On Friday night, I finally got to Incanto, tucked way in the mostly residential neighborhood at Church and 27th Street in the City. Incanto is known for organic and local produce and as the home of salumis and offal. You can find calf brains and porcini bruschetta, beef tendons with beans and sage, and tripe with tomato and sizzled egg.
We weren't in the most adventurous of moods, so we settled for more comfortable starters. The Cicerchia bean soup with borage was a must, as we grow borage and up 'til now had no idea how to cook it. The soup was tasty, especially the soft wilted borage leaves. Borage cooks down like sorrel without the sourness. The beans, however, hadn't quite crossed the line between comfortable bite and actually being done. I would have preferred them a little softer. The Ripini salad with San Remo olives and white anchovy was a revelation though. Ripini is usually mature and bitter, great tossed in pasta, but this was incredibly tender and bright raw leaves with no hint of bitterness. The perfect white alici anchovies were served in little boneless wads, as if they were passed under a fillet knife to bone them out and give them a creamier texture. Entrees were superb, the handkerchief pasta with rustic pork ragu was made with silky homemade pasta and the pork ragu was made in the lightest of styles. The majestic tile-maker's stew "Il Peposo", with grilled bread and mint was also spectacular. This is a deeply browned beef stew with winter vegetables served in a bowl atop a big piece of bruschetta with fresh mint on top. I've never had beef and mint together, but the combination is a wonder. The heat of the stew makes the mint aroma waft up when it's delivered --very inviting.
The featured wines on the reverse of the menu are where you should start unless you have your heart set on a particular bottle on the main list.
Here you'll find several inviting flights, tastes, full glasses, and 1/2 litre carafs of some great wines. They deliver all the wines by the glass with paper stemware slips with your chosen wine on it, which is a really nice touch. I found the Falkenstein Riesling 2003 to go with the soup and it was a delicious choice. Not much of a classic reisling nose to it, as it's young and Italian, but it was viscous and juicy with subtle apple/pear citrus notes. The Marisa Cuomo Ravello Bianco 2005 was fresh and lightly fruity --another full-bodied white that was very food friendly.
The highlight for me though, was the Cascina Morassino Barbaresco 2000 that we had in carafe. This Nebbiolo is like the refined daughter of a domineering mother. Despite her beauty and intoxicating perfume, she can't help being a little bit bossy herself. While modern wine-making techniques have begun to lessen the blow of the mighty tannins in Nebbiolo, it's a part of its heritage. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to get past the grip on a six-year old Barbaresco. This one however revealed the layers of richness and dark pruny goodness but retained a brightness of youth. The tannins give this wine some firmness, but no pucker. I'm already plotting to buy some of this.
I'm going to do what I can to get back here soon, if only for the wine flights. The food, however is not to be missed.