$28 for 3 courses Last Italian of the Season This Friday March 8th

Soup choose one

Celery Root & Leek with walnut pesto and blue cheese swirls

Escarole with garbanzo and mussels

both come with a giant handmade cracker, rosemary & Parmesan

Mains Choose one

Butcher's Ragu

braised pork, beef & little herby pork meatballs on house pappardelle

any day, anytime, anywhere in Italy. As if Italy doesn't give you enough reasons to love it, just for good measure they throw in their beautiful butchers. This is where your can buy your Florentine steak and meat ground to your specifications; they will bone a whole turkey, season with herbed lard, roll, tie it and send it home with you to cook. They become your friend, your culinary mentor, your latest crush. This dish is my nod to them.

Hunter's Gnocchi

French Hill Farm duck & rabbit with mushrooms, rosemary and plenty of wine

October 1990, Steve & I lingered a bit too long over lunch. Wine...wood-fired pizza..wine....pasta...wine….cheese….wine….dessert….amarro. Next stop? A nap in an olive grove, ripe olives over our heads, wild herbs at our feet. Sweet dreams until laughing Italians workers were shaking those olives over our heads.

Mixed Shady Grove Mushrooms with pancetta + crispy Risotto cake

a porcini + hen of the woods cream & sauteed Maine mushrooms + oven roasted tomatoes and herbs

So you might find a bigger American style grocery store in Italy, but you might want to forgo those for the Maecelleria (butcher), the pasta fresca shop, the pannetteria (bread), and the frutta e verdure (green grocer). Nothing could make me happier than filling the baskets on my bike with the just in

season mushrooms, wild greens & wild asparagus..

Salmon Mousse Ravioli with lemony, herby fresh tomato sauce finished with butter and grappa,

roasted red peppers + broccolini

Souza November, just before the Olympics, 2005. We loved this tratorria! Why? because we could bring our 3 kids and everyone was happy. They had their pizzas with wild boar sausage and we could eat tender, hand rolled pastas perfectly filled by the women in the kitchen,garnished with freshness . We ate there 4 times over the couple of weeks that we rented the house around the corner. They got to know us well because our Italian was so bad. The owner enthusiastically shared diesel grade grappa with us each night -I quickly learned to sneak it into a flower pot.

Finish

Espresso Panna Cotta + chocolate silk + cookie

Farro, pistachio and lemon "rice" pudding with basil cream