Atlanta Dining: Campagnolo

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A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriends and I decided to head out for dinner after a school-related event. We were in the downtown area, and selected Campagnolo, an Italian-focused restaurant. When we walked in, we were greeted by a crowded bar and a pianist pounding out classic tunes (read: Billy Joel & Elton John). We wanted to be able to talk over our meal, and the music was a bit loud, so we asked to be seated in the back section. After settling into the cozy booth, we checked out the menu.

 

 

For drinks, we sampled a classic martini (no blue cheese stuffed olives), a cocktail, and wine. The drinks were wonderful, but I hate it when servers do not carry drinks on a tray - more than 2 drinks requires a tray! Unfortunately, the server spilled quite a bit of my martini before setting it in front of me, without even the slightest apology.

The appetizer was classic arancini, with a delicious balsamic reduction. My friends have not tried this delicious fried ball of risotto before, so I was happy to introduce them to it. They were cooked to perfection (not overly friend or greasy), and perfect to share. Though, I secretly wanted the whole plate for myself.
 

 

For entrees, we each sampled something different, which always makes it more fun! I had the lasagna, which the server told me is their number one seller. It was meaty, saucy, and cheesy. Three things every lasagna should be. I savored almost every bite, but had to bring some home for the boyfriend to try.
 

Brett had the mushroom risotto, which she loved. She said you could truly taste all the flavors of the dish, including a hint of acidity. This meal was enough for two, and she brought half home to enjoy the next day.
 

 

Katherine tried the gnocchi. While under-salted, some table-side doctoring fixed the plate right up. It was truly a beautiful presentation and Katherine said that the gnocchi was cooked flawlessly.
 

Amy spiced things up by opting for seafood. The scallops were served grilled, with potatoes, parsnip puree, and wild mushrooms. She felt she could have done with fewer potatoes and more veggies. The scallops, though, were meaty and not chewy - exactly how a scallop should be.

We could not resist dessert, and decided to sample two of the offerings. We quickly settled on the banana semifreddo (another new introduction to my friends) and the chocolate torte. The semifreddo was served with warm beignets, while the chocolate torte had mixed berry coulis (basically homemade syrup) and whipped cream. Both desserts were fantastic endings to a delicious meal.

Overall, Campagnolo was great. We loved the ambiance, though were a bit chilly at our table. The restaurant is in an old building, so it got a bit drafty near the big windows. The service was good, but a bit awkward at times. We will definitely be back to check it out again!

 

Enterprise Car share takes us to Alba Osteria

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As a car-less city dweller I rely heavily on public transit to get me around town. But once in a while, I need a car to run errands or get out of town for a bit. A few months ago I signed up for Enterprise Car Share and have since used them on a number of occasions.  The cars are conveniently located, clean, relatively inexpensive, and perform very well!  I've totally enjoyed trying out all the different makes and models as I zip around town! As a result of one of my loud-mouthed tweets, Enterprise's marketing department got a hold of us and offered us the opportunity to take one of the cars to a restaurant of our choosing in exchange for our write up of the experience here. The truth is that I am happy to share the experience with you. After trying out a variety of car sharing options, I am more pleased with Enterprise than ever. We were able to use the $100 gift card Enterprise gave us to rent a car for 3 hours (at $8/hr) and had about $75 left over for brunch at Alba Osteria! Win-win! Despite the sponsorship from Enterprise, the views and opinions expressed here are completely my own.

I picked up this adorable yellow Chevy Spark just a few blocks from my apartment on a Sunday morning and drove over to a new Italian spot, Alba Osteria, in Penn Quarter.  Alba has an all you can eat and drink boozy brunch that is well worth the $30. We started off a little shaky with a confused and abrupt hostess, but we quickly overlooked that with a plethora of delicious food and excellent waitress service. 



On this particular occasion I met Amanda and a group of our other friends for a birthday brunch. And celebrate we did! We started out with some brunch cocktails that were both delicious and generous. As the driver of the group, I had to stop at just one, but the waiters seemed disappointed that they couldn't serve me more! We stayed for hours and the rest of the group never saw the bottom of their champagne flutes!

The menu was bottomless, and as 6 hungry girls we dabbled in a bit of everything.  One of the group favorites were the lemon ricotta blueberry pancakes. They were delightly sweet and tart.  The ricotta also keeps them the perfect lightness. They were so flavorful that they barely needed the syrup.

One of my favorite dishes was the smoked salmon benedict. Instead of serving it on the traditional English muffin, it was paired with toast schmeared with burrata mozzarella.  The only drawback to this dish was that the poached eggs were bordering on raw.  We like our eggs runny, but not that runny.  That being said, there is no doubt I will be back for this dish. 






We also ordered one of the breakfast pizzas. This one was a creamy white pizza with pancetta, spinach, and topped with eggs. I am seriously starting to wonder if there is any food item that isn't better with a runny egg on top.

Another group favorite, although not my personal fav, was a skillet baked with spicy tomato sauce, meatballs, eggs, cheese, and french fries - for dipping. It was a unique take on the dish and reminded us of shakshuka.

The egg white frittata was a great addition to the meal. Made with a mix of veggies and Parmigiano Reggiano, it was a nice lighter option. It was also served with a link of lamb sausage that was surprisingly delicious!

Finally, it being an Italian restaurant, we had to try one of the pastas.  Yes, pasta for breakfast is acceptable. This light egg pasta was served with a veal ragu that was just divine. Although I was totally stuffed by this point, the pasta convinced me I need to come back for dinner. 

I have to say that Alba Osteria was not only a great meal, but an altogether great experience.  We loved being able to try so many dishes.  The restaurant is also beautifully decorated with a great ambiance.  

Also, because Enterprise was generous enough to sponsor us with the free ride, here is a link to their website.  If you are like me, and occasionally find yourself in a need of a car for a few hours, I definitely recommend checking them out.

Homemade Whole Wheat Fettucine & Mushroom Ragu

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One magical Thursday a mystery package arrived at my front door.  A very generous [and awesome] family member, aware of my penchant for pasta, shipped me an authentic pasta machine.  Needless to say, I was ridiculously excited and had to try it out immediately - as in that night. 

Incidentally, I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand to make whole wheat pasta and a somewhat bastardized version of Mario Batali's mushroom ragu.  

What I learned is that, once you have the pasta maker, the recipe for pasta is incredibly simple. It requires two ingredients: flour and eggs. 

To make 1 1/4 lbs of pasta you need:

3 1/2 cups of flour [all purpose, whole wheat, or a combination] 
5 large eggs 

First place a mound of the flour on a large cutting board. 

Make a dent in the mound of flour and crack all five eggs into the center of the mound. Then take a small whisk or a fork and whisk the eggs together. 

Start working the outside of the mound of flour into the center to form a dough. Keep pushing the dough up against the wall of the mound. You'll need to knead the dough for about 10 minutes to get it to the  "doughy" consistency.  

 Once the dough is fully incorporated, form it into a ball.

 Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes. 

While the dough is resting, start making the mushroom ragu.  To simplify things, I started with a jar of tomato sauce and "improved" on it by adding the ragu ingredients. Here's what you need:

• 1/2 yellow onion 
• 1 pint of mushrooms, I used oyster mushrooms, but you could use shiitake, porcini, or any other mushroom of choice 
• 1/2 cup of red wine (the golden rule is to pick a wine you want to keep drinking throughout the meal)
• cherry tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter 
• parmigiano-reggiano cheese 
• a pinch of crushed red pepper
• salt & pepper 

First clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a damp cloth. Although there is a fair amount of debate on this subject, I am from the school of thought that believes: whatever you do, do not run them under water to clean them. 

Dice the onions into tiny little pieces and saute them in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. 

Once the onions are softened and have turned a golden brown color, add the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes into the pan and saute until they are softened and slightly shriveled. This will take about 8-10 minutes.  

For the tomato sauce base, Mario Batali recommends you make his simple tomato sauce. Since it was a weeknight, I decided to use Trader Joe's Arrabiata sauce, which has a little bit of a kick.  

Add 1 cup of the tomato sauce, 1/2 cup of dry red wine, 1 tablespoon of butter,  a pinch of crushed red pepper, and a sprinkle of salt.

Bring the sauce to a boil and then simmer until it reaches it reaches a thick consistency. 

Right about the time the sauce is done, the dough should be ready to turn into pasta.  Take the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin as flat as you can.  Or you can improvise with can of salt ...totally okay.  

Your pasta machine should be set to the main roller.  Take a little bit of flour and dust the machine so the dough doesn't stick. 

Slide the dough through the two rollers in the pasta machine to further flatten it.

It took about 5 times through the rollers, as well as various adjustments to the machine to reach the desired thinness of the pasta. 

We broke the pasta into several smaller pieces to make a couple of very long flat sheets.

The pasta machine comes with several attachments to make various pasta shapes, including spaghetti and fettuccine. Once you switch the attachment, it's very easy to slide the sheets of pasta through to cut the pasta into fettuccine. Now is also a great time to bring a pot of water to a boil to cook the pasta.  

Once the water is boiling, drop the fettuccine in and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then, use tongs and stir the cooked pasta into the mushroom ragu to evenly coat it in the sauce. 

We served the mushroom ragu with simply steamed green beans and topped it with flakes of fresh parmigiano-reggiano cheese.

Even though this wasn't the quickest meal (it took about 1.5 hours start to finish), I thought it was well worth the effort. Next time, I'll probably try a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour, but I wouldn't change a thing about the sauce. It was absolutely delicious! 

Ghibellina

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Last week, we celebrated our friend Abby's birthday over drinks and noshes at new 14th Street hotspot, Ghibellina.  From the same people behind       Acqua al 2 in Eastern Market, Ghibellina adds another Italian eatery to the booming 14th Street restaurant scene.  The interior is absolutely meticulous.  Olive oil bottles line the wall close to the ceiling. There are intimate booths tucked along the wall and more traditional dining tables provide unique seating options. Also, the kitchen at the back of the restaurant is open, which allows diners to watch as their food is prepared.  

When we arrived at the restaurant, it was super crowded but we were lucky enough to snag some seats at the bar.  The bartender was very attentive and quickly grabbed our wine, prosecco, and an off-menu St. Germain cocktail.  All were stellar.  My only quip with the bar was the seats.  The stools were immobile, and were way too far from the counter top.  It made for really awkward leaning!  If I had been eating food there, I probably would have ended up with more on lap than in my mouth!  Luckily the whole bar does not feature these stools--the others were mobile stools with backs.  Make sure you choose those if you can!

We managed to sample a few of the offerings from Ghibellina's expansive menu.  It features small plates of pastas and various meats and fish, pizzas, and salads.  Abby and our friend Jackie decided to share the Salsicce e Cipolla Pizza (sausage with wood-roasted onions).  They were both extremely pleased with the thin crust pizza.  Abby usually adds red pepper flakes to everything, but said this pizza presented the perfect amount of spice.  Jackie thought that it combined the right amount of heat and tanginess!  

Liz and our other friend Casey decided to try the Bianca Pizza, which was topped with rapini, mozarella, garlic, calabrian chilies, pecorino romano, and fennel seeds. Liz and Casey both thought the pizza was absolutely delicious. Liz was so excited to finally have a thin-crust pizza option in the neighborhood! 

I  sampled this pizza and, as a self-dubbed pizza connoisseur, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. The flavor was spot on; the cheese combined with the garlic, chilies and veggies was quite literally a pizza party in my mouth.  The thin crust was also cooked perfectly--not too crunchy and not too soft.  The crust also had the perfect amount of char around the edges.  

We also decided to try something a bit more unique and sampled a carpacchio of octopus. Although carpaccio is usually raw, the octopus was boiled and served chilled in very thin slices on a plate with garbanzo beans, fried capers, and oil with paprika. The octopus was so tender that it practically melted in your mouth.  Combined with the garbanzo and amazing fried capers (who knew how good this was?!) the perfect combination of acidity and neutral flavors were mixed. 

The last dish we tried was dessert for the birthday girl.  We decided on the strawberry tart with mascarpone ice cream.  The pastry tart was flaky and light. I could have eaten 10 of these desserts on my own!  Strawberries and mascarpone ice cream, I must say, is a fantastic dessert combination.  The mascarpone ice cream was like an elevated whipped cream.  I liken this dish to strawberry shortcake for adults.  Way more mature.

Ghibellina is a much welcomed addition to the neighborhood.  It provides a unique option for Italian dining, and from what we tried, perfectly hit the mark.  

Arcuri

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On Monday night, my good friend Adam convinced me to head to the Glover Park neighborhood in DC to check out new Italian/Pizza Restaurant Acuri (pronounced r-curry).  One of his friends from Alexandria spot Overwood is part owner—his first foray into his own business.  The menu focuses on classic Italian dishes.

Located in the ground floor space with a handful of outdoor tables, I was impressed with the space from the minute we walked in.  From the brick wall lining the bar, to the delicate candles flanking homemade bottles of limoncello, the shiny new floor, great tables and chairs, to the brick oven pizza flaming in the back, it all had me smiling.  And let’s be serious, I’m not the easiest person to impress!

My happiness continued as we sat at the bar and ordered a $7 glass of Prosecco on tap.  You read that right, $7, and on tap.  Graffiato can no longer claim they are the only restaurant in DC with Prosecco on tap.  It wasn’t the most acidic Prosecco I’ve had (I like a bit more bite to my drink than this offered), but it was still delicious.  We were also welcomed with a shot of the housemade limoncello.  And seriously, it’s made in one of the owners houses.  Well, it was.  They now make it at the restaurant, but we were told that many a batch was prepared in a part-owner’s house, requiring much effort to keep his 2-year-old from eating the alcohol rich lemon peels!

As we moved to the table, my friend Jackie joined us.  For appetizers we tried the mussels and the crostino.  The mussels were served in a red tomato based broth with white wine and garlic.  The sauce had a bit of a bite, which was much welcomed.  The product was clearly fresh and steamed to perfection.  I also loved the fresh herbs that added to the flavor palate.  This may be on my list of best mussels in DC, but a second slice of grilled bread would have been nice to sop up the leftover broth.  The crostino was good.  Crusty bread with buffalo mozzarella and roasted red peppers.  Nothing phenomenal or different, but a solid appetizer.

Next we moved on to the tagliatelle Bolognese.  As you know, we made a similar dish for one of our Tiny Dinner Parties, so I am always interested to taste others take on the dish.  The pasta was fresh – hand-made in the kitchen -  and it was apparent.  The long strands of noodles were bathed in the meat sauce featuring pork shoulder and veal.  I never ate veal until I tried Bolognese.  These are true words coming out of my Italian mouth.  I now hold a secret love for the meat.  (Back story: I grew up in Lancaster, PA.  There are a lot of veal farms in Lancaster.  Baby cows chained to their pens makes me sad, and the thought of eating the meat was unbearable for many years.  Until I tried Bolognese and that went to pot).  I digress.  The sauce was extremely flavorful.  Notes of the meat came through in every bite, strong and prevalent.  Next time I will not be sharing this with two other people.

 

Onto the pizzas.  I ordered a pizza featuring gorgonzola, apple, and pork cheek (guanciale).  Normally I do not love meat on my pizza.  I decided to branch out.  The flavors were surprising, but delicious.  The gorgonzola did not overpower, as I expected.  The meat was a bit stronger than I expected (almost like a more flavorful bacon), but worked well with the cheese.  The apples were sliced so thin, that I almost forgot they were there.  I think this actually worked in the dish’s favor because their sweetness was just an undertone to the dish rather than a dominating flavor. 

Adam ordered the prosciutto pizza with arugula and fontina cheese. It was just as good as everything else, though the slices were cut awkwardly, leaving tiny slices and huge slices. The shredded fontina tossed with the fresh arugula was a perfect balance to the salty meat. The only drawback was that the arugula was piled on so high that it made it hard to see where the prosciutto was, making it hard to get all of the flavors in each bite.  

Jackie ordered the squash blossom pizza.  Apparently, squash blossom is the flower that exists before it blooms into a full blown squash.  Jackie assumed it was actual squash, and was surprised when the server explained this.  Skeptical, she decided to give it a try since it featured pesto and buffalo mozzarella.  When the pizza came out, she was glad she took the risk.  The dough was crisp yet chewy, the perfect combination.  Although she couldn't taste much of the squash blossom flower, the flavors of the pesto, mozzarella and tomato were exceptional.  She could tell the ingredients were fresh from that day.  Overall this is one of the best pizzas Jackie has ever had!

One thing about all the pizzas that I must mention….the dough.  Oh, how could I forget the dough.  The fermented, cooked to perfection pizza dough was some of the best I’ve had in DC.  The birck oven prep definitely did its job.  I quickly dubbed it far superior to 2Amy’s up the street.  Seriously I do not get the hype with that place. 

I loved learning that the Arcuri menu is that it is in constant evolution.  They tailor the menu to what is in season and they don’t have a freezer.  Maybe this is more common than I am aware of, but I was pretty blown away by this fact.  We got some insider tips that a 14oz bone in pork chop and a prosciutto wrapped cod (yes please!) may be appearing on the menu soon…along with a few more dessert additions.  Currently, the only dessert offered is a fresh strawberry, marscapone, and sabe dish with graham cracker crumbs. Adam also ordered a limoncello slushy swirl, combining both strawberry and lemon flavors, into a perfect adult treat. Acuri, welcome to DC.  You do good food proud.  Stellar space, people and food.  I will see you again soon.