Assaggi – not the first 3 letters

Restaurant: Assaggi

Location: 4838 Bethesda Avenue. Bethesda, MD 20814. 301-951-1988

Date: November 27, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian

A night out with friends in Bethesda (outside of Washington D.C.) brought us to this modern neighborhood Italian.

A fairly typical menu.

I love Amarone. It’s made in the “ripasso” (rested) style. This means the grapes are sun dried into raisons on straw mats before pressing. This gives it a richer raison quality than otherwise.

Can’t beat the pig. This is a mixed large plate of prosciutto di parma, lonza, cacciatorini, salame nostrano, and capocollo.

And some cheese to go with it. From left to right: smoked mozzarella, mozzarella di bufala, and burrata. This is all not so different than Obika.

And some marinated veggies in case the above wasn’t healthy enough.

Salad of local beets, baby spinach, toasted pumpkin seeds, and lemon vinaigrette.

Bigoli pasta with “maple leaf farm” duck and porcini mushroom ragu. A nice winter ragu.

Orecchiette pasta with “path valley farm” punpkin, goat cheese, and toasted pine nuts.

After killing the Amarone, we switched to this Taurasi. Taurasi is from near Naples and made with mostly Aglianico which is a delicious southern Italian grape.

Some gluten free pasta with tomatoes and olives.

Agnello. Slowly cooked lamb shank, mint mashed potatoes.

And its beefier cousin, classic osso bucco.

Finish with a little gelato.

For Washington, which isn’t known for great Italian, this was a solid meal. Service was friendly, the food was modern Italian American (not the dreaded “red sauce” style) and everything tasty.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

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