andiamotrips - campania, italy with karen phillips

The sun sets early this time of year.  And by the time that Chef Luciano Villani of La Locanda del Borgo sent out this main course, it was already after 4 pm, the second hour-ish of a lunch which began a couple of hours earlier.  No problem, no rush. And this was worth the wait. A cube of tender, really tender ,  boneless veal shoulder- reale di vitello in Italian,   One of the most prized cuts on the block.  The chef served it with a topinambur sauce.  A what?  Topinambur..also known as Jerusalem artichoke, sunchoke, sunroot, or earth apple.  Grande.  To the side was an nearly roasted artichoke with a surprising spectacular licorice sauce... Marvelous.

  I went back to the   La Locanda del Borgo Restaurant in Telese (Bn) nearly 14 months after my first visit.  That afternoon at lunch I was treated to an exciting array of dishes by Chef Luciano Villani that embrace not only quality products  the Benevento area, but from the entire Campania region as well.  Like this amazing appetizer.  Check it out: A compact pallina, ball, of minced Marchigiana beef from the Sannio area.  The chef carefully placed on top seasonal field salad and - wait - a specialty.  Peschiole from Variano Paternora, a cross between peaches and nectarines.  The chef sprinkled extra virgin olive oil powder on top. An amazing appetizer with gusto!

And so here we are.  The end of a long and lovely meal at Palazzo Petrucci i n Naples. The end of the meal that means the arrival of the dolce...the dessert. Dessert which most of us have a tendency to want to pass over.   No...I don't have any space , we say.   Ok, just a bite.  To make the chef happy , we say to ourselves. As the server made his way down the long staircase that connected Palazzo Petrucci's kitchen to the dining room below, I was just a little curious as to what pastry chef Lucio Paciello decided to send down,   Something chocolate? I wondered. Far from it. A pistachio dacquoise .   Dacquoise ?  A soft cookie made with egg yolks, dried fruits and sugar Paciello wrote me afterwards.  But there was  much  much more!  Mango sauce, lime ganache and a pistachio parfait.  Was there space?  Yes there was. I made sure there was . Light and fresh was my humble opinion.  As I took my second bite, Sommelier Sergio Martinelli had a surprise or two h