Speck-wrapped Scallops at Lombardino's

Have you ever had a meal when you can actually taste the love and care that went into preparing it? I believe we all have. Contrast that with a meal that was made hastily, perhaps, or one that was slapped together. I believe one of the reasons that chefs are enjoying so much celebrity right now is that food is love. Think about it: food nourishes us, it inspires us, it is creative, close to the earth, and can be an act of love in its preparation. If you've ever watched Iron Chef, you can see the love going into the ideation and preparation of each dish. And so it is with many chefs....

...so it is with Lombardino's. Years ago, Lombardino's built its reputation on the traditional style of Italian food. Darned good Italian food, but traditional just the same. Turns out someone there was paying attention, because they have gradually turned the direction of the restaurant toward a combination of the Italian traditional with nouveau cuisine. ...consider this: pizzas with poached figs, gorgonzola....truffles!

We have become Lombardino regulars- we eat at the bar. Recently, we went back for the scallops, which had caught my eye the first time we spied them on the menu. However, Jim is not a huge fan of scallops, so at that time we feasted on the duck papardelle, which is reviewed in another post. But, back to the scallops....and not just any old scallops, but SPECK WRAPPED SEA SCALLOPS, served on a stew of Borlotti beans & escarole with stracotto of beef short rib & horseradish sauce. Talk about scrumptious! Not for the seafood-eating vegetarian, these are a wonderful combination of flavors, deep and wide on the palate. Just the thing to fill you up- and I feel compelled to add a side note here that we share plates to add variety. One salad, two diners...one entree, two diners....just the perfect amount of food, lovingly prepared and served. This is one example of what I mean when I say "food is love". Just as I have made a beet-loving convert out of Jim, this dish has made him decide that scallops (at least prepared in this manner) are something he loves.

Friday night dinner at Lombardino's 11/21

We love having dinner at Lombardino's the chef/ owner Patrick is by far one of the most consistent and innovative chefs in Madison. He really creates a wonderful menu and specials sheet using local and seasonal ingredients that really tempt the taste buds.

As with most trips to Lombardino's we like to sit at the bar - the service is always excellent with personal attention from Micheal Banos the GM of the restaurant. This evening we had to sit at one of the high top tables at the end of the bar. - A great spot to watch people and enjoy the energy of the dining room near by. As usual we ordered off the specials sheet - not that the main menu items are not great - we just love the items that are featured - this evening we shared three of the antipasti items - the Beet Salad, the Duo of Scallops, Sausage & Peppers - all three really fun and delicious. While dining we each had a glass of the Zenato Ripassa - one of our favorites - rich fruit, with a little raisin and dried currants and Amarone at half the price.

The beet salad was a classic with roasted beets, greens, Gorgonzola, nuts and lightly dressed greens. It was great way to start the evening it really was nice since we had happy hour downtown at Broccah but that is another story. The nice thing about splitting items at Lombardino's is that they split them in the kitchen when the dish allows, we love this extra little special attention. Next up the duo of scallops which combined a chilled slice of salmon and scallop mousse over baby arugula on one end of the plate with a hot offering of a seared scallop with truffle and brown butter crumbs pasta. The cold half of the duo the mousse was not very pleasing a slight miss in our opinion. The salmon in the mousse was to over powering for the scallop and made the entire item taste really fishy. On the other end of the plate the hot half of the duo really delivered a nice punch. The scallop was perfectly cooked the black truffle with the brown butter crumb was just rich and luxurious on the palate. We quickly noshed on the scallop and sopped up every last crumb with their wonderful bread. The flavors of the earthy truffle with the scallop's freshness of the sea taste all tied together with the light caramel notes of the brown butter make this dish a must repeat, yum!

We rounded out the meal with the final course, a classic sausage and peppers. Patrick puts a nice spin on this favorite by first using a wonderful piece of Frabonis coiled Italian sausage. The sausage it self had been grilled which added a nice smoky note to the dish, He then combined peppers and onions that are almost caramelized, but he used poblano peppers instead of just bell peppers. The poblano provided a wonderful glow of heat to the dish that separated it from being ordinary.

We enjoyed the rest of our wine and then headed back to the eastside since we could not find any music we were interested in this evening. We always look forward to the great food from Patrick and the awesome service from Micheal and his team. Thanks for making our Friday night a tasty one!