa e cipolla rossa in agrodolce
     Salt cod fillet with broad beans, celeria and red onion
Zuppetta Napoletana con bagna al calvados mela e cannella ( Signore )
     Neapolitan soup " with calvados, apple and cinnamon

Crema al frutto della passione con spuma di latte di cocco e granita di mente ( Signora )
     Cream passion fruit soup with coconut milk and mint granita

VINI
Dubl Aglianico Rosè
Feudi di San Gregorio
A’ Ren’ e’ L’av Azienda agrigola Agnanum


The translations are by the house, and perhaps need some explanation. ( Signora ) is of course my contessa; I am ( Signore ).

Veritas is one of the early choices for restaurants in Naples in Osterie 2015 , a book (and app) published by Slow Food Italy, on which we'll be relying this year; it has the further advantage of being a short walk from our apartment. At quarter past eight we were of course the first diners there; the place was filling up only by the time we left, over two hours later. The room seats about two dozen diners; there is another room whose size I don't know. Our waiter was exceptional: accommodating, graceful, and helpful; and helped by a young woman who served as second waiter.

The two benvenuti dello chef were of course what we call amuse-bouches and appropriately fish-based:
Benvenuto1Benvenuto2
peperoni arrosto con trancio di coccio scottatotrancio di Pezzogna con tapioca al pomodoro…
The first of these was visually very beautiful; these photos never do justice to the subjects. I was struck by the curious blend — and collision — of flavors in the second, and especially by the noci, which means "walnuts" in Italian. When the waitress insisted they were noci and I continued to be curious about them she brought a plate with a few half nuts, some of them chopped: yes: they are pecans, from the United States. So much for the quintessentially Neapolitan cuisine, Osterie 2015 : but cumplimenti on the intelligence and enterprise of the chef, who has made a dish recalling the maritime cosmopolite traditions of Venice, Sicily, and Naples of the medieval and Renaissance periods…

This was true of my ravioli, too: deep, chthonic flavors; though eggplant would not have been known in Mediterranean cuisine, I think, before Columbus. My companion's spaghetti was a delightful Spring-flavored dish, the clams and asparagus making a surprising fresh combination; my ravioli still recalled winter, with a darker flavor almost suggesting chestnuts.

I thought my main course was a bit of a disappointment following these wonderful openers: very good duck, very good sauce, very good green peppers; but rather simple, and reminiscent of a dish at a typical American Chinese restaurant. The crostini seemed more like fritters and tasted of cheese: this butter must have been higher than I'm used to. In any case they were a distraction: I'd have left them off the dish.

Nor did I understand my "Neapolitan soup," which even with both its quotation marks would have made an unlikely and un-integrated dish: a sort of fried cake filled with crème pâtisserie flavored with Calvados and containing three or four little rounds of poached apple. This must be the inspiration for Twinkies, I think. Granted it's much better achieved: still, I wonder what's the point.

The wines were very interestng. The sparkling Aglianico rosé was refreshing; the white Feudi di San Gregorio (blended with moscatella) young, both earthy and invigorating; the red Agnanum forward, rather big, reminiscent of Rhône-style reds, perfect with the duck.

In all a fine restaurant, one I'd go back to any day (though probably not this trip, as there are other things to investigate). And my hat's off to Salvatore Maresca for his kindness in sending me the menu as well as his grace and professionalism in the dining room.

as noted above: Dubl Aglianico Rosè; Feudi di San Gregorio; A’ Ren’ e’ L’av Azienda agrigola Agnanum
•Veritas, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 141, Napoli; +39 081 660585
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Friday, May 8, 2015

Just the right restaurant

Parthenope
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, May 8, 2015—
THIS IS HOW THE beginning ended: a big pile of shells, which in fact continued to grow after the photo was taken. I began to feel like one of those Costonoan Indians, who elevated the shellmounds around San Francisco Bay.

We found the place per caso as the Italians say, by chance, rummaging around on the Internet for a logical dinner restaurant. We booked it online, through a third-party reservation service TripAdvisor seems to run, but shortly before leaving for the evening an e-mail came announcing that the restaurant had found it impossible to honor our reservation for 7:30.

Consternation. I immediately called the restaurant, but the line was busy. Then I had an inspiration: perhaps it was a busy night — Friday, after all — and they decided to cancel an unknown American's reservation, to give a table to a regular?

I quickly made another reservation, for half an hour later, under my usual Italian heteronym, used not for sneaky purposes but because my own name is so hard to catch through Italian ears. Here in Italy I'm "di Carlo."

Then another e-mail came: it was the fault of Fork, TripAdvisor's reservation service; our reservation had not been cancelled after all. So we hastily walked and elevatored down to the street, walked a few meters to the funicular station, and just caught the funicular up to via Domenico Cimarosa.

There we found the perfect little restaurant. Opened only last November, Parthenope seats no more than twenty diners. There is a staff of three: the couple who own the place, and the guy who does the cooking. The owners' kids have one of the tables during our dinner there, eating apparently from the menu, playing games on their devices, and conversing with one another remarkably politely since they're all under ten.

We negotiated a fine bottle of white, cautioned the waiter one of us did't eat crustaceans, and settled in to listen to a disquisition on the possibilities. At some point a nice young French couple sat down at the next table; we helped translate things, since they knew no language but their own.

Soon, though, we had happier work. The first course arrived, fresh from the sea: mussels, tiny sweet little clams, Baccalà batttered and fried, alici ditto — sweet small anchovies you simply gobbled down whole.

This took us a while to negotiate, with some of the finest bread I've eaten anywhere. Eventually we got through it all, and went on to a second course: rombo — I forget what this flatfish is called in English, plaice perhaps — cooked simply with a little parsley and served with pommes àla vapeur and halves of lemon. Perfectly delicious.

A simple salad of chopped fresh green lettuce with oil and lemon left us wanting nothing but a digestivo — housemade nocino, not the prevalent sticky limoncello so often served these days — and the check, which was modest. What a fine place this is!


Furore bianco, Mariso Cuomo (Costa d'Amalfi), 2013: engaging, seductive
•Osteria Partenope, Via Domenico Cimarosa 56B, Naples; +39 081 5584006
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Another pizza.

Marinara
Corso Vitt. Emanuele, May 8, 2015—
IN OUR CONTINUING service to the dining public we stepped into another pizzeria at midday. Said to be one of the finest and most authentic pizzerie in Naples, in spite of its branch office in New York City, it's conveniently close to the Museo Archeologico, where we'd gone to meet traveling relatives for the morning.

In the interests of rigid scientific exploration I chose Marinara again, and much as I liked yesterday's pizza I have to say this one was perhaps just a tad even better. I think the reason's at the cente of the photo: the nicely cooked little basil leaves, the sweet thoughtful tiny chunks of garlic. The tomato was a little mellower than yesterday's: each version is first-rate, smooth, rich, nicely balanced.

My Contessa, always fond of baccalà, ordered the "stock" pizza: stockaffisa, the Italian version of dried cod, black olives, capers, garlic, chopped parsley, and cherry tomatoes. It was very very good, delicious in fact, an inspired combination. The cod, or baccalà, or brandade, or whatever you like to call it, was very smooth, deep-flavored, set off nicely by the perfect tomatoes. The waiter told me it was strictly local, made here in Naples from locally caught merluzzo. I want to believe that, and I think I do.
House red in carafe
•Starita, via Materdei 27,28, Napoli; +39 081 5573682
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Pizza

Pizza
Parco Eva, Napoli, May 7, 2015—
ONE'S FIRST MEAL in this city really should be pizza, of course — but we were too tired from a long day of travel to go out and explore the city by midday, when we were hungry.

A little research turned up a pizzeria in our neighborhood, a short ride away on the funicular. It was two o'clock by the time we got there, and only one other table was occupied. The pizza begins with Marinara and Margherita, and while there are other, more complicated combinations listed, you really needn't go any farther.

We split a Marinara "Maxi", about twenty inches across says my Contessa, beautifull leopard-spotted on its bottom side (as you see), a little soupy in the Neopolitan style, edgy and pointed with good tomato flavor and delicate basil and garlic.


Campi Flegrei Pér'è Palummo, Carputo, 2014: robust, balanced, refreshing
•Pizzeria da Michele, Via Giuseppe Martucci, 93 80121 Napoli
081 1957 6887

Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants
VitelloHOME AGAIN, after a nice nap, I cooked dinner: a couple of veal cutlets bought at the local Carrefour supermarket, along with half a dozen lemons, lettuce for salad, a bottle of wine, another of olive oil, another of milk (parzialmente scremato; biologico), yet another of water.


I just heated a little olive oil in the enamel skillet, salted the cutlets, and seared them, one side and the other. I miss our black iron skillets! But when in Napoli, fai come i napolitani. Lemon juice squeezed on, and a green salad afterward, and we had a nice little supper.
Vermentino di Sardegna, Sella-Mosca, 2014: crisp and pleasant

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Dallmayr

Dallmayr
MUC terminal, Bavaria, May 6, 2015—
A LITTLE INTERLUDE: Dallmayr's Kalbsfleischpflanzerl mit Kartoffel-Rucola-Salat.

For an airport, surprisingly tasty.

Beer, of course.
•Dallmayr Bistro, Mûnchen Flughafen, Terminal 1; +49 89 975-8 42 40

Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Monday, May 4, 2015

Idem, the same

Eastside Road, May 4, 2015—
FOR PHOTO, SEE yesteday's post. We had pasta again tonight, with the same tomato sauce — which only gets better, richer, deeper, from one day to the next. But there will be none of the same tomorrow: the tomato sauce is finished, and the refrigerator almost empty.

The freezer, too. After our green salad we had vanilla ice cream, drizzled with delicious nocino — thank you Mary Jo — a marvelous dessert.


Cabernet sauvignon, Three Wishes, nv. What is this wine, anyway? The label calls it simply "American Cabernet Sauvignon — it could be South or North American, I guess — and says the vinting and bottling is done by Three Wishes Vineyards in Livermore and Ripon, Californa. Well, it was serviceable.
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Spaghetti with tomato sauce

Spaghetti.jpg
Eastside Road, May 3, 2015—
ANOTHER QUICK SUPPER: neither Cook nor I have time or inclination to do much more. You'll see why later this week.

Chances are we'll be having pasta again later this week, too, come to think of it. If it's cooked as perfectly as this spaghetti was, and has a tomato-and-sausage sauce as rich and pointed, I'll be a happy man. Carlo Felice.

Green salad afterward, e basta cosi.
The rest of Preston's Sirah-Syrah
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Last of the chickpea stew

stew.jpg
Eastside Road, May 2, 2015—
BY NOW YOU WILL have thought something's afoot: Why else would they be dining so assiduously on leftovers, on things found in the fridge…

In fact I look forward to two more days eating at home; then a number of days on the road. We have been dining somewhat repetitiously; I've tried to make up for that by photographing more variously.

But in fact, Cook prepares marvelous meals, and this chickpea stew is richer each time. This was the last of it.
The last, also, of the Sirah-Syrah, Preston of Dry Creek. Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

Friday, May 1, 2015

Fusilli with tomato sauce

IMG_9613.jpg
Eastside Road, May 1, 2015—
NO QUESTION ABOUT IT: if you've got a nice slippery sauce to hold, your best pasta is fusilli. Those delicious little corkscrews are tenacious.

The sauce, well, typical, Cook browned a sausage or two from the freezer, which continues to divulge — Franco's "Sicilian" sausage, sweet and spicy — and added a chopped onion and, if I know her, a clove or two of garlic, mashed up. Then a can of tomatoes.

It's a long time since we've had red sauce, and this was welcome. Best of all, the Healdsburg Farm Market re-opens for the year tomorrow morning, and Franco will undoubtedly be on hand. Of course we have only a couple of dinners left here at Eastside Road before an extended trip… still, maybe some shopping's in order. The freezer and the icebox can only keep feeding us just so long.
Syrah-Sirah, Preston of Dry Creek, 2012: rich, mature, balanced, forward (even perhaps a bit assertive). Nice.
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants