We joined Debbie and Jeff and Annie and Harry for dinner
tonight at Torinos’@Home.
Torinos’ is currently my favorite Italian restaurant in New
Mexico. It is in the location that used
to be one of my favorite French restaurants, Viola, in Jefferson Plaza.
I love going to CLE seminars at the Law Center so I can walk
across the narrow gully that separates the restaurant from the Law Center for lunch.
We were seated by the door and saw everyone who walked in. Shortly after we were seated Robert Reck and
Jesse Doyle walked in for dinner. I said
hello and then we got down to some serious eating. I was sitting by Annie and we both liked the
concept of sharing a foie gras and smoked duck breast appetizer ($25.00). Suzette ordered the Baccalao.
We had a good waiter who brought us whatever we
requested. To begin with we were trying
to decide upon a red wine and the waiter served our table two small tastes of
each of three wines. We finally settled
on the Villa Ponzi Cabernet Sauvignon from Sicily ($25.00, the least expensive)
because Harry likes cabernets. Debbie took
a house salad and a carafe of chardonnay.
I ordered a glass of Vermouth for the foie gras and asked the waiter to split
it so Annie and I could share the glass and he brought a generous pour to each of
us in short cocktail glasses with ice. I
then asked the waiter to show us the bottle, which he brought and we saw that the
vermouth was named Tribuno and was from Turin (Torino). It had a delicious slightly sweet, heavily
herbed flavor and complemented the foie gras nicely. The foie gras was baked in a roll with the
duck fat, it appeared to be made from a whole duck liver perhaps with some mousse.
Suzette’s Baccalao was flaky with flakes of re-hydrated
dried cod and yet smooth with whipped potatoes and garlic cream. I have never tasted better and have no idea
how it is made. I will definitely put baccalao
on my to-do list of recipes. Here is the
description from the menu.
Baccalao 14
Salted cod fish and Yukon gold potato mashed together with
sweet confit garlic cream, crostini and tapenade, sundried tomato.
The sundried tomato coulis served
with the baccalao was superb and complemented the cod and potatoes beautifully.
Suzette
ordered Stuffed calamari for her entrée.
The dish was three about three inch long squid stuffed with a guanciale
(unsmoked Italian bacon prepared with pig's jowl or cheeks,
cheese and bread stuffing and closed with a toothpick and sautéed, then
drizzled with a light tomato sauce.
Stuffed calamari 18
Stuffed with bread, ricotta, guanciale, onion and garlic,
served with pomodoro and grated pecorino Romano
A really interesting dish although one I would
probably not order myself.
Jeff and I ordered the Grouper. It was stuffed with the chard stems and wrapped
in a light flour wrapper and sautéed and served on a mound of boiled and then
pan fried Swiss chard. The fish and chard were served in a pasta bowl surrounded
by three steamed clams and three steamed mussels that were drizzled with the
light tomato sauce (Pomodoro). I loved
it and it was very filling.
Grouper al cartoccio 24
Grouper filet baked in a crispy wrap with Swiss chard, mussels and clams
Debbie
and Annie ordered
Agnolotti al spezzatino 15
Our fresh beef brisket ravioli
that seemed to be stuffed with the same Guanciale stuffing
that was used to stuff the calamari. The
ravioli were served on a bed of beef brisket in brown sauce or perhaps
it was just the cooking juices from the slow cooking of the brisket because it
had several small sliced carrots.
Suzette and I had suggested that Torinos’ beef brisket was
really good, so Harry ordered the
Gnocchi spezzatino 16 Beef brisket braised 6 hours served with potato
“dumplings”
Harry’s family was originally from Austria and he loved the
potato dumplings in the light meat sauce with big chunks of braised brisket. Again the sauce and meat appeared to be the
same as used for the ravioli, just more of it with more meat, and wonderful.
We ordered a second bottle of the Cabernet to help finish
off the food and were so full that we could not eat any of the lovely desserts.
A very pleasant meal.
This was Friday night so it is probably the best night of the week. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the
restaurant was full and there folks being seated in the wine bar and Daniella,
the wife.manager/owner, was bringing in additional tables. It seemed like a real Italian trattorria with
all the musical tables and chairs. By the
way, there was a guitarist who played and sang during the meal.
We all agreed that it was a good evening of food and wine.
Bon Appétit
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