Pulcinella Ristorante is a mainstay of the Ft. Collins dining scene and now Denver has its own. I got a gift certificate there from some fine folks I work with and Alana and I took the opportunity to order just about everything we could last night. Pulcinella is damn near the closest thing to the food I had when I was in Italy after I graduated from college.
The antipasti menu reads like a sushi menu. On our last visit we had the wild mushroom ravioli, which is the best ravioli I've ever had. Ever. This time we ordered the Asparagus in lemon sauce and the risotto croquettes (which don't have chicken stock! Score vegetarians). The Asparagus was perfectly cooked and the lemon sauce was light. Although it tasted good I wouldn't say it was worth the $4.95. The Risotto Croquettes, however, were delicious and are worth a trip by themselves. I see a dinner of Mushroom Ravioli and Risotto Croquettes in my future.
We also got the Spinaci salad - delicious with its lemon dressing and gorgonzola cheese - and I got a dish that consisted of penne pasta, eggplant, mozzarella, and tomato sauce. Pulcinella does their eggplant right; it's apparently marinated in olive oil and red pepper flakes, I'm going to have to try that. To finish it off we had their homemade vanilla gelato - can't go wrong with that.
Tonight I made sweet potato chipotle soup. Here's the recipe for any of you wanting to try it:
1/2 onion diced
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 sweet potato cubed
1-2 T brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp chipotle in adobo
2 1/4 C vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 T olive oil
Heat oil over med. heat. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger. When they get soft and fragrant add brown sugar and cook for a few minutes to brown/caramelize. Add 1/4 cup of broth to deglaze along with the sweet potato and chipotle. Cook for 2 min. then add the rest of the stock. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low for 20 minutes. Move to blender and blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. We had this with grilled cheese sandwiches, but you could pair it with a southwestern meal as well.
Be careful with the chipotle - that stuff is hotter than Arizona asphalt in July. Oh and go Rockies.
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