Retired & Roaming

A great discovery yesterday! A superb, gastronomically speaking, little restaurant out in winelands north-west of Arezzo called the Osteria dell’Acquolina.

We were treated to lunch there by two American friends, Rino and Valerie, for whom I had tweaked their website last year. And a perfect long and lazy lunch it turned to be! The Osteria is off the road from Arezzo to Loro Cuiffenna, a few kilometres after  Castiglion Fibocchi.  Alternatively, coming from the the Valdarno exit on the A1 motorway, you pass through Terranuova Bracciolini and take the road to Casamona. The Osteria is signposted down a dusty ‘white road’ – just gravel – a few hundred metres down which there is what looks like a large private house – you have arrived!

Paolo, the owner and head chef greeted us and wheeled us into the conservatory-style dining room, set for a good number of people – it was Saturday and there were some large groups expected. Like all good country restaurants in Italy, there is no menu: Paolo or one of the other waiters explain the choices as the meal progresses…

The usual basket of scruptious homemade bread arrived and it was time for the first decision: the wine. Given that you’d only drink the house wine, which has travelled all of 200 metres from the vineyard, the choice was really just white or red! After that stretching of the grey cells, we settled to a seemingly endless supply of antipasti – seven varieties in all. The first three were set out attractively on one plate each of the four of us: a potato, onion and herb puree, a three-layered construction of grated carrot and parsnip with a bechamel sauce and a slice of deliciously herbed pork sausage. This dish was followed by three types of bruschetti  – one spread with liver pate, one with what looks like lard with red peppercorns, but it is sliced thinly and is superb, and the third with white beans. A sliced aubergine dish and a pappa pomedoro  – a sort of semi-solid soup of tomatoes and bread – completed the list.

For the primo piatto, the choice was risotto with pumpkin, zucchini and mint, or tagliatelle with ragu of rabbit. All homemade of course and both delicious.

There were three choices for the secondo – duck, which none of us had, although it is reportedly excellent, prosciutto roasted with a balsamic vinegar sauce and thinly sliced – roast pork with a difference! and steamed shank of veal with a pear sauce. The veal is cooked for hours in red wine resulting in a rich but incredibly tender and dark meat that melts in the mouth.

We finished up with dolce, again a choice: homemade chocolate ice cream, which was on par with the infamous chocolate mud at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, chocolate tart or zuppa inglese – trifle. During the dolce we were treated to a typical spring thunderstorm with quite substantial hailstones. None of us really cared, we were just purring softly in delight at such an excellent meal. I didn’t see the bill! but judging from the price list at the door, it would have been very reasonable. Another sign of a good lunch is that we arrived at around 1pm and left at 5pm, and most of the other punters were still there!

They have a website: www.acquolina.it but I can’t get it to work too well – it’s built around frames which always seems to be a mistake. There number is +39 055 977497, Paolo speaks English, although he might be away working as a guest chef in New York or Las Vegas.

As an aside, if you are looking for a good B&B in the Val Tiberina, try Rino and Valerie’s place at www.pompeobandb.com; it’s a great place with wonderful hosts.

David Italy, Useful Stuff