039: One of the best authentic Italian meals ever

Antichi Sopori is definitely serves one of the best authentic Italian meals ever — really one of the best meals ever period.

And, to be perfectly honest, I use the word "authentic" mostly for Google. Because, while these dishes are spectacular, the chef takes traditional Italian foods and refines and redefines them to create totally original tasty little morsels.  In other words, while the dishes could have originally come from your grandmother's kitchen, these particular dishes are probably something no Italian grandmother would make.  Certainly not Mama Cappelli.

A majority of their ingredients for each dish come from their large garden a few meters away from the restaurant.  So it is a nice, heavy vegetarian meal (until you get to the meat course, of course).

The head chef, Pietro Zito, couldn't be a nicer guy and his staff really is top quality.  The waiters know everything about the menu and every dish, while also serving everything with a flourish and a smile.

Hopefully the pictures and descriptions along with the podcast give you at least a taste of the amazing meal you can have when visiting.

A little wine to start off the meal

You'll see a bottle of their extra virgin olive oil also in the background.

Baby fresh fava beans

Served in a light sauce of lemon and oil.

Cheese antipasti

Clockwise starting at the top: Dried sausage. Ricotta with candied celery. Pecorino with candied carrots. Caciocavallo with candied onions. Capicola with pickled broccoli spears.

Vegetable antipasti

Clockwise starting at the top: an artichoke cooked "old-style" with cheese inside; a frittata made from fresh baby greens; kale stuffed with ricotta and squash

Artichokes

Grilled baby artichokes on a bed of mashed potatoes

Onions Gratine

Onions covered with breadcrumbs and cheese and baked until brown.

Focaccia

Foccacia made with Senator Cappelli grain (the same grain as our pasta)

Sheep's milk cheese with fresh fava beans

The cheese literally melted in your mouth and paired with the tart fava beans the combinations was blow-away

Troccoli

A square spaghetti-like pasta with a sauce of brazed scallions, brazed tomatoes, and smoked sausage

The scarpetta

Remember, bread is not there to fill you up before your meal! Italians use bread to mop up any sauce left after the pasta is gone. Literally it means "little shoe" I guess because it looks like you are making a little shoe move across your plate? I'll have research that name...

Orecchiette

Orecchiette (or little ears) a very traditional pasta in Puglia made from grano arso with a wild broccoli rape. Be sure to listen to Paul's explanation of what grano arso is and why it's called tat. It's at around the 11 minute mark.

Note this is not the exact pasta we had.  It's the same pasta, but a different sauce.  But I wanted to show you this dish so you could see the style of pasta

Crudite

Polignano a Mare carrots and fennel

Fresh fava beans

Straight from the restaurant's garden

Lamb with roasted potatoes

Roasted lamb thigh. This melted in your mouth. One of the best lambs I've ever had.

The lamb with gravy

The gravy was almost as good as the lamb itself. This dish was something I'd love to perfect at home. I think that's a challenge to myself!

Pork steak

This melted in your mouth, too. I mean. I was dying. This was so good. To be honest, their meat dishes have never been the highlight of their meals, but they really stepped up their game with these two. I would go back just for this. And I LOVED everything else. But seriously. I hope these become standard on the menu!

Cassata (sort of)

Sponge cake soaked in either fruit juice or liquor, later with ricotta cheese and then a thin shell of chocolate with chocolate sauce drizzled on top.

This is, again, more their take on a traditional cassata so I use that term loosely. But whatever it's called, it's delicious.

After-dinner drinks

Nocino and limoncello with some sugar-coated almonds. Want to make your own limoncello, check out our recipe here. Trust me. It's so much better.

Here's where you'll find our "Crack" Almonds: Sugar.  Like the ones you see pictured here.

Baba a rum

A small spongy cake soaked in rum served with cream.

Deconstructed Tiramisu

Lady fingers dipped in coffee later with marscapone topped with a sprinkling of chocolate and crumbled almond cookies

Apple Torte

Not my favorite, but still delicious

Mama Cappelli

I'm not sure she LOVED the place as much as we did. She liked all the meals, but as with any traditional Italian grandmother, if it's not the way her family made it, it's not really the right way.

 

Here's where you can find out more about Antichi Sapori.

Do you agree it's one of the best authentic meals ever?  What are you thoughts?  Let us know in the comments below.