A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

Buywithme.com coupon in hand, we trek out to Southborough one night for a dinner. $50 for a three course prix fixe dinner FOR TWO with wine pairings. I thought it was a good deal when I bought it, but thought it was an even better deal as we were enjoying our meal. The voucher was also good for 20% off at Panzano, the Italian marketplace next door that I adore.

We start off at panzano. I picked up this cool looking pasta.

I love their cookies. The cinnamon in this cookie is so lovely.

The lady kiss-two hershey kiss shaped cookies with a caramel inside.

This is my all time favorite cookie, you think that it is going to be a chocolate cookie, but it has a wonderful almond flavor to it.

The raspberry jam in this cookie was just the right amount of flavor.

The pistachio cookie is light and crunchy.

Now on to dinner, we sat in the front area near the bar but the restaurant is quite spacious with a whole other room in the back.

There were quite a few people at the bar on a Monday night.

There are two choices for starters, the Insalata Di crescione watercress and cannelloni bean salad with orange slices. The salad looks a bit sparse, but it was tasty. The watercress was a little spicy but the oranges were refreshing. The course was served with a 2008 san lazarro pistillo offida pecorino that I thought was a little acidic, but tasted almost watery to me.

I had the Datteri roasted lardo wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese. It came with a little side garnish of the watercress. The blue cheese overwhelmed the dates for me. I didn’t think I even liked dates until I tried the ones at Upstairs on the Square, I love the sweetness from the caramelization and the saltiness of the ladrdo. If they cut back to about 1/2 the amount of blue cheese, this dish would have been perfect for me. I’m not a wine person (so I can’t give extensive descriptions on the pairings), but they paired this with a 2007 cascina roera barbera which was very light.

For the second course, we both had the Spaghettini puttanesca with classic sauce and toasted bread crumbs. Super spicy. Puttanesca sauce is usually made with anchovies,  garlic, onion, chili peppers, olives and capers. I’m not an olive fan, so I pushed those aside, but the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and tasted delicious. The bread crumbs gave this dish some great crunch. The course was served with a 2007 Di majo norante, ramitello terra degli osci, which was really full bodied.

For my main course I had the Capesante grilled sea scallops sauteed with  a frisee lemon vinaigrette, served with a 2009 punta crena, vermentino vigneto isasco. The scallops were excellent-perfectly cooked.

My dining companion had the Maile grilled heritage country rib chop grilled apple and rosemary, which was excellent, perfectly cooked medium with a nice crust on the outside. The rib chop was served with a 2009 LE Paine, la maggiorina novaresi doc.

For dessert, the crostata. Quite tasty, although I have to admit, I ate more of the other dessert.

A Souffle di Limone- chilled lemon souffle, with fruit compote. It was excellent, very light and refreshing.

An excellent meal-the server was friendly and knowledgeable,a great value. They serve a presso fisso (fixed price- $30, additional $18 for wine pairings) dinner Monday through Thursday that changes weekly-see website for details and menu.

Tomasso

the crossings | 154 turnpike road | southborough, ma 01772 | 508.481.8484

http://www.tomassotrattoria.com/