In this latest sample of Tasting Tucson, The Good Morning Tucson team came back for seconds at Tavolino on Campbell and Skyline.
While in the dining room, owner Massimo Tenino’s served two new entrees: a nice pasta lunch option, and a dinner to warm bodies as temperatures get cooler for winter.
Tenino said the latter recipe is the perfect food for meat lovers. “It’s a beef short rib no bone, so it’s easy. We cook it for many hours… we use some good red wine,” he said.
Still, you need vegetables to round out a hearty portion. Here, Tenino said, Tavolino’s kitchen staff likes to put their touch on broccolini, gnocchi dumplings and small cippolini onions.
“It’s a nice comfort dish,” Tenino said. The Good Morning Tucson team also gets to learn new things on our visits for Tasting Tucson. Tenino shared that the traditional Italian dish ‘brasato,’ a specialty popular in the Piedmont region, inspired his take on this short rib.
“We do a lot of meat actually in Italy, especially up in the northwest (and in) cold winters,” he said.
Maybe a diner will still prefer a comforting pasta dish. Tenino pointed to the tortelloni he laid down on the table. “By hand, we fold them in… with some mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, some fresh basil,” he said. “Again, it’s light, not too much garlic.”
We have the courses and wine bottles handy. What could be missing? A hunk of high quality Parmesan cheese. “We buy the whole wheel and cut it up,” Tenino said.
Here, Tenino also shared that back in Italy, some people like to sprinkle this cheese on a dish you may have never guessed.
“If you like cheese on fish, I say, why not?” he said.