domenica 28 novembre 2010

Sermoneta

For the first anniversary with my wonderful chef boyfriend James, we decided to lunch in Sermoneta, a beautiful medieval village on the hills near Latina. We were in the erea anyway to pick up a new car, after his was burnt to a crisp by vandals a couple of months earlier =(

After a search on the net, I decided to try out 'Il Simposio al Corso', a small restaurant run by Fabio Stivali, an expert on Medieval cuisine. I was especially intirgued by his use of 'trombolotto', a condiment produced by him, by pressing olives together with a specific type of lemon which grows in the area. The resulting concoction is then enriched with 14 kinds of herbs (in spring) or 10 (in the autumn).  Stivali only uses excellent extravirgin olive oil in his dishes, and I must say that what we tasted on bread, a freshly pressed oil the colour of which resembled a brightly coloured citrine quartz, was absolutely to die for.

We ordered the house selection of medieval antipasti (crostini with olives, with roasted tomato paste, with peppers; fried artichokes; chicory, roasted peppers, grilled zucchini dressed with a must reduction); I had fresh pasta with porcini mushrooms and trombolotto, James had tagliolini with bottarga (dried mullet roe) and trombolotto, which is dressed and tossed at the table. My aversion to fish had prevented me from ordering this house specialty, but I have to admit that I was astonished at the delicacy of flavour of this sea product which I had always imagined to be over-fishy and over-salty. Instead it was delicate and somewhat nutty.

We were pretty full, so we ordered one main to share, the pork fillet with rosemary and pistachio sauce and stewed eggplant, and it was delicious. All was washed down with a local red wine from Villa Gianna, quite pleasant. We had no room for dessert but were curious, so I had the medieval pear with apple sauce, wild sour cherries and roasted chestnuts in syrup, while James had the anglo-italian 'zuppa inglese', an Italian take on (what I think must be) trifle.  The explanation for this dish was that the local Marquess Caetani married an English Lord in the '50ies, thus influencing local culture and infusing it with British nuances. With this we were offered a shot of sour cherry syrup, which was slightly alcoholic and divine.

The dishes are priced 6, 8 or 12 euros. So it's all very reasonable and GOOD!

Nessun commento:

Posta un commento