5D5M #5, Dinner at La Tufa

For our last tantalizing stop in Five Days, Five Meals, we pull up to a place we’ve driven by many times, as it’s on the way to Terontola, where our visitors come in on the train, a place called La Tufa. It’s in a town called Ossaia (which has a little history thanks to Lago Trasimeno battle star, Hannibal), and has one of those signs that for some reason catches the eye: cute font, welcoming swing, intriguing name. Every time we drove past, either Nat or I would say “we’ll have to stop there sometime.” But it’s over the hill, just far enough to be out of “wonder where we’ll eat tonight as it’s 7 pm and we haven’t decided yet” style planning. The other night though, we a not-last-minute plan, and ended up at La Tufa. And, we were glad we made the trip, cause it was as inviting inside as the sign would lead you to believe. Nat also got to realize a long-standing dream or having a pizza with French fries on it:

What a combo: French fries, pesto, mozz cheese. Dreamy (both in that it tasted dreamy, and was it all just a dream?). The pizza crust was good, as well as the topping. I would have been overly jealous, but A: we were sharing (a lot of pre-tirement involves sharing, by the way), and B: I ordered a hot (baby, it was cold outside) Ribollita, or bread and vegetable soup that was really tasty, almost like a bread and veggie casserole with a crispy top and hot center:

I also had a pasta course (cause really, I have a hard time ordering just one course when there are so many choices) and it ended up being quite different from the norm (the central Italian norm, that is). It was a pasta with a tomato pesto sauce, and the sauce, unlike most pasta dishes here (pasta dishes that aren’t a baked pasta, that is), was served in abundance. It was almost more American in style, with the sauce taking as much or a front seat as the pasta. Luckily, the sauce had very good flavor. The pasta itself was also different, almost spatzle-y, with shorter, thicker pieces of irregularly-sized pasta (which provided a chewy, captivating balance for the sauce):

Looks like we’re going to have to have our guests schedule more arrivals and departures near dinnertime. A fitting end to our workweek (at least in number of days) of meals, better known now in international circles as: Five Days, Five Meals. Hopefully your shirt isn’t too covered with drool.

*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