Trattoria San Zanobi

So last night I finally got that long meal Ive been craving and it didnt disappoint. Theres a nice looking little trattatoria (restaurant) two doors down from us called trattoria san zanobi ( our street name). Me and four of my roommates put on some nice clothes and headed out to dinner at about 8:45. Although the restaurant is noted in some guide books last night it was just us and two other tables. The walls were a soft cream color with fleur di li's painted in green. A nice young lady seated us and asked what wine we would be having. Mario, who is Italian and from queens, speaks fluent Italian asked her what she recommended. She said that their house wine was bono (good when you're talking about food) so we ordered a couple carafes. The menu was in Italian, English and German but we tried to stick to the Italian page. The classic Italian meal is usually a few courses with a wine to compliment each dish. The order is usually antipasto, pasta, vegetable, some kind of meat or fish dish and desert. The owner of the restaurant came over and began talking to Mario, going over the specials and telling a little about her restaurant. She was a kind looking older lady with white hair and glasses. She had an easy smile and seemed very proud of her restaurant. She said that some of the dishes on the menu were their own recipes and could be found nowhere else in the world. The wine as very smooth and not dry, which most of the wine I've had here has been. For our first course we agreed to all order appetizers and share some of each. I ordered insalate caprese which is mozzarella (remember the fresh rule. everything is that day fresh) tomato, basil and lettuce. Mario ordered a cheese and anchovy crustini, will ordered bruschetta, Scott ordered another insalata caprese and Jason ordered antipasto which was meat and liver pate. I'm glad we decided to share because everything was so good. Along with bread we also had olive oil, which was green, and vinegar. (Ive learned that green is when the oil is its best and has the most flavor. The green usually only lasts for a month or two then the color starts to fade) I put the oil and vinegar with fresh pepper on my salad. The mozzarella and tomatoes mixed perfectly with the basil that had the most flavor of any that Ive tried. The bruschetta had spiced tomatoes and just the right crunch. The liver was just the right strength and not too salty. My favorite was probably the cheese and anchovy crustini. It had a strong cheese to balance out the strong anchovy flavor. After refilling our vino (wine) the owner took our next order, the pasta dish. I chose ravioloni tartufatti which was ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta and covered in truffle sauce. Sound good doesn't it! Scott chose pasta with meat sauce Mario a risotto that is a house recipe Jason a Tuscan minestrone and will spaghetti carbonara. As we finished up the antipasto and soaked bread in olive oil we tried to get into the relaxed slow dinner environment. Soon the next course arrived. My ravioli were large and smothered in a creme sauce with small pieces of truffle mixed throughout. My first bite made me realize that THIS was the best thing Ive eaten in Florence.
The pasta was perfect and obviously homemade. Delicate yet firm the pasta seemed to melt into my tongue. The stuffing mixed well with the truffle sauce, the spinach and ricotta a subtle flavor while the sauce was obviously the centerpiece of the dish. Creamy and with a strong taste that was like mushroom but much better the flavor filled my whole mouth and lasted long after i had swallowed. Each bite was perfect with the pasta melting away and leaving me enjoy the truffle sauce. Hesitantly I forked some onto everyones plates. At least I got some of theirs in return. Mario's risotto was my favorite of my roommates. A recipe or that restaurants it was a much different risotto than the one I had made in class this week. It had a pesto like taste to it and was perfectly aldente. Scott's meat pasta was very good along with wills creamy carboara spaghetti. After marios risotto my next favorite was Jason's minestrone which was heaped with veggies and had a strong flavor. After I had cleaned my plate of all traces of truffle sauce we ordered the next couple courses, the veggie and meat course. I ordered patate arosta (roasted potato) and petti di pollo formaggio e funghi or chicken with cheese and mushrooms. Others ordered pesto pasta, roasted beef, braised beef and Sicilian chicken. The chicken was very good, and reminded me of chicken marsala. We took our time and enjoyed our food, along with more wine. Full but tantalized by the desert menu we decided it wouldn't be right if we didn't order desert. The owner had recommended crema de cantalona (which was like a creme brule). I decided to stick with truffles (although this time the chocolate type) and ordered truffle ice cream. Others got: la crema cantalona, la crema caramel and tiramisu. The truffle came as a chocolate dome with vanilla ice cream under at a whole truffle at the bottom. The top covered with a fine layer of truffle dust. So good. I'm going to have to start taking some trips because this is starting to be a journal of what I eat! Anyway the whole meal from start to finish was flawless and although a couple times I felt the urge to hurry up and get out of there, to finish my meal quickly it was suppressed and we had about a two and a half hour meal. The owner had been great the whole time, telling us about her daughter in America and giving us advice about how to eat each course (including letting me know not to put parmigiano on my pasta as it would change the flavor) and in general making us feel very welcome. Although she spoke Italian the whole time, having Mario translate, I could feel the warmth in her voice.
After dinner we went to an Irish pub to watch the Yankees Red Sox game (four back isn't bad, is it captain) but the channel wasn't working so we went to a little bar near our house called the fish and then back to that nightclub in the video from a previous post. It was a great night.
Today I'm going to try to find a new market that we've been hearing about then head over to watch some football.