Spaghetti Carbonara

A few weeks ago, Enoteca Sociale introduced their half-priced enomatic wines on Mondays and Tuesdays. As soon as I digested that bit of news (which was about 2 seconds after I read their tweet), I knew I had to visit immediately and run through their Enomatic line-up. This was a no-brainer, having already placed Enoteca Sociale on my re-visit list. Strong dishes and excellently-priced wines – how can you say no?

I enjoyed the appetizer of Buffalo mozzarella with anchovies and summer tomato quite a bit. But it was the tomato that stole the show. I know that despite how cold I feel now, summer will come around eventually. The tomato, however, made me pine for those hot days with its sweet and intense flavour.

The Bucatini All’Amatriciana is pretty good here and they use the bucatini pasta that I love. And loads of garlic. Good stuff. Perfectly paired with the Monferatto Rosso “Pin.”

Recently, I’ve been on a quest to banish a most terrible memory of scrambled-eggs-with-pasta and the spaghetti carbonara at Enoteca Sociale most certainly helped. Pancetta, egg, black pepper, and pecorino, in a lovely – and just-creamy – sauce. But it was the large and chewy pancetta nuggets that gave this dish its spark.

The Braised Oxtail and Polenta was very filling. While I didn’t love the polenta (not my thing), it did go well with the deliciously thick and rich gravy on the plate. Great winter food.

And we come to my favourite dish so far: the mixed grill. A fantastic and hefty plate of meats: house-made sausage, pork shoulder, grilled short ribs, lamb chop, and skirt steak. All the meats were excellent, but my personal favourite was the pork shoulder. It came sided with these perfect potato wedges, rhubarb chutney, bomba, and a gremolata. You can see the order of roasted root vegetables hanging out in the back. This whole dish was just so, so, so, good. Had the Sagrantino Di Montefalco 2005 with this.

Ricotta Tiramisu. Light and lovely with a cappuccino. A very pleasant end to the evening.

In then end, we managed to sample the entire list. A lot of fun and good dishes. I look forward to my next visit!

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More at Enoteca Sociale

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