Aliseo Osteria del Borgo

Tom had been wanting to go to, what he kept calling "Aiello", which is actually Aliseo Osteria del Borgo in Prospect Heights for awhile now, and I am glad we finally got to get dinner there last night.

It is a cute albeit rustic brick-walled restaurant with empty wine bottles lining the wall. A charming old black & white photo of what I assumed was a family of 100 and pig figurines adorned the mantle of the (faux?) fire place next to our table.
It was a modest menu, but the items were listed in Italian with English descriptions beneath, and actually to my disappointment- a few items were not available, but there were still several left for us to choose from.

To start, we were served a bowl of Ricotta and olive oil with warm and soft foccacia and very thin melba toast-like pieces of bread that were addicting speckled with coarse salt around the edges.

We ended up sharing an appetizer (mini sesame seed-crusted meatballs served over a line of very basil-y pesto sauce and an orange-colored sauce that has yet to be determined (apricot-based? peach? I couldn't tell as the sesame seeds overpowered most of the flavors, but the meatballs tasted like meat.)

Then we shared a pasta and meat dish. I started with the homemade fettucini with beef ragu. and he started with the pork loin in a red cherry reduction with apples. The meat was cooked perfectly and tender and the fruit was a great addition to the saltiness of the pork- which can be attributed to what Tom calls, "An Italian Pinch of Salt". The pasta definitely had that pinch, but luckily we like salt.

For dessert, he ordered a chocolate tart that was very reminiscent of the chocolate ganache i've made that went wrong (but this was made right). I really liked the crust.

Plus he enjoyed his glasses of wine so overall rating? A+

An Italian Amuse Bouche?

Oy, I missed blogging about all of the April feasts (Matzo Ball Soup, Easter dinner, etc), but will get to them next week. For tonight, I am posting a simple but delicious meal Tom made me the other night. He came over and we were trying to decide what to eat for dinner.

It was 6pm and we were starving, we decided not to make pasta fagoli (and please, pronounce it the correct way- Pasta Fah-SZOOL) since he figured it would take at least 2 hours to cook (even though I so desperately crave it. The last and I believe only time I had it was when Vini fed me a bowl 5 1/2 years ago. Go figure.)

Instead, we went to the Westide Market and Fairway to pick up basil, garlic, onions, red wine vinegar, parmesan and pecorino/romano cheese, and ridiculous expensive pine nuts (seriously, 16.99/lb?! absurd, even if it is organic.) I still need to ask him for the recipes.

Tom made his own pesto sauce for our Farfalle (bowties) and red wine vinegar glaze for the cipollini onions that he learned to make in his cooking class he took in Florence, Italy. (best boyfriend ever!) To be honest with you, I was a little hesitant when he said he was making onions as a side dish, with nothing else. As much as I like a good Allium cepa, without a burger, salad or stew to complement it, onions on their own don't really appeal to me. Well as it turned out it takes a while for the onion glaze to thicken, and we ended up eating at 8:30pm anyway. And let me tell you, those cipollinis were amazing! It probably helped that it was drenched in a syrupy mess, but seriously, I could've eaten a whole bowl of them. He said that if I was impressed by that, to just wait for the other dishes he'll cook up since he's got a whole recipe book with more impressive meals waiting to be made. I will hold him to that.