IT'S A GREAT PUMPKIN.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic IF YOU DIDN'T know it before, zucca means pumpkin in Italian. And if you dine at Zucca, a brand-new Italian restaurant downtown on Figueroa and Eighth, you'll quickly notice that pumpkin is the theme. There's a prevailing pumpkin decor color accented with black; pumpkin is featured in recipes throughout Zucca's fare. Zucca's designers have managed to pull off a tricky feat, that of making the interior of this office building ground floor appear like it's been around for at least 50 years. No wonder that it's the newest member of Joachim Splichal's Patina Group of restaurants, the patina - perhaps manufactured, but oh so cleverly - being the important facet of Zucca's ambience. Notice its rustic Italian wooden flooring. As for pumpkin, I've had two of Zucca's best efforts, one a delicious puree of pumpkin soup ($6) enhanced with a blob of goat cheese in the center of the deep white bowl. In Italian, it's called crema di zucca con caprino gratinato. The other is a stuffed pasta made from scratch on the premises, impressively light, tortelloni ($16.95) filled with roasted pumpkin in a sage and brown butter sauce with top-quality parmigiano-reggiano cheese. Pasta rarely gets any better than this rendition of tortelloni di zucca al burro burro: see ass. e salvia salvia: see sage. salvia Any of about 700 species of herbaceous and woody plants that make up the genus Salvia, in the mint family. Some members (e.g., sage) are important as sources of flavouring. . Other uses of pumpkin are in a luncheon pizza ($11.95) and a dinner antipasti Antipasti can refer to:
Dishes, served by an impeccable staff, run the gamut. There's the dramatic - a tower of parmesan cheese crisps stacked Napoleon-style with bufala mozzarella in-between, all resting in a fresh tomato coulis cou·lis n. A thick sauce made of puréed fruit or vegetables: raspberry coulis. [French, strained liquid, from Old French couleis, from Vulgar Latin ($9.25) as an appetizer. And there's the homey - soft polenta and fontina fon·ti·na n. A ripened cheese of variable texture and flavor, originally produced in Italy. [Italian.] cheese with a flavorful stewlike arrangement of roasted chicken pieces with Italian vegetables, porcini mushrooms and fennel-scented sausage ($14.25) as an entree. Chicken off the rotisserie is nicely done ($16.95) with spinach, polenta and Fontina cheese. A superb mixture of mashed potatoes and carrots can be had paired with an artichoke ragout ra·gout n. A well-seasoned meat or fish stew, usually with vegetables. [French ragoût, from ragoûter, to revive the taste, from Old French ragouster : re-, to complement a juicy filet mignon steak ($22.95). Actually, one of Zucca's most gratifying entrees also emanates from the rotisserie. This time pork in steak medallion form called rib-eye ($17.50 at dinner, $14 at lunch) with braised braise tr.v. braised, brais·ing, brais·es To cook (meat or vegetables) by browning in fat, then simmering in a small quantity of liquid in a covered container. cabbage, chestnuts, pancetta pan·cet·ta n. Italian bacon that has been cured in salt and spices and then air-dried. [Italian, diminutive of pancia, belly, from Latin pantex, pantic-.] and pearl onions in the evening, and with balsamic-soaked portobello mushroom pieces and tiny tri-colored baby carrots (white, orange and red) during the noon hours. Roasted monkfish monkfish Any of 10–12 species (genus Squatina, family Squatinidae) of sharks having a flattened head and body, with winglike pectoral and pelvic fins that make them resemble rays. The tail bears two dorsal fins, and behind each eye is a prominent spiracle. wrapped in pancetta ($17.50) provides a fine fish with red wine dish. It arrives with steamed potatoes, crunchy green beans and a piquant caper and lemon sauce. But osso buco ($18.50) didn't pass the ``fall-off-the-bone'' test. Cucina purists will love the meaty bolognese sauce here (with papardelle and porcinis, $18.95) and the excellent braised rabbit with rapini ra·pi·ni n. See broccoli raab. [Italian, pl. diminutive of rapa, turnip, from Latin r  pa, pl. and a potato-cheese tart ($16.25). I enjoyed a nifty appetizer of warmed bufala mozzarella rolled around a crunchy green asparagus in a tomato-basil puree ($7.50) one sunny afternoon and have been refreshed by Zucca's salads: a shrimp, cannellini bean and arugula offering and a green bean mixture with mild caciotta cheese and baby frisee fri·sée n. See endive. [French, from feminine past participle of friser, to curl; see frizz1.] ($9.75 each). From the dessert menu, the hands-down winners ($6 each) are the round-formed version of Sicilian cassata, here called cassatina because it's small. It's actually a layered ricotta cheese cake covered in a green pistachio cream paste, and a ``strudel (character) strudel - Common (spoken) name for the commercial at sign, "@", ASCII 64. ,'' evidently from the Trentino-Alto Adige region, made with pears and apples, in a red wine sauce. No torta with zucca listed, though. We'll have to wait until Halloween. ZUCCA RISTORANTE Food: Four stars . Wine: Three stars. Service: Four stars. Where: 801 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles. Hours: Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays, for dinner from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. nightly, to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday. Recommended items: Cream of pumpkin soup with goat cheese, parmesan tower, bufala mozzarella vegetable roll, tortelloni di zucca, pork rib-eye, pasta bolognese, rotisserie chicken, braised rabbit, filet mignon, monkfish, cassatina Siciliana The siciliana or siciliano is a musical form often included as a movement within larger pieces of music starting in the Baroque period. It is in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time with lilting rhythms making it somewhat resemble a slow jig, and is usually in a minor key. , apple and pear strudel. How much: Starters from $6 to $13, pastas and entrees from $16.25 to $26, desserts $5 and $6. Full bar. Major credit cards. Wine list: Impressive starting wine list with good selection of Italian wines. Best deal: a ``baby Brunello'' Tuscan Rosso di Montalcino-style wine from Neil Empson called Monte Antico ($24) of the '99 vintage. Corkage: No charge. Reservations: Suggested. Call (213) 614-7800. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: All smiles: Joachim Splichal, left, founder of the Patina Group of restaurants, Giancarlo Gottardo, executive chef at Zucca, and Octavio Becerra, the group's corporate executive chef. David Sprague/Staff Photographer |
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