5D5M #3, Lunch at Il Feudo del Vicari

We woke up the other day with not a plan on the schedule and not a cloud in the sky, but with an itch to get out of the house. But, we’d woken up a bit late, so without enough time to do any serious exploring of a new town. Enough time, however, to do some lunchtime exploring of somewhere that didn’t demand a drastic drive, so we headed to Anghiari. Anghiari is a hilltown just into Tuscany, about 15 minutes at most from Citta di Castello, and across the highway from Sansepulcro, where we’d stopped a few times on past trips but hadn’t been yet (except to take folks to the shoe outlet on Anghiari’s outskirts) during the pre-tirement. Perched literally on a hillside, Anghiari is (I believe) a lovely spot--so much so we wondered why we hadn’t been spending more time there and are determined to go back again before leaving. But this time, we were on a lunch mission, and a Five Days, Five Meals mission, and focused in on finding the right spot. And the right spot was: Il Feudo del Vicari. We were taken upstairs into a cozy little room (except that the chairs were of the looks-good-but-kills-your-back straight-backed medieval style), where we ordered wine and a host of intriguing dishes. But first, check out my mysterious wine-drinking lunch companion:

We started with a dish that instantly rose into the precious “top ten dishes I’ve had this month list”—a cheese dip topped with truffles:

I mean, really, isn’t that amazing? Melted cheese (I believe it was a parmesan variant) with shaved truffles and light extra virgin olive oil on top? Fan-freakin-tastic. For my main, I had a lush ricotta-stuffed ravioli topped with butter and sage:

For her main, the mysterious lady above went to the pasta forest (in a way) with a tagliatelle porcini (and between us, it was better than my ravioli—even though the ravioli was tasty. But the porcinis were mushroom-y, teeth-y, and full of flavor):

As much as I love good pasta, my side dish may have been the finest post-cheese-dip part of the lunch though. A simple patate arrosta (or roasted potatoes), they were crisp, buttery, parsley-y, and perfect:

I saved the bottom one to be my last bite of our Anghiari lunching adventure.

*See more Italian restaurants: Capponi, Nestor's,Nonna Gelsa, Le Capannine di Sommavilla, Calagrana, Trattoria Il Saraceno, L Enoteca Wine Club, Mastro Dante, Bar Fizz, Da Cesari, al Frantoio, La Balestra, Lo Strattoio, Mencuccio, La Fortezza

*See all Italian restaurants