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In case you're still looking, coincidentally I had the Pappardelle Toscana at Firenze by Night in North Beach for dinner last night with my mom. Apparently the restaurant has won awards for this dish made with rabbit sauce. The noodles are quite soft, but not mushy, quite a unique texture. I liked the flavors a lot, even though there was a certain gluey quality about the sauce that I can't quite put my finger on. It has a sweet quality from carmelized onions. Best part is that it's less than $12 on the menu and an entree-sized (not primi) portion.
My mother had the canneloni stuffed with chicken and prosciutto, also around $11. She thought it had too much meat in proportion to the pasta, and I'd agree with her. The tomato sauce was nice and zesty albeit a bit oversalted.
Our favorite part was the housemade focaccia. It has a fine-grained cake-like texture and an oil-rich crackly crust almost like a Dutch crunch roll. There are drops of herby olive oil swirled in. We ate one basket and our busser brought us another one. My mom promptly pulled out a plastic bag from her pocket to wrap it up to take back to my dad. (g)
This was my first time here and I was impressed by the service even though the place was packed on a Friday night. The host, our waiter Fabio, and especially the busser were all welcoming and attentive, even though we only ordered a salad ($4.75, split in the kitchen), two pastas, and no wine or dessert. You get white tablecloth service at cafe prices -- can't beat that.›4 Replies-
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re: rube jacobs
The softness of Firenze's surprised me and it took some getting used to. If you like that, this is your place.
If you get down to Palo Alto, I was very impressed by the pappardelle at La Strada on University Ave. It had the loveliest silken texture, just glided over the palate, but still some firmness in the backbone.
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re: Robert Lauriston
Hehe, I KNEW you'd have to say something about Firenze's noodles, so I tee'd up the other photo for comparison. (vbg)
Actually, my mother said the same thing, "aren't those lasagna noodles?" They were just a little less thick and wide than that, so in their own category. But, the OP asked for soft, and that was the first and foremost way I'd describe them.
La Strada's pappardelle had great texture, like they'd been passed through the rollers many, many times to get a smooth and firm grain. I loved the mouthfeel of that dish. The night I had the pappardelle, my date had a pasta of the day that was made with barley. I had queried our server asking if it were made with farro, and she said, this was barley as the farro pasta they also make sometimes is different. It was fantastic also. I'm not remembering the saucing, some type of grilled seafood, I think. But it was the texture of the spaghetti that wow'd me, really firm and bouncy. These weren't quite the perfection of Oliveto's pastas, but certainly as good as Bacco in SF, which I think also has an excellent hand with pasta. La Strada takes pasta seriously and it made me sit up and take notice on my first meal here.
Since I've gone this far, let me say more about La Strada. I was there in the spring, and my friend suprised me by ordering the prosciutto di parma platter with white asparagus and truffle oil as a first course. He then confessed that he almost always gets the salumi plate with its peak of the season fruit or vegetable accompaniments. This is a man who doesn't eat red meat! I knew it had to be special, and indeed it was. The white asparagus was the finest I've had in this country, comparable to what you'd get in Europe, very tender and candy-sweet. A light hand with the white truffle oil too. But it was the prosciutto that was the star, so much sweeter and creamier than what's typical. I asked our server about it and she said the old-fashioned handcranked slicer was the secret.
My next visit here I brought my brother to have him try the sweetbread appetizer that I was so wild about my first time. He loves sweetbreads and orders them every time he sees them on a menu. He gave the appetizer his stamp of approval. The sweetbreads had a nice crust on them encasing the creamy and tender organ meat. They're tossed with a crispy dice of potato, asparagus and porcini mushrooms that soak up the savory juices.
I had one of the seasonal summer salads made with heaps of wild arugula. Nutty-tasting and lively, it was great too, the salad makers are good here.
We didn't like the signature pasta, cansonsei alla Bergamasca, as much as others have posted. The wrapper was too doughy for me, reminding me of pierogi. Just tossed with browned butter, I thought it needed more moisture. But we fought over the fried sage and guanciale.
The margherita pizza was really good too, made in a wood-burning oven. The crust was a tad thicker than Pazzia's, but more flavorful. The sauce was pure and simple (again better than Pazzia), and our server said the tomatoes came from Campania but she didn't seem to recognize the denomination, San Marzano, when I asked for a closer identity. But that doesn't mean they're not.
There are some concessions to American tastes, e.g., the pizza had more cheese and the desserts are kind of sugary. The pastas are entree-sized. But if you choose carefully, you can find the authentic taste here. I think that's the chef's aspiration and he's doing as much as his market area will permit. The daily three-course prix fixe has the more interesting dishes. The nice thing is that you can order them ala carte too. The place has been jam-packed my two visits and it draws a noisy, young crowd.
I was very impressed by the food. La Strada is well worth a visit to Palo Alto.
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