MANILA, Philippines - In gnocchi, one can find love. And in a new restaurant called Tuscano, there is enough gnocchi love for everyone. The gnocchi here bathes in a creamy gorgonzola sauce, topped with chiffonades of basil and adorned with light specks of black pepper. It’s easy to enjoy this dish over and over again with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio.
Tuscano Italian Wood Oven Pizza & Restaurant carefully pays homage to Italian cooking. The menu is kept simple and rustic. Ingredients are also kept authentic and fresh. Eating here is almost like being served food from an Italian Nona’s kitchen.
To start things off, there is the wild mushroom and mozzarella risotto ball fried to a delicate crisp and served with some pomodoro sauce. There is also a light salad made of roasted bell peppers and fresh buffalo mozzarella. Then there’s the creamy broccoli soup with freshly grated pecorino cheese. Aside from these, you could also have some homemade stewed Italian meatballs in pomodoro sauce, Tuscan calamari frito, bruschetta, and citrus white wine cooked with fresh mussels.
Like any Italian kitchen, there must be good pasta. The spicy gamberetti angel hair spagettini in oil and garlic can be made spicy, depending on your preference. The angel hair pasta is tossed in garlic, oil, prawns, and cherry tomatoes. The Italian sausage and Bolognese, a grown man’s comfort food, proves to be rich and satisfying. Other things one must have here are the truffled wild mushroom cream linguine, fisherman’s seafood with black ink pasta, wild mushroom and cheese ravioli, tarragon herbed prawn tortellini, Tuscan vongole, and Italian meatball with goat cheese.
Pizza in Tuscano is rolled and baked fresh upon order. The margherita pizza is baked with pomodoro sauce and goat cheese. There’s also the seafood pizza, filled with fresh chunks of salmon, mussels, squid, and baby shrimp. Must-try, too, is the rustic asparagus and egg pizza with white sauce and quail egg.
Now, for the entrée, I can’t think of anything richer and more tender than Tuscano’s beef stew casserole with chocolate. Upon order, one will be served some slices of focaccia bread, which are then delicately placed atop the stew so that they slowly soak in the chocolate sauce. There is also Grandma’s roasted garlic chicken served with a creamy baked potato and for a lighter fare, order the Parmesan crusted grouper fillet served with some creamed vegetables.
Aside from these, Tuscano serves some grilled balsamic glazed bone-in pork chop, slow-cooked osso buco Milanese, char-grilled bistecca Tuscan style, crisp baked Norwegian salmon and risotto, slow-roasted rosemary herb pork belly in apple sauce, wild mushroom, spinach chicken, and much, much more.
For dessert, Tuscano makes a creamy tiramisu with a modern crunchy twist. There is also the mango panna cotta and sweet cannoli.
Indeed, at Tuscano, one can experience good comfort food, the true Italian way.
* * *
Tuscano is located at GF-3 The Fort Residences, 30th St. corner Padre Burgos Circle, Bonifacio Global City, 1105 Taguig. For reservations, call 478-7503.