Pappardella

My amazingly awesome nephew turned 2 in March.  To celebrate, we went to dinner at Pappardella on the UWS.  This is one fancy two-year old I tell you.  The weather was fabulous that day but we chose to sit indoors.  After he ran around a bit trying to pick up one of the many apples, we sat down.  We started with Caprino. 

Gotta love a good beet salad.  This one was fantastic.  The combination of arugula, roasted red beets and fresh goat cheese was exactly what we needed.  The beets were perfectly fresh and tasted wonderful.  We also ordered the Caprese.

The layers of fresh mozzarella, vine ripe tomato and basil were dripped with a rich balsamic reduction.

Taking a bite from every layer was definitely the best way to enjoy this delightful treat.  The birthday boy shared the Rigatoni Bolognese with his mom.

He loved the huge pieces of pasta that hid pieces of beef & vegetable ragu in every crevice.  His uncles went for the Pappardelle Manzo Brasato.

They love a solid beef dish.  This one with braised beef, swiss chard, caramelized onion and bread crumbs was well received.  There wasn’t a morsel left on the plate by the time they were done.  I had a hard time finishing my hearty portion of Spaghetti Frutti di Mare.

This is one of my favorite dishes to order at an Italian restaurant.  Big chunks of lobster meat, shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams topped with a fresh plum tomato sauce.  How can you go wrong?  This version was well executed, but the sauce could have used a bit more spice.

We decided to skip dessert so we could go buy the little one a cupcake and of course he loved it.  Good thing he likes brushing his teeth.  Pappardella is a restaurant I’ve overlooked a number of times, but turns out it’s actually worth eating there.  I look forward to going back for beet salad and the Spaghetti Frutti di Mare.

Hungry yet?