Tuscan Kitchen Burlington - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

October 5, 2014 Tuscan Kitchen Burlington

I was invited to the media grand tasting for the newly opened Tuscan Kitchen in Burlington. It was nice to see familiar faces there: Kerrie from Urban Foodie Finds, Jeff from Kitchen Kibbitz and Devin from popular Twitter handle and now website, Only in Boston, among others.

This new restaurant focuses on regional Italian cuisine: from meats and pastas to fresh local produce. The service for the night was on point – the servers were friendly and attentive.

Billy Costa and Jenny Johnson from Dining Playbook were there to introduce owner Joe Faro. Faro opened the first location in Salem, NH in 2010 and has always wanted to open up a restaurant in Boston. The restaurant seats 543, 101 of which will be outside. The interior is spacious, covering about 14,000 square feet, and yet Faro made it feel like he invited you to his home for dinner. The restaurant has a Tuscan market at the entrance where you can purchase fresh pasta, artisan bread, fresh mozzarella and pastries made from scratch.

There is a 30 seat cafe area in the market where guests can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and a sweet treat.

The cocktail hour showcased their artisan stone hearth breads.

In addition to the bread they offered home made porchetta, fig jam, 24 month prosciutto, parmigiano reggiano, local truffle honey, housemade burrata and grilled vegetables.

We started with antipasti course, the Crostini di Granchio and the Tonno Crudo. The crostini (front) was wild caught Jonah crab on grilled ciabatta with semi roasted tomatoes and mustard seeds. The tuna came with navel orange, Calabrese peppers and crispy prosciutto and was finished off with a drizzle of olive oil.

The second second course, or primi, was two samplings of pasta. The first was a truffled mascarpone gnocchi with wood roasted mushrooms, fava beans and shaved pecorino tartufo.

The other side of the plate had the vanneloni di vitello, which was a thin sheet of rosemary pasta stuffed with slow braised veal breast with wilted spinach and Tuscan bean mista.

For a main course I chose the filetto di manzo, a 10 oz aged wood grilled filet with caramelized garlic “riduzione” which came with a side of truffled parmigiano fingerlings, Brussel sprouts and pancetta slaw.