There are many Italian restaurants in the Sarasota-Bradenton area, but most of them serve Italian-American cuisine as opposed to regional Italian cuisine. A delicious exception is La Scarpetta (http://lascarpettasarasota.com/), which bills itself as a rustic Italian restaurant. Many of the dishes on the menu are from the Emilia-Romagna Region of northern Italy, with food-famous cities like Parma, Modena, and Bologna. Parma is famous for Parma ham and Parmesan cheese, Modena for balsamic vinegar, and Bologna for Bolognese sauce.
The owners, Emilio and Rosaria Ferrara, are from Parma.
The menu (http://lascarpettasarasota.com/menu.html) has lots of meat dishes, as well as home-made Emilia-Romagna pastas like gramigna and caserecce. (I once wondered how many Italian pastas there were, so I started compiling a list. I stopped counting at 369, when I realized I still had a way to go.)
La Scarpetta has a nice, reasonably priced wine list, with wines from all over Italy, except Emilia-Romagna, which is not renowned for its wines.
Our meal started with a (free) amuse-bouche of onion focaccia bread and a crisp bread for a topping of mixed raisins, eggplant, and other goodies.
My wife started with a caprese salad ($8.90) and I had lentil and bacon soup ($8).
My next dish was Caprese di Burrata ($15.90) with burrata, Parma ham, and tomato with truffle sauce. Burrata is a soft Mozzarella cheese made of Mozzarella cheese and cream. Parma ham (Prosciutto di Parma) is one of the best types of Italian ham.
My wife then had the Ravioli di Zucca - pumpkin ravioli with walnut cream sauce ($16.90). This dish was incredible.
I had the Gramigna pasta with Italian sausage and cooked in wine and provolone cheese ($14.90). Gramigna are short, hollow, curled pieces of pasta. The dish was delicious. It was sort of like mac and cheese comfort food.
For dessert, my wife had vanilla gelato with Italian cherries ($6) and I had Torta Sbrisolona with Vin Santo ($12.90). This torta is a crumbly cake meant for dipping in the Vin Santo. It is from Mantua Province, Lombardy Region.
Our wine was Badia di Morrona N'Antia ($58), a Tuscan red made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet France, and Petit Verdot. It was very nice.
The name "La Scarpetta" means "The Shoe" and is from the Italian expression "fare la scarpetta" which literally means, "to do the shoe;" and figuratively means to mop your plate with a piece of bread by shaping it like a shoe.
Our server, Danny, was outstanding.
La Scarpetta open from 5;00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It is located on Tuttle in a strip mall just north of Bee Ridge. It is in the building which used to house Morels restaurant. It is small, so it's best to make reservations.
No comments:
Post a Comment