Monday 21 July 2014

Summerlicious 2014: Paese

Paese Italian Restaurant in Downtown Toronto


After the disappointing start to Summerlicious with my visit to Fred's Not Here. I really hoped that Paese would not just be more of the same. Paese Ristorante on King St. is the younger brother (or sister) of the storied Bathurst location. First opening its doors in 2010 (almost 21 years after the original!) Paese on King has quickly become a local favourite for Italian fare. It goes without saying I was very eager for my first visit and Summerlicious was the perfect excuse to make it happen.

Grilled Calamari

We started off the night with Calamari. Now considering we ordered this at Fred's I was a little weary about ordering it again. Paese was more than ready to aleviate my fears with a fantastic appetizer that really highlights how to correctly execute a dish. Expertly seasoned but light, intensely smoky without being burnt, just perfectly cooked. The tender calamari was accompanied by lemon mayo, capers, red onion and a little bit of greens. All the ingredients served to elevate the squid without covering it up.

Meatballs with tomato sauce, croutons and cheese

The second appetizer of the night was Meatballs. Now meatballs fall into two camps, ones that have a soft tender texture due to liberal use of breadcrumbs and wet ingredients and ones that have a coarser texture due to being predominantly meat (its a constant battle between finding the ideal texture and making sure the flavour of the meat comes through). The ones we had at Paese fall on the meaty side. The flavour was decent, Paese uses three different cuts in their ground: short rib, sirloin and brisket. Many places (especially burger places) will experiment to get the perfect ground that gives you the best combination of flavour and texture. The real highlight of the dish for me was the tomato sauce; vibrant and bright. The pecorino on top was kind of tough and was difficult to cut so it was hard to incorporate it into mouthfuls but the cheese itself had a mild nutty flavour.

Ravioli with lobster in butter tarragon sauce

For our first main, we had the Ravioli with Lobster. The lobster was expertly cooked, perfectly tender. The ravioli itself was delicious with the cheesy polenta combining well with the tarragon butter sauce. Cherry tomatoes were strewn throughout to help cut the richness of the dish. The pasta skin itself also had an interesting peachy flavour that I had trouble identifying. If anyone has experience with how this dish is traditionally made and can give me some insight, I'd love to hear from you!
Semolina crusted chicken with panzanella

Now the next dish really highlights how Paese does a good job of letting their ingredients shine. I ordered the Semolina Crusted Chicken that was accompanied with Panzanella. Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad; the one at Paese included cherry tomatoes, cubed English cucumbers and some leafy greens. If you appeciate fresh vegetables that are not covered up by complex sauces then you will really enjoy the dish. The crust on the chicken has a nice crunch due to the slightly cheesey semolina and a ring of chili oil encircles the plate as a garnish for those who like a small kick.


Before I start on the desserts I feel like I should point out that the portions at Paese were extremely generous. I'm not much of a stickler in terms of portion sizes but my meal at Paese genuinely had me wondering if I'd be able to finish, haha. Good thing I have a different stomach for dessert because the dessert here was exquisite.


Lemon semifreddo

To finish I ordered the Lemon Semifreddo and boy was I happy that I did. The semi frozen lemon custard was topped with shortbread crumble, blackberries and mint. The superbly light but deliciously lemony custard went so well with the crumble and blackberries. The texture of the crumble plus the little bite of the blackberry seeds all on the canvas of custard was heavenly. I really can't stop going on about how lemony the custard was, in my head I imagine a poor chef's apprentice being tasked with zesting 1000 lemons just to achieve this mind blowing result.

Cioccolato


The final dessert of the night was the Cioccolato. Sooooooooo much chocolate. I'm a huge chocolate fan (check out the blog title *cough*cough*) but regardless of my unhealthy addiction to cocoa, this dessert was fantastic. The cioccolato had two layers of moist chocolate cake sandwiching a delicious white chocolate mousse, all upon a bed of warm nutella and topped with hazelnut brittle . It goes without saying that the dish was sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Even the white chocolate was airy and light. One the best desserts I've had in a while.

Paese was a breath of fresh air for my Summerlicious escapades and I look forward to a return visit in the future to try things off their regular menu. If you enjoy great Italian fare with fresh ingredients that doesn't over complicate then you should definitely swing by Paese.

Recommended

Paese Ristorante on Urbanspoon

No comments:

Post a Comment

Ads Inside Post