Tag: italian

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Rotini Special

The Roteni Special available at Ziti's on Harding Street.

As the name suggests (name derives from the Italian for twists) this dish was overflowing with plump twisted pasta drenched with a pink sauce and decorated, for flavor and color, with fresh basil, scallops, spinach, and shrimp. The pasta, unlike most varieties, has a purpose beyond flavor. The rotini noodle truly absorbs the flavors and allows for the sauce to stick to it for every mouthful. The creamy, full bodied pasta with thick savory sauce was delicious as it was filling. The seafood aspect, combining shrimp and sea scallops was a nice touch, but left a slight “fishy” taste. The scallops aside, the red peppers and spinach added an incredible flavor that made it very difficult not to try to finish this 2-person-plus sized dish. -LV

Reviewed at Ziti’s Italian Trattoria.

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Risotto Scallopini

Whenever I am at an Italian restaurant I always check to see if they have risotto on the menu –one of my favorite Italian dishes.  So I was very happy to see risotto scallopini as a special of the night. Most places make their risotto by adding cream to shorten the time to make the risotto and still try to get the taste of real risotto – but Ziti’s makes it the right way – by slowly cooking the rice in a nice broth until it reaches a creamy consistency.  Being a person with lactose intolerance, cooking the risotto the traditional way allows me to really enjoy one of my favorite dishes.

The plate came heaping with a plate full of lightly colored risotto with bits of chicken, pancetta and mushrooms mixed within the rice.  It was quite a large portion which meant leftovers for the next day for me. Overall the presentation could have had a little bit more color to it – very muted in color but had a good amount of sliced chicken, pancetta and mushrooms to visually be a pleasing meal.   The chicken was white meat that was tender to the fork and went well with the creaminess of the rice.  Who doesn’t love pancetta – it brings a nice crunch to a dish and nice slightly salty taste to a dish – in this dish though I wish the pancetta was crisper as that would helped with the visual eye as well as that extra crunch to finish the taste.

Overall this risotto dish did not disappoint – very authentic in taste! -MM

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The risotto arrived at the table and I was impressed with its size. As risotto is usually a heavy dish, I knew it would be more than enough for leftovers. There were large chunks of sauteed chicken breast throughout the dish as well as a good amount of mushrooms (crimini? definitely not the typical white variety) and pancetta. The rice did not appear to be usual Arborio rice that one finds in a risotto, but its texture worked in this recipe. Upon taking my first bite, I was impressed with the flavor in the dish – the wine sauce was evident and delicious. Overall, this dish was a good one. It could have been improved by a longer cooking time for the pancetta to crisp it up and give the dish some texture, but the tender chicken and the flavorful wine sauce compensated for this minor shortfall. -JM

Reviewed at Ziti’s Italian Trattoria.