Tag: Pistachio

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Chicken and Dumplings from The Urban

Chicken and Dumplings from The Urban on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

Chicken and Dumplings from The Urban on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

The Urban Kitchen and Bar is located on Shrewsbury Street, in the building that used to be Coral Seafood. It’s a fairly spacious location with plenty of seating and plenty of parking.

As an appetizer, we started with the House Made Ricotta, with truffle honey, chives and crostini. This came as a large scoop of the ricotta, with a light drizzle of the truffle honey. This was absolutely fabulous. Smooth and creamy with the honey adding some sweetness, this was delicious both on the crostini and standalone.

Next up as the Arugula and Squash Salad, with curried pistachio and pickled raisins, served over a small portion of the house made ricotta. There was no dressing on the salad but the mix of flavors from the ricotta and other ingredients proved that no dressing was needed. This, again, was delicious with a great mix of the sweet ricotta and slightly tart raisins. The pistachios provided a nice crunch/texture creating an overall really nice app.

For dinner, I had the Chicken and Dumplings with mushroom consommé, swiss chard, beech mushrooms and toasted garlic. The chicken was skin on breast meat and cooked to perfection but the consomme was a little too salty for my liking. The dumplings had just enough texture in them to counter the wilted chard and mushrooms nicely, and could stand up to the chicken as well. The overall flavor of the dish was still quite nice, but I couldn’t get past the saltiness.

My parting comment would be that the portion sizes are on the small side. 2 Apps, a main course and dessert left me full but certainly not stuffed.

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Pistachio Pizza

Pistachio Pizza from Volturno Pizza on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

At the end of my dinner, I had an interesting conversation with the owner of Volturno, Worcester’s newest Italian/pizza restaurant.  He readily acknowledges that Volturno is not for everyone.  If you are looking for a Hawaiian or Meat Lover’s pizza, he noted, you might as well drive past Volturno.  There are many other pizza joints in Worcester that have exactly what you’re looking for.  If, however, you are looking for a foodies experience, you need to sample the pizza at this wonderful addition to the Worcester scene.  The architecture melds a 1930’s Buick showroom with a contemporary, European vibe, making Volturno both casual and cosmopolitan.   More impressively, Volturno does with its food what it has done with its atmosphere – bringing sophistication to the once humble pizza pie.  Baked in wood-fired ovens, the thin crust is spot-on perfect.  Distinctive toppings combine flavors and textures to delight the senses.  The pistachio pizza ($16), for example, combines pistachio pesto, crumbles of sweet Italian sausage, mozzarella and percorino cheeses.  Layers of complementary flavors dance around the mouth, the sweet sausage giving way to the nutty pesto.  Smoked mozzarella and paper-thin lemon slices alternate precedence when eating the lemone pizza ($14), the zesty lemon cleaning your palette with each bite. Each pizza generously feeds a single diner.  My recommendation, however, is to order multiple pizzas for the table and sample them all.  Each pizza features a unique combination of flavors, and each deserves to be tried.  If you are like me, your favorite will shift depending on which you happen to be eating at a given moment.  And, if you are like me, you might never be satisfied with a pedestrian Hawaiian or meat lover’s pizza again. -JD