Lunch at La Buca di Bacco

After our big Orvieto exploration (detailed below, if you missed it, in five—or so—pictures) we’d picked up quite a hunger. After walking the Orvieto streets for a bit (making that hunger even more keen), checking out a few places and walking away from their menu turisticas, we stopped in at La Buca di Bacco. And it was a fortuitous stop, because our lunch was the perfect complement to a morning of site-seeing. I started with delicious warm porcini salad, topped with freshly shaved cheese and radicchio:

The foresty warm porcini provided a happy balance with the tang of the cheese and crunch of the bitter red radicchio. Nat (and Nicole, who was also in Orvieto with us, along with Jon) started with a creamy, smooth, asparagus soup, topping with a swirl of the local olive oil. The oil’s brisk personality played well with the delicately smooth soup:

Jon had a lovely ensalate mista (more than the basic lettuce and onion, it had a host of veggies), but I forgot to snap a snapshot, but I did get a pic of his ricotta ravioli topped with a hint of cream and walnuts (which I also had). The pasta was homemade and finely dente’d, and the persuasive ricotta went well with it and the crunchy walnuts:

Nat and Nicole both went for radicchio risotto with gorgonzola. The double shot of strong personalities (bitter leaf and pungent cheese) might scare off some, but the ladies weren’t scared at all, and you know what (well, of course you don’t, but let me be rhetoric risottoly)? The two tastes came together like Sunday mornings and sleeping it late—they seemed made for each other:

After a quick walk through the restaurant’s Etruscan basement seating room (ideal if you ever need a party space in Orvieto by the way), and a moment or two to finish up the clear, crisp, friendly, reknowned-for-a-reason Orvieto white wine we accompanied the meal with, we walked back into town full and happy.

*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. La Tufa, Kentia Pizzeria, Il Feudo del Vicari

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