Apparently New Year’s Day is not the best night to eat out. Originally I had wanted to take my friends to this little Italian place I grew up going to. But of course they were closed and we had to come up with Plan B.

Being the responsible people we are, we pulled into a parking lot before pulling up the Yelp app on our iPhones to pick out a new destination.

We landed on Penne Pomodoro. I’ve never been but have heard about it several times so when I scrolled to it we decided that was the place; besides we’d already planned on Italian!

Luckily we all love to share, so we ordered a bunch of different things to try. We started with calamari, but I have to admit, I was still in awe of the Zio Cecio calamari and wasn’t all that impressed with this calamari.

We then ordered a pizza because we wanted to try it and the Pizza Bianca con Prosciutto  just sounded so good.  It is a white pizza with prosciutto, mozzarella, sautéed mushroom, baby spinach & Parmesan.  Told you it sounded delicious, even though I’m not a mushroom fan.  And guess what, it was SO good!

I am a sucker for good gnocchi and love to try it when it’s on the menu.  So naturally we had to order this.  I’ve discovered that I really like gnocchi best in a cream sauce but because of our other menu selection we went with their Pomodoro e basilico sauce.  It was a basil and roasted garlic tomato sauce that was that was good.

 

Our last selection was one of the specials of the day, it was Rigatoni with sausage in a garlic cream sauce.  This was amazing!  I would say this was my favorite dish of all of them!

Needless to say after this feast, none of us had room for dessert. Guess I’ll save that for next time!

This was the wine we had with our dinner. I’m not sure that a Malbec was the best pairing for this meal but it was quite enjoyable.

Have you been to Penne Pomodoro? I want to go and try out their brunch some time!

Technorati Tags: Calamari, Dallas, gnocchi, Lakewood, Malbec, Penne Pomodoro, Yelp

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This year…just like every year…I plan to blog more…we’ll see how it goes!

I have no desire to join the ever growing ranks of “wanna be” food critics here in Dallas…but I figure I might as well put my two cents out there about restaurants I do go try. So…here goes nothing….

I’ve known the people over at Texas de Brazil for the past, almost, six years; so I tend to have a heads up when they are up to something new. I knew they were working on a new concept since early 2011, but it wasn’t until August that I found out the new concept was an Italian one. I could NOT wait to try it!

Finally I did just that a few weeks ago. Since it is getting dark here so early these days, I can honestly say I have no clue what this place looks like from the outside. But, it is located on Lovers Lane, west of Inwood Rd.. but before you get to Celebration (if you Dallasites don’t know about Celebration, well that’s a whole other issue).

I had warned my friend we were going and fortunately they alerted the manager because they were hosting a private party, oops! Luckily we got to sneak in and eat.

First of all, the restaurant is absolutely gorgeous! It’s got a homie feeling to it, but a nicer home than I’ve ever lived in. And don’t be fooled when you walk in the “windows” to your right are actually mirrors; my friend got a little confused.

My girlfriend and I got there early to catch up and have a glass of wine. She beat me because the tollway was bumper to bumper moving about a quarter mile a minute, so when I finally arrived I was ready for a drink and just said “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Which was:

She had been told it was like a Pinot Noir and it was so tasty we ordered a whole bottle. She and I also started with the Tagliere Del Pastore (aka a meat & cheese tray)

It was delicious! And those jams were SO good!

When our other friend arrived we settled on ordering one appetizer and two entrees to all share. First we started with Fritto Di Paranza (or Calamari)

This was probably the best calamari I’ve ever had!

For our entrees we ordered:

Agli Asparagi e Crema Di Formaggi Risotti (Risotto with asparagus and soft melted cheese), which I apparently did not photograph. Boo me!

And we ordered the Costata Al Ramerino (Aged Rib Eye steak prepared Tuscan style)

Everything was delicious! Especially those mashed potatoes the steak came served on.

Despite being stuffed we still ordered dessert. To try something different we went with the Ricotta al Miele Amaro e Bacche di Pepe.

It is fresh Ricotta cheese with a drizzle of bitter honey and dusted with black pepper. It wasn’t my favorite, but everyone else was a fan.

Then we were surprised with a glass of Lemoncello before we were brought a serving of the Sa Carapinna each!

The Gelato of the day was sour apple and it was amazing!

Bottom line, if you haven’t visited Zio Cecio yet…what are you waiting for?? Do yourself a favor and go try it!

Technorati Tags: Calamari, Dallas, Italian, Rib Eye, Risotto, Texas de Brazil, wine, Zio Cecio

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