039: One of the best authentic Italian meals ever

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

Served in a light sauce of lemon and oil.

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

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

Grilled baby artichokes on a bed of mashed potatoes

Onions covered with breadcrumbs and cheese and baked until brown.

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

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

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

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 (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

Polignano a Mare carrots and fennel

Straight from the restaurant’s garden

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

A small spongy cake soaked in rum served with cream.

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

Not my favorite, but still delicious

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.

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