The real-deal Italian meal
La Zingara means The Gypsy Girl in Italian. If you are expecting cliches of gypsy life here, you will be disappointed. There is no Flamenco dancing, no palm readings and no wildly painted horse-drawn caravans parked outside. La Zingara is clean and sedate, but one of the most reliable restaurants I know.
Owning a successful restaurant (short of being a brain surgeon) may be one of the trickiest jobs in the world. Over the years, friends have asked me why I don’t open a restaurant of my own. My answer is, why don’t I go swimming in shark-infested waters or climb Mount Everest?
Being a restaurateur is living in a world of dire unknowns. Will your chef quit? Will the napkin delivery service not show up? Will your landlord raise your rent? Will the new menu appeal to nobody but the expensive consultant you hired for the fresh start. In short, I do not have the stomach for such a crazy life, and I know that restaurants like all trendy fashions are hot one day and cold the next.
I have eaten at La Zingara for years, and I have never had a bad meal. This sounds like a simple statement, but unless you are in the restaurant business or a food critic you may not get the gravitas of this declaration. I can’t think of too many places that I can make that boast about.
Since a few of you may be thinking it, no I have not been slipped a wad of money for this definitive statement. There are many places in Fairfield County that are five times as expensive and half as good. This is the real deal and it is where I take out of town guests to show them Connecticut Italian cuisine at its finest.
La Zingara is not cheap. It is a whitelinen tablecloth place with professional servers, and a in-depth and original menu. It is also not stuffy, but a cheerful place with the kind of atmosphere that makes you want to linger. Every entree and appetizer is priced fairly for the quality and service you get.
So enough about finance. Let’s eat.
If you follow any of the reality shows like Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” you will see that a great deal of the revamp is paring down the overreaching and often revolting menu. Instead of 95 awful dishes, when all is edited there will remain only a handful of “perfect dishes.” I am like Ramsay and other food critics in the sense that I, too, roll my eyes at menus that offer every dish in the universe. But I also get bored with an overly limited menu. After
two visits, it is time to move on.
La Zingara’s menu strikes the perfect balance. My favorites are there, but I have never looked at the menu without seeing at least five or six new ones I am dying to try. Every dish here is a seasonal masterpiece.
Here are some of the dishes you all not find elsewhere. Strozzapreti al Ragu di Cinghaile, a dish of pasta tossed with a wild boar ragu slow cooked in a mirepoix of onions, celery and carrots and then red-wine tomato and rosemary. The dish is magnificent on its own, but I like the naughty name. Strozzapreti means “priest choker.”
One of my dining companions has never eaten at La Zingara without ordering Gobetti all’Aragosta e Capesante. This dish has ziti-like tubes of organic pasta tossed with lobster, scallops and leeks in a Taleggio cream sauce, finished with truffle oil and toasted bread crumbs. Once I got cranky about her lack of adventure. She never defended her love for this one dish, but when it arrived she gave me that smug “now you get it” stare.
I am crazy for Costolette di Maiale, a large grilled pork chop served with a mouth-puckering pickled apple and a fresh cranberry glaze. La Zingara also serves the best broccoli rabe sautéed with garlic and virgin olive oil. Add to list of amazing salads Insalata di Cavolo Toscano, chopped kale, currants, grated pecorino cheese and sunflower seeds. Yes, you can eat very healthy here, and it will not feel like punishment.
I dream about the Risotto di Mare made from a special grain of rice that has been simmered with threads of golden saffron, cockles, mussels, shrimp, calamari and scallops. To this seafood bonanza the kitchen adds herb roasted tomatoes and a goodly splash of white wine. Spectacular!
The best thing about La Zingara (and there is an endless list of best things) is you can eat formally downstairs or less formally upstairs in their weatherproof garden. You can have a simple platter of Piatto del Salumiere (a butcher block of various salamis, cheese and candied walnuts) or be exotic with Polpette D’Agnello, which is ground lamb spiked with cumin, red currants and red onions served skewered with crostini and Fontana cheeses and finished with a glaze of molasses.
Can I say La Zingara is my favorite restaurant? Today, yes I can.