One of the upsides of going to culinary school is that I'm basically required to eat very good food all the time. And it just happens to be another plus that I go to culinary school in a city full of some of the best restaurants in the world. This week, I ate dinner at a new restaurant called Osteria Morini with two of my friends from culinary school, one of which, Shannon, works at another restaurant, Marea, owned by the same chef, Michael White. Michael White, chef at Marea, the newly opened Ai Fiori and now, Osteria Morini, is one of the most buzzed-about chefs on the New York food scene for his unique take on Italian fare. While Marea is a very upscale and serious take on Italian seafood, Osteria Morini is a place that feels more like your Italian grandmother's kitchen than an actual restaurant. Upon walking in, you're surrounded by the comfort of worn wooden beams in the ceiling and a long bar, stretching half the length of the restaurant with old oak barrels in the walls. The tables, squeezed in as tight as they can, are dark wood as well, paired with mismatched painted chairs and floral china with tinted glasses. Sitting down at the table reminded me immediately of the quaint and charming restaurants that line every street corner in Florence, where real, high quality food is the focus.
Because Shannon works at Marea, the chefs sent out extra courses of food for us to taste, and deconstruct, trying to figure out what ingredients they used and how they made each dish, as we tend to do when tasting something for the first time. (Probably an annoying habit for those who are forced to share a meal with any of us). While we were looking at the menus, the waiter gave us a plate of typical street food from the Emiglia-Romagna region of Italy, where all the restaurant's food draws inspiration from. We started by popping crispy fried polenta topped with meaty and creamy speck that melted in our mouths as the fried polenta crunched. Next was fried mortadella on a skewer with ementhaller cheese, followed by bechamel croquettes...such fried, cheesy goodness.
For our first course we chose Mare, a lemony seafood salad with calamari and shrimp. The shrimp was tender and filled with the lemon flavor of the vinaigrette without being overly acidic. They also brought us a plate of mozzarella with a hint of balsamic and orange segments. The mozzarella was slightly warm and so soft, the perfect start to a meal.
Next we each ordered from the extensive, but rich pasta offerings. I chose the special, spaghetti alla vongole (spaghetti with clams), Shannon chose the tortellini in duck liver cream sauce and Emily chose the Garganelli, quill shaped pasta with truffle butter, prosicutto and cream. They also sent out an extra course, Gramigna, which is a longer version of macaroni with pork sausage and tomato sauce. The homemade pastas were all delicious....my spaghetti was flavored with hot peppers, leeks and lots of butter mixed with the flavorful juices released by the small clams. My one complaint was that the housemade spaghetti was a bit underdone, but I didn't really mind...(I honestly eat the raw pasta dough while I'm making pasta and think it's pretty delicious, so it didn't bother me too much!) Shannon's tortellini with duck liver cream sauce was rich and creamy, but I'm not a huge fan of liver, so I when I say I didn't love it, I'm a little biased. Emily's garganelli was delicious and not as rich as we initially expected it to be, but we were disappointed when we found no hint of the truffle butter promised on the menu. The gramigna was delicious...the pasta was cooked to perfection and the sausage and tomato gave it rich, meaty flavor. The dessert held it's own too...a delightful surprise to the end of such a delicious meal. We ordered two options: a chocolate and peanut butter torte and three types of gelati: chocolate, biscotti and pistachio, all were creamy and flavorful, but the chocolate was my favorite. It oozed with rich chocolate flavor without being too overpowering.
It was a meal that reminded me of why I love the simplicity and rusticity of Italian cooking. Paired with just a few other ingredients, the two components of a pasta dough: eggs and flour, can make such a complex and flavorful dish.
-Elise
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