April RC – Giulia

RC perfect attendance! Photo credit: Gina Colombo

After a brief hiatus, I returned to RC a hungry girl! Tracy made this reservation about five months ago so I really had no excuse to miss it. Actually, none of us had an excuse…yay us with our perfect attendance.

Grilled flatbread

Giulia is an Italian restaurant that focuses on “wonderful food and great service with true Italian vigor and charm.” I will admit that I’ve been to Giulia before, but was excited to try the “pasta table.” The pasta table is the table they use to make their fresh pastas during the day. At night they use it to serve a family-style tasting menu to larger groups, aka RC. One of the things I loved about this meal is that we did not have to make any decisions on what or how much to order. Every course just appeared with the right amount of food, and a wine pairing to go with it ($35 extra).

Sfizzi
Here’s what we had for the first course:

Warm semolina cakes

• Chicken liver crostini with green tomato marmellata
• Warm semolina cakes with sweet pea ricotta, pickled onion, crispy speck, and nutmeg
• Grilled flatbread with ramp top pesto, pecorino, and pine nuts
• Wine pairing: NV, cantine mucci spumante pecorino / falanghina, a’bruzzo

What a great way to start the marathon of eating. I loved them all, but the flatbread was probably my favorite of the three. The chicken liver crostini was really rich so one the small bite was plenty for me. This was a fave for some of the other RC’ers.

Sourdough bruschetta

Antipasti
For the antipasti course:

• Oysters served on the half shell with ginger and apple granita
• Ocean trout crudo with cucumber, caraway, fresh dill, cultured cream, and roe
• Sourdough bruschetta with homemade butter and grated bottarga
• Wine paring: 2014, nuraghe crabioni, vermintino, sardegna

We even got some non-oyster lovers to try the raw oysters! The verdict? No one spit it

Ocean trout crudo

across the table, but I’m not sure it was delicious enough to convert them. I thought the oyster was nice and briny, just the way I like ’em. Also I learned a about a new ingredient…bottarga. What’s bottarga? It’s a specialty of southern Italy — salted, cured fish roe, usually grey mullet or tuna. It was a delicious addition to the house-baked sourdough bread and homemade butter. The butter was amazing. Said everyone, always. 

Primi Piatti
Bring on the pasta! And two wine pairings!

Potato agnolotti

The first round of pasta:

• Emmer faro fusilli ‘cacao e pepe’ with fava beans, spring greens, mint and grana style cheeses
• Wine pairing: 2015, cantine valenti etna rosata, nerello mascalese, sicilia

The second round of pasta:

Pappardelle

• Potato agnolotti with bluefoot mushrooms, asparagus, fresh herbs, lemon and parmigiano
• Pappardelle with wild boar, juniper and black trumpets
• Wine pairing: 2007 negro lorenzo roero riserva, nebbiolo, piemonte

I loved both the potato agnolotti and the pappardelle with wild boar; the whole wheat fusilli wins bronze because I found it very salty. Those little pillows of agnolotti were like “whoa” for me. And I also must mention that Claire, who doesn’t heart mushrooms ate those trumpet mushrooms and might have enjoyed them. Then again, it might have been the butter that made them palatable.

Secondi

Plate o’ meat

And then there was meat, in the form of a grilled hanger steak. It was a tough job, but somehow we found the stomach space to fit this in!

• Grilled hanger steak with roasted spring vegetables and ‘bagna vert’ (parsley caper, anchovy)
• Wine pairing: 2009, giuseppe lonardi ‘privelegia,’ corvina / cab franc, veneto

Dolci
The final “test” is always dessert, which has in the past been a bit of a disappointment for RC. I was definitely not disappointed with the FOUR desserts we got to try:

• Warm almond torta with vanilla gelato, raspberries, almond praline
• Ricotta cheesecake with blueberries, pine nuts, pine cone bud syrup, glenn flour crumble
• Chocolate terrine with hazelnut gelato, salted caramel
• Vanilla panna cotta with poached quince, orange meringue

Dessert! Photo credit: Kim Dong

• Wine pairing: 2010, la sabbiona passito, albana, emilia-romagna

My favorites were the almond cake and the chocolate terrine. The chocolate wins mostly because of the amazing-ness of the hazelnut gelato. Perhaps I was a little biased toward the gelato. 

All in all, this was a fantastic meal…both in food and company! Great pick Tracy and thanks for being an A+ planner. And I’m giving myself a pat on the back for getting this posted before the end of the month!

The damage
$142 per person (pasta table is $65 per person and wine course is $35 per person)

The rundown
Giulia
1682 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge