Ribollita

When Kate and I promised to take her parents out to dinner as a gift, we had in fact already determined where we wanted to take them, all we had to do was make the reservation.

So on Wednesday night we found ourselves at Ribollita on Middle St. in Portland.   It's a quaint little Italian Restaurant with lots of charm, an excellent selection of authentic Italian dishes utilizing local ingredients, great service and a smaller but very dynamic wine list.  (They have the full gamut of Italian wine varietals available to their guests.)

One of the charming aspects of this establishment is its aesthetic simplicity.  If one knows what they are here for they will NOT be disappointed!  As was the case, we knew exactly what we were here for.

I don't know about you, but sometimes the hardest thing for me to do is pair the perfect wine with all the potential entrees.  After all, there were 4 of us dining...  I finally settled on the Farina Amarone della Valopicella, as it represented the best match for the majority of our dinner choices.  (Besides which, we all agreed we'd enjoy a red wine with our meals.)

In a completely upside down way, we ordered a couple of side (Contorno) dishes first, while our Caramelized Onion Tart was being prepared from the appetizer (Antipasti) section of the menu.  We were starving and just didn't want to wait the required time to enjoy our first dish.  I started with the Saute of spinach and pine nuts with golden raisins, which was cooked to a perfect wilted state and seasoned ever so lightly.  Kate chose the Caprese salad with Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella.  She knows her fresh mozzarella believe me, and tonight's dish brought an instant smile to her face.  The Caramelized Onion Tart, made with black olives and goat cheese was served and shared by all at the table.  Naturally, we wished we had ordered more than one to share but we all raved about it none the less.

For entrees we had two orders of the North End Linguine (one with red sauce and one with white), Braised Beef Short Rib and Cacciucco (Tuscan Fish Stew).  I think the easiest thing to say would be that each and every dish was exquisite, filling, perfectly seasoned and a true value for the dollar.  Alright, that's not what you really wanted to read right?  So: the linguine dishes were truly unique in each of their respective sauces.  The red sauce was spicy, flavorful and a perfect compliment to the clams, mussels, scallops and calamari within it.  The Linguine itself was al dente and plentiful.  My Beef Short Rib was like nothing from recent memory.  It fell off the bone like butter off a hot knife.  In fact, I didn't even need to use my knife it was so tender, flavorful and savory.  The garlic mashed potatoes and accompanying sauce didn't stand a chance either as they were consumed with glee and mopped up with the fresh foccacia we were served.

I didn't think we had reserved enough room for dessert, but as fate would have it we ordered anyway.  I ordered the homemade espresso ice cream with chocolate chips, Steve had the same and Kate ordered the cottage cheese cheesecake.  Wow.  Each of these dishes were rich, fresh and delightfully satisfying.

Our stay was perhaps a little longer than normal for a weekday dinner, but each of us had a terrific experience at Ribollita and we all agreed that we needed to eat here more frequently!

"Eccezionale" I give Ribollita 5 stars on this visit! 

"Grazie" to Kevin Quiet, chef/owner.