Gnocco Fritto prosciutto, parmigiano, saba

I had this another time at Tasting Kitchen.  The more I eat it, the more I liked it.  My dining companions, Zhu Zhu Hamster, Little Pet, and Decidedly Undecided didn’t speak one way or the other on this dish.  I imagine it was strange to them, as it was to me when I first tried it.  Hard to go wrong with fried dough and meat.  I liked the light drizzle of balsamic vinegar, which added a subtle sweet sour note.

I’m pretty disappointed the picture turned out so poorly here, because these were quite the highlight of the dinner.  Meat and seafood is usually what excites me, but when vegetables are done really well it’s easy to ignore the lack of multi-legged protein.  We all had our favorites.  Personally I loved the tomatoes and melon salad with the mint and hint of fish sauce.  It reminded of a Thai salad.  And, whoever thought cucumbers and peaches would go together??  The soft buttery avocado was the perfect balance to the crunch sweet and slightly bitter carrots and radish respectively.  The reason these salads were so memorable was the varying textures, which is key to any great salad, but also because of the creativity.  They combined things I never knew could taste well together.  Yums!

Al dente pasta.  Solid flavor and ingredient combinations.

I’m not sure if I like wide pastas.  The texture comes off a bit too al dente sometimes.  All in all, this was still meaty without being too heavy.

I had high hopes for this dish, especially since Zhu Zhu Hamster and Little Pet said this was a must.  The seafood taste was too strong, and not in a good way.  I did not like the chintzy little bay shrimps.  Give me prawns!

I should really stop ordering second courses at Italian places.  Almost always a bit of a let down after the pastas.  This was tasty but not all that special compared to the pastas.