March 15, 2015: Bucato

For Jenny's birthday Jeffrey planned a dinner at Bucato, which is located in Culver City. It is a much heralded Italian restaurant known for their handmade pastas. We ended up having a group of 15 that was spread out over three tables. Once everyone had been seated Jeffrey and Jenny had a party puzzle for each table to complete. The puzzles revealed that they too were going to have a baby. Later they had Jenny's dad and Uncle Vic each open a present to reveal the gender and when they opened the boxes one had a blue balloon and the other had a balloon with question marks and then they told us they were having twins! Anyways, on to the food.

We started out with focaccia with rosemary, olive oil and sea salt. The focaccia was outstanding with a soft pillowy interior and a crispy, delicate crust. The rosemary and sea salt were in perfect balance, and the rosemary didn't overpower at all. The olive oil provided a contrast of richness to the light, airy texture of the bread. We also had filone with cultured Wisconsin butter and ash salt, but I forgot to get a picture of that. The filone was more of a traditional round loaf that had an extremely crispy crust and a soft, almost spongy interior.

Foccaccia w Rosemary, Olive Oil & Sea Salt

Next we had fried cauliflower 'Sicilian style.' The cauliflower was crispy and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside and it was dressed with capers, parsley, a little lemon juice and some chili. It reminded me a little of a crispy Indian cauliflower dish I've had before. Whatever they used to coat the outside of the cauliflower was really light even though it was fried.

Fried Cauliflower 'Sicilian Style'

Spicy pork meatballs with roasted tomato, Parmigiano Reggiano and wild arugula was our next course. The meatballs had a perfectly soft, yet meaty texture and remained nice and moist. The tomato sauce that smothered the meatballs was nicely balanced and it didn't overshadow the meatballs.

Spicy Pork Meatballs with Roasted Tomato, Parmigiano Reggiano & Wild Arugula

Our next course was the first of three pasta dishes. We had gnocchetti with pesto Genovese and Pecorino Stagionato. The gnocchetti was a little more dense than I was expecting, but it also had more chew to it, which gave the whole dish a little more character. The pesto was really fresh and pungent and the ratio of pesto to gnocchetti was perfectly balanced with both complementing each other equally.

Gnocchetti w Pesto Genovese & Pecorino Stagionato

The second pasta dish that was brought out was the spaghetti alla chitarra cacio e pepe. The spaghetti alla chitarra is a thicker spaghetti than most and it was extremely sturdy, but still tender. Cacio e pepe is a very traditional Roman preparation that is basically cheese and pepper, simplicity at its finest. Again (and i'm sure this will get repetitive) the dish was balanced perfectly with the pasta playing the star, the olive oil and cheese giving perfect richness and the pepper giving a nice spice to cut through that richness.

Spaghetti alla Chitarra Cacio e Pepe

The last pasta dish we had was the pappardelle with ragu vecchia scuola and Parmigiano Reggiano. The pappardelle was cut into extra wide strips and had a super smooth and silky texture with a tender chewiness. The ragu vecchia scuola is basically another name for a Bolognese sauce. The sauce was nice and meaty and you could tell it had been cooked for a long time because everything had kind of melded into a perfect condimento as Mario Batali would say. As with pretty much every dish before, this one was perfectly balanced with the rich, meaty sauce complementing the luxurious folds of delicate pappardelle.

Pappardelle w Ragu Vecchia Scuola & Parmigiano Reggiano

Our next dish was the octopus with escarole, shelling beans, roasted tomato and nduja. The octopus was meaty and tender and cooked to perfection. I think it had been parboiled and then maybe finished on the grill that gave the exterior a really nice caramelization. Underneath the octopus was a stew that had escarole, chickpeas, a little tomato and nduja, which is a spreadable pork sausage. The stew was a really nice compliment to the octopus because it provided some saltiness with the nduja and some acid with the tomato, and again, it was another well balanced dish.

Octopus w Escarole, Shelling Beans, Roasted Tomato & Nduja

The last savory dish was rib eye with cipollini agrodolce and wild arugula. The rib eye was cooked just how I like it, on the edge between rare and medium rare. Agrodolce is an Italian sweet and sour sauce, so the ciplollini agrodolce was basically caramelized cipollini onions tossed and cooked in the sweet and sour sauce. The steak was extremely tender, the cipollini agrodolce was a great way to give the dish some acid to help cut through the richness of the steak and the arugula provided a nice bitterness and pepperiness to bring the whole dish together.

Rib Eye with Cipollini Agrodolce & Wild Arugula

Since it was Jenny's birthday dinner Sarah made a chocolate cake for her. She said it was her first try with that recipe and it was a winner. The cake had a really pleasant, fine texture and it seemed to be both a dense and a light, airy cake at the same time and it was packed with cocoa flavor. The frosting was nice and light so it didn't weigh down the whole cake. The only downside that Sarah and I saw was that it was just slightly dry, but overall it was a really delicious cake.

Sarah's Chocolate Cake

After the chocolate cake we had zeppoli with vanilla cream and lemon sugar. Zeppoli are the Italian version of donuts and Bucato's zeppoli were kind of a mix of a cream puff and a donut. The zeppoli was a little bigger than a golf ball and it had a crispy exterior and a tender, choux pastry-like interior that was hollow in the middle. The middle was filled with the vanilla cream, which had the taste and texture of a creme anglaise or zabaglione. The lemon sugar was dusted lightly over the top, but unfortunately I couldn't taste much lemon. That being said, it didn't take away from the dessert at all and I enjoyed the zepolli wholeheartedly.

Zeppoli w Vanilla Cream & Lemon Sugar

The last thing we had was a selection of gelatos and sorbet. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture so instead I'll include a picture of the birthday girl blowing out the candles. We had vanilla, pistachio and marzipan gelato and lemon sorbet. The lemon sorbet was good, but it was a little too sweet. The marzipan gelato was kind of weird, and probably my least favorite. The pistachio gelato had a bit of savoriness to it that accentuated the nuttiness of the gelato. The vanilla gelato was packed with vanilla beans that were speckled throughout and it was my favorite flavor that we sampled.

Birthday Girl

Food 4/5
Service 3.5/5
http://www.bucato.la/