Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dinner At Tucci's

We have been going to Tucci's for a long time, however, we have been absent from this establishment for many years.  On the occasion of Bernie's birthday, that is where he wanted to go.   We have always enjoyed it in the past.

We started out with the calamari appetizer.  Bernie ordered the Linguini E Salsiccia, and I ordered the Pollo Marsala  The calamari arrived, served with lemon wedges and a marinara style dipping sauce.  We like to think ourselves as connoisseurs of calamari.  The best we have found was previously mentioned in another post, at Cafe Madrid.  Tucci's calamari is tasty, lightly battered, and most of all, it was very tender, something rarely seen around town.

Bernie's Linguini E Salsiccia was interesting . . . . billed on the menu as "Linguini pasta with Bolognese sauce, Italian sausage, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses".  What came out was the linguini tossed in a tomato based sauce with sliced sausage in it.  Not really close to a Bolognese sauce, though flavorful and enjoyable.  As Bernie put it,  . .  "it was a variation of Bolognese, with the sausage substituting for the meat in the sauce."  He cleaned his plate, well, he ate what he could and took the rest for lunch the next day.

My Chicken Marsala was interesting as well.  When it arrived I was a little leery, the sauce, dark brown and thick, over 3 pieces of chicken.  The sauce had portobello and cremini mushrooms and thinly sliced onions.  As it sat in front of me, I was still leery . . . it was still dark brown and thick.  Served with it was a medley of steamed veggies, broccoli, carrots and red peppers. For anyone familiar with this blog, I don't like my veggies, so they went to Bernie, though they did look nicely done.  This is not the Marsala sauce I am used to.  When I think of a Marsala sauce, generally think of it made with sweet Marsala, not dry.  So first, there was no sweetness,, and not much of a taste of Marsala at all.  Though I must say this sauce was tasty, once I adjusted my taste buds to it.  It was the chef used a demi-glace to make it.  I made the comparison that it really reminded me of a Chinese type sauce with the color and richness of it.  Did I eat it . . . Yes,  Was it good . . . . Yes,  Was it Chicken Marsala . . . . hmmm, not sure.  Will we be going back . . . . Yes, we still like the place.

For dessert, we ordered and split the Chocolate Decedenza, a chocolate decadence type of dense possibly flour less cake. . . I assume it is made in house, but it does not matter, it was delicious, and very, very rich.

I took a bottle of Vietti 2008 Barbera d'Asti Tre Vigne  available at state wine outlets for $18.99.  I will blog about this in a separate entry.  It was great with the meal, AND, the dessert.


Tucci's Cucina Italiana on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

  1. The decedenza is AMAZING! In all honesty it is what brings me back to Tucci's.

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