Mortadella ain't Baloney

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If memories of childhood baloney (bologna) sandwiches have kept you from eating Mortadella, I want to convince you that you have been missing something special. I had too many bologna/ketchup/white bread sandwiches in my childhood and mortadella looked too much like bologna. Don’t let the similarities in appearance fool you. Mortadella tastes nothing like American bologna. Yesterday I tasted imported mortadella for the first time. I admit, in the past I opted for prosciutto or salami and said “no thanks” to mortadella. Those days are over - another childhood phobia conquered!

Mortadella originated in Bologna in Emilia Romagna sometime in the 1300s. It is certified as a IGP product (Indicazione Geografica Tipica), which means that it is made under specific guidelines set by the Italian government. It is made from ground or hashed pork and must be consist of 15% cubes of pork fat. Modern and Sicilian versions contain pistachios and it is usually spiced with myrtle, pepper and garlic. IGP designation includes mortadella produced in several regions of Italy, including Piedmont, Veneto, Lombardy and Tuscany.

The sausage was originally made in a large mortar, cooked, then stuffed into a large casing. Mortadella is popular worldwide, with a version in Spain that includes olives, versions in the Middle East that use chicken and the bland cousin (bologna) in the U.S. and Canada that omits the cubes of fat.

In Bologna, it is one of the meats used in traditional Ragù alla Bolognese and in a local sandwich called Piadine Romagnole, which is a flatbread stuffed with mortadella, cheeses, arugula and then grilled. In Rome, Pizza Bianca con Mortazza, isn’t pizza at all, but a popular street food that uses plain pizza dough which is baked, cut into pieces like a pita, then stuffed with mortadella.

At M’tucci’s Bar Roma, we make a Piadina e Mortazza by lightly grilling slices of mortadella, and adding soft brie, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, a drizzle of a balsamic reduction and stuffed into our House Made flatbread. At lunch we have an Italian Cold Cuts sandwich with Prosciutto, Calabrese Salami and Mortadella. Recently, at Chef Shawn’s insistence, I had the sandwich on focaccia, with fresh mozzarella and thinly sliced mounds of mortadella. It was incredible. Rich, silky pork flavors that practically melt in your mouth. Ask for it the next time you come to lunch.

At M’tucci’s Twenty-Five it is one of the choices for a Salami Charcuterie Board. As always, it is sliced very thin, like prosciutto.

Give it a try. Just don’t call it bologna or baloney!

M’tucci’s Valentine’s Weekend Begins 2/10

Valentine’s Day Menus

Every location will have a special Valentine’s Day Dessert created by Chef Brianna and M’tucci’s Pastry Palace

Cherry Shortcake Entremet: Cherry Morello Mousse, Vanilla Cake, Cherry Compote, Vanilla Cherry Shortcake Crumble, Velvet Cocoa Cookie, Limoncello Cherries

M’tucci’s Italian

Cold-Smoked Ocean Trout Tartare (Braised Golden Beets, Toasted Pistachios, Sias Farms Baby Beet Greens, Strawberry Mignonette

24 oz Hand-Cut Porterhouse, Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction

Veal Porterhouse, Creamed Leek Potato Au Gratin, Grilled Broccolini, Blackberry Shrub Balsamic Reduction

Pan Seared - Skate Wing, Creamy Garlic Mash Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Beurre Blanc

M’tucci’s Moderno

6 oz. Filet, Herb Roasted Carrots, Port Beurre Rouge, Roasted Purple Potatoes    

Lemon Pistachio Crusted Ruby Trout, Warm Orzo Salad, Spinach, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Garlic Tarragon Bearnaise 

Pan Seared MonkFish, Roasted Artichoke, Garlic Sauteed Broccolini, Mashed Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Smoked Prosciutto Powder

24 oz Porterhouse, Salsa Verde, Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Garlic Sauteed Broccolini

Lobster Ravioli, Shrimp, Bay Scallops, Lobster Cream Sauce

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass, Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Seared Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce

Ahi Tuna & Scallop, Fresh Mango, Braised Heirloom Carrots, Roasted Turnips, Saffron White Balsamic Reduction

Fried Oysters- Nduja Aioli, Fresh Orange, Marinated Fennel, Spring Mix

Bison Short ribs, Braised Root Vegetables, Smoked Tomato Mostarda,Sauteed Spinach, Roasted Fennel Farrotto

Brodetto (Cioppino), Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, White Wine Tomato Brodo. Served With M’tucci’s garlic bread


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Prix Fixe Menu

We will have a Prix Fixe menu for couples beginning Thursday 2/9 through 2/14 in addition to our regular menu. The meal begins with a Strawberry Spritz, then a choice of one of the three appetizers, one of the three entrees, and a shared dessert. Each couple has a choice of a bottle of M’tucci’s Private Label Wine (Rosso, Sangiovese, Bianco or Sparkling).

Appetizers (Choose one)

Pesce Fresco: California Halibut, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Micro Greens, Citrus Reduction, Passion Fruit Pearls. 

Charcuterie: 2 Year-old Prosciutto, Double Cream Brie, Onion Mostarda, M’tucci’s Sourdough Bread. 

Insalata d’Arte: Shredded Purple Kale, M’tucci’s Vinaigrette, Pecorino Romano, Garlic Butter Toasted Bread Crumbs. 

Entrees (Choose one)

Ravioli di Mare: Butter Poached Sugar Snap Peas, Slipper Lobster, Pink Patagonian Shrimp, 5 Cheese Ravioli, Pancetta and Lobster Brodo, Shaved Parmesan, Micro greens. 

Osso Buco Bianco: Milk Braised Pork Shank, Rosemary Polenta, Braised Greens, Parsley Glass, Cacio Di Roma. 

Melanzane Ragù: Cold Smoked and Roasted Eggplant Ragù, Roasted Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions, Red Wine, M’tucci’s Rigatoni, Fresh Herbs, Pecorino. 

Dessert: Vanilla Vodka Mousse, Morello Cherry Compote, Chocolate Glaze, Dark Chocolate Brownie, Pine Nuts, Caramelized Rice Puffs.

February 4 Fundraiser

We’ll serve Chef Cory’s Green Chile Stew with Sackett farms pork

Explora Science of Wine

M'tucci's will be at Science of Wine at Explora in February! Join us for charcuterie bites at this 21+ only event complete with tastings, cash bars, hands-on wine-themed activities, and all of Explora at your fingertips! Tickets are pre-sale only and can be purchased at:

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Fennel Orange Zest/Ricotta filled Ravioli, Sautéed Pink Shrimp, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Calabrian Chiles, Roasted Butternut Squash Cream Sauce, Pecorino & Micro Greens $27

Double Bone Herbed Elk Chops: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan-Seared California Halibut - Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $37

Braise - Red Wine Braised Sackett Farm Pork Shanks: Horseradish/Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon Chimichuri $29

Weekend Cocktail -

Bee My Honey - Maker’s Mark, Fresh Lemon Juice, Honey Simple Syrup, Orange Bitters


M’tucci’s Moderno

New Permanent Menu Items added this Weekend

Coming Soon!

Weekend Cocktail

Island Time - Lychee Infused Hendrick’s Gin, Falernum, Fresh Lemon Juice, Angostura Bitters, Simple Syrup, Rosewater

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

14 oz. NY Strip - Grilled Broccolini, Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Blackberry bone Marrow Butter $36

Pan-Seared California Halibut - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $37

Pecorino Brodo Braised Sackett Farms Pork Shank - Mascarpone Creamy Polenta, Roasted Cannelloni Beans, Prosciutto, Pancetta and Italian Herb Sauce $25

Weekend Cocktail

Barbados - Bumbu Rum, Meletti Amaro, Chocolate Bitters


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Tri Color Ravioli - Spinach & Five Cheese Filling, Lamb, Pancetta, Red Onions, Sautéed Mushrooms, Pecorino Brodo $25

Pan-Seared Bronzino - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Arugula with Garlic, Seared Stem-on Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $37

Weekend Cocktail

False Spring - Absolute Grapefruit vodka, Drambuie, Fresh Lemon Juice & Grapefruit Juice, Herbed Simple Syrup

Live Music for February

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - Wed 6:30-8:30. Sunday noon-2pm

2/5 Gilbert Uribe

2/8 Nathan Fox

2/12 RJ Perez

2/15 Shane Wallin

2/19 Lani Nash

2/22 Eryn Bent

2/26 Shane Wallin

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - Thursday 6:30-8:30 * Friday 7:30-9:30

2/3 Gilbert Uribe

2/9 Alex Maryol

2/10 Lani Nash

2/16 RJ Perez

2/17 Matt Jones

2/23 Shane Wallin

2/24 Justin Nuñez 

M’tucci’s Moderno - Thursday 6:30-830 *Friday 7:30-9:30

2/3 RJ Perez 

2/9 Shane Wallin 

2/10 Justin Nuñez

2/16 Matt Jones

2/17 Eryn Bent

2/23 Alex Maryol

2/24 Javier Ortega 

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Italian Christmas Eve

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M’tucci’s Holiday Hours

12/24: Close at 9:00

12/25, 1/1 & 1/2: Closed

The Southern Italian provinces of Calabria, Basilicata, Campania and Puglia are credited with bringing many fantastic foods to our shores: eggplant parmesan, pizza, arancini, gelato, San Marzano tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella to name a few.

A tradition known in the South and in many Italian American families is the Feast of Seven Fishes. Like meatless Fridays created by the Catholic church, the day before an important date in the Church’s calendar also observed the meatless tradition. Know as "The Vigil” (La Vigilia), Christmas Eve would begin with a seafood feast before midnight mass and celebration of Christmas Day.

There is no general agreement on the reason for the number seven - perhaps it’s from the Church’s Seven Sacraments. Some families create seven different dishes for the meal, while some simply include seven different types of fish.

My wife’s family and I typically celebrate Christmas with our version of the Feast of Seven Fishes. This year’s menu consists of raw oysters, crab cakes, boiled shrimp and Dungeness crab. Not quite seven, but quite enough.

In Italy, the menu might begin with a plate of crudo (raw fish), followed by a plate of frito misto (fried seafood), then maybe a fish soup, then a course of pasta or risotto with seafood and finally a whole fish, roasted or grilled.

You can put together your own Feast of Seven Fishes at any M’tucci’s restaurant this weekend. All locations have Fried Calamari and Pan-Seared Fresh Atlantic Salmon on the menu.

At M’tucci’s Bar Roma, start with Polpo di Roma (octopus) or Amaro-Cured Salmon Belly. Second course could be Oceano Risotto (octopus, clams & Shrimp) or Blanco Aglio e Olio Pasta (clams, oysters, shrimp), then finish with the special Pan-Seared Ocean Trout.

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five can start you off with Smoked Salmon Tartare or Shrimp Diavolo. Follow it with White Clam Linguine or Wild Crab/Salmon Cakes or Lobster Ravioli. This weekend we are featuring Saffron Seafood Risotto and Pan-Seared Chilean Sea Bass.

M’tucci’s Moderno can start your feast with Smoked Salmon Tartare or Totten Inlet Mussels, then a cup or a bowl of New England Clam Chowder. Next order the Frutti Di Mare: a mix of shrimp, clams, scallops and mussels in a spicy marinara sauce over house made pasta, then finish with the weekend Pan-Seared Swordfish.

At M’tucci’s Italian begin with Clam Steamers or Calamari, then have the Pasta Giardino with Pink Patagonia Shrimp or the Risotto Carnaroli di Pesce with bay scallops, white clams, shrimp and fish. This Weekend’s fish special is Pan-Seared Ocean Trout.

Last Minute Gifts!

Cookie Boxes & Gift Cards Bonus until 12/31. M’tucci’s Bacon everyday!

Our Shrubs now come in 2 oz. Bottles. 4 bottles, one of each flavor for $15.

available in a four flavor gift pack. Now you can sample all four flavors.

Saturday, 12/24 at Steel Bender Brewyard

Don’t miss Chef Brianna’s Rocky Road Clusters with a special Brickie American Stout

M’tucci’s Voted Best Italian Restaurant for the 4th Year in a Row and Best Waitstaff for the 3rd time in the Last 4 Years!! Thank you!

Voted Top Five for Best Bloody Mary, Best Business Lunch Spot & Best Appetizer Menu

New Year’s Eve at M’tucci’s

All locations are doing something special. A special Charcuterie Board with Iberico Jamon and half price bottles of M’tucci’s Sparkling Wine all day on 12/31 at all M’tucci’s.

Make reservations so you can join us!

M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Open until 12:30am 

7pm-9pm: Live Music Stylings of Tracey Whitney and Sid Fendley from "The Art of Jazz"

9:30pm-12:30pm DJ BigHap(py)

Appetizer: Big Baller Board: Triple Cream Brie, Pata Negra Jamon Iberico, Artichoke Hearts, Onion Mostarda

Za’atar Spiced Cold Smoked 14oz Ribeye

Smoked Salmon/Crab Cakes: Broccolini, Roasted Red Pepper With Almond Caponata, Artichoke And Black Truffle Puree. 

Skate Wing: Garlic Whip Mash Potatoes, Braised Arugula With Garlic, Seared Stem On Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce. 

Porchetta Di Roma: Braised Sackett Farms Pork, Pecorino Risotto, Fresh Herbs, Colonnata Butter, Garlic, Escarole & Gigante Bean Brodo

Spinach Five Cheese Ravioli: Pecorino Brodo, Smoked Local Oyster Mushrooms, Marinated Red Peppers, Fried Spinach Leaves

Dessert - Strawberry & Passion Fruit Mille Feuille, Fresh Strawberries, Vanilla Cream, Strawberry and Passion Fruit Gelee

House Clarified Cocktail

Smoked Old Fashioned

Espresso Martini

Pink Rabbit

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Muni and Jared of Le Chat Lunatique play live music from 6:00 until 9:00

Surf and Turf - 6oz Grilled Beef Filet with Butter Amaro Sauce, Grilled Garlic Butter Prawns, Sweet Potato Puree, Grilled Asparagus

Double Bone Elk Ribeye served with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Black Truffle Porcini Butter

Pan Seared Diver Sea Scallops - served with Garlic mashed potatoes, Roasted Artichoke Hearts, Sauteed Garlic Arugula and a lemon caper butter sauce

Ravioli special - House Black Truffle Wild Mushroom Ravioli, Roasted Cauliflower, Sherry Cream Sauce, Hazelnut Gremolata

App Special: Chianina Beef Carpaccio - Garlic Aioli, Capers, Shaved Pecorino Romano, Lemon, Micro Greens, Umbrian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Charcuterie - Iberico Board: Pata Negra Jamon Iberico, Onion Mostarda, Triple Cream Brie, Roasted Artichoke Hearts, House Sourdough

Dessert - Strawberry & Passion Fruit Mille Feuille, Fresh Strawberries, Vanilla Cream, Strawberry and Passion Fruit Gelee

Cocktail specials -

Blackberry Walnut Old Fashioned - Knob Creek 9 Year-Old, Cassis, Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur, Walnut Bitters

Inner Flame -Sombra Mezcal, St. Germaine, Honey Simple, Ginger liquid Alchemist

M’tucci’s Moderno

Our Bar/Mezzanine will be open until 2023. Music is provided by DJ Primoswift until the ball drops!

Come for dinner and stay to party in the New Year!

App Specials: Beer Battered Fried Oysters with Spicy Garlic Aioli & Iberico Board with 100% Pata Negra Jamon Iberico, Triple Cream Brie, Seared Roman Artichoke Hearts & Caramelized Onion Mostarda.

Hand Cut 14oz Ribeye with Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus.

Pan Seared Scallops with Roasted Artichokes, Braised Escarole, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, Smoked Prosciutto Powder.

Surf & Turf: Hand Cut 14oz Ribeye & Half Lobster Tail with Red Potato Gratin, Roasted Pattypan Squash + Peppers & Onions, Tarragon Beurre Blanc

Dessert - Strawberry & Passion Fruit Mille Feuille, Fresh Strawberries, Vanilla Cream, Strawberry and Passion Fruit Gelee

Antinori ‘Antica’ Townsend Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2012 Napa Valley, California  Bottle - $90 / Glass - $18

Hibiscus 76: Hibiscus Infused Gin, Herbed Simple Syrup, Sparkling Wine

M’tucci’s Italian

Appetizer: Iberico Board: Pata Negra Jamon Iberico, Onion Mostarda, Triple Cream Brie, Roasted Artichoke Hearts, House Sourdough 

Pan-Seared California Halibut

Surf & Turf: Ribeye & Scallops

Dessert - Strawberry & Passion Fruit Mille Feuille, Fresh Strawberries, Vanilla Cream, Strawberry and Passion Fruit Gelee

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Roasted Red Pepper/Garlic/Ricotta filling, Cotto Ham, Local Oyster Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions, Turnip Greens, Tea Brown Butter Sauce, Dried Cranberries, Toasted Almonds, Pecorino $27

14 oz. NY Strip: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan-Seared Ocean Trout - Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $33

Braise - Sackett Farms Pork Cheeks - Braised in White Wine and Herbs, Creamy Polenta, Haricot Vert, Braising Sauce & Parsley $29

Weekend Cocktail

Cranberry Martini - El Tesoro Blanco Tequila, Cointreau, Lime & Cranberry Juice, Agave Syrup


M’tucci’s Moderno

24 oz. Porterhouse - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $43

Pan-Seared Swordfish - Roasted Artichoke, Braised Escarole, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $32

Pulpo Risotto - Octopus Confit, Pickled Fennel, Pomegranate Seeds, Blood Orange Reduction, Carrots, Onions Mushrooms, Cream, Brandy $29

Weekend Cocktail

Scratchin’ Your Noggin - Absolut Vanilla Vodka, Amaretto, Silk Nog, Brown Sugar, Topped with Whipped Cream & Cinnamon


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

24 oz. Porterhouse - Grilled Broccolini, Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Blackberry bone Marrow Butter $43

Pan-Seared Chilean Sea Bass - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $41

Grilled Lamb Chops - Agave Braised Apple, Parsnips & Carrots, Crispy Potatoes, Whiskey Coffee Beurre Blanc $42

Saffron Seafood Risotto - Mussels, Clams, Baby Scallops, Shrimp Marinated Tomatoes, Saffron White Wine Creamy Risotto $31

Weekend Cocktail

Cranberry Claus - Tito’s Vodka, Carpano Antica Vermouth, Ginger Liquid Alchemist, Cranberry & Lime Juice, Simple Syrup


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Sackett Farms Grilled Pork Tenderloin - Fig/Mustard Marinated, Tri Color Patata Bollente, Arugula, Butter Poached Tri Colored Carrots, Amalfi Lemon Oil $31

Pan-Seared Ocean Trout - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Arugula with Garlic, Seared Stem-on Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $33

Weekend Cocktail

Having a Güt Navidad - El Tesoro Reposado Tequila, German Egg Nog with a Cinnamon Cream

Live Music for December & January

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - Wed 6:30-8:30. Sunday noon-2pm

12/28 Shane Wallin

1/4 RJ Perez

1/8 Matt Jones

1/11 Alex Long

1/15 Javier Ortega

1/18 Jason Seel

1/22 Abby Deeter

1/25 Rob Martinez

1/29 Xandra

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - Thursday 6:30-8:30 * Friday 7:30-9:30

12/23 Gilbert Uribe

12/29 Chessa Peak

12/30 RJ Perez

1/5 Marissa

1/6 John Martinez

1/12 Amy Faithe

1/13 Gilbert Uribe

1/19 RJ Perez

1/20 Javier Ortega

1/26 Amy Faithe

1/27 Lani Nash

M’tucci’s Moderno - Thursday 6:30-830 *Friday 7:30-9:30

12/23 Rob Martinez

12/29 Marissa

12/30 Javier Ortega

1/5 Xandra

1/6 Lani Nash

1/12 John Martinez

1/13 RJ Perez

1/19 Oscar Butler

1/20 Matt Jones

1/26 Chessa Peak

1/27 John Martinez

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!


Italy - Off the Beaten Path

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“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost first published in 1915 in The Atlantic Monthly

A beautiful sentiment for those who love to explore the backroads and the lesser known places.

By all means, visitors to Italy should experience Rome, Venice & Florence. If you have time, or on your second visit, don’t miss the Cinque Terre, Siena, Orvieto or the Amalfi Coast.

Whether it’s your first visit or you’ve been several times to this enchanting country, you should make time for small towns - places off the beaten path, towns not heavily touristed. It’s not hard to escape the hoards of tourists who crowd the museums, piazzas and beaches every year.

Here are a few that I suggest for your next Italian vacation.

Pontessieve - This small town in Tuscany, east of Florence, is surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. It’s a crossroads town at the confluence of the Arno and Sieve rivers. It’s an easy train ride into Florence and has easy access to major highways for day trips to Arezzo or the Chianti region. With agriturismos, markets, restaurants and historic streets, it’s an easy place to stay for a few days or a week.

Isola d’Elba - The small island sits off the coast of Tuscany and is a short ferry ride from the port of Piombino. My first visit to Italy was in April and started in Milan. After a few rainy and chilly days in the Cinque Terre, we headed south in search of some sun and found it on Elba. The island features rugged terrain and equally rugged people. To say it was quiet in the off season is an understatement. The island has beautiful beaches, terrific obscure wine and is known as the place where Napoleon was exiled in 1814 after he was forced from the throne.

Avola & Noto, Sicily - The quiet seaside town of Avola and the nearby hill town of Noto are located in the Southeast corner of Sicily, far from the noise and hustle of Palermo. If you travel in the shoulder season, you’ll likely have the beach to yourself, walk into restaurants without a reservation, and share the towns with just the residents. You will find amazing architecture, incredibly fresh seafood and some of the best gelato anywhere.

Arezzo - South of Florence, Arezzo is a Tuscan hill town that feels smaller than its 100K inhabitants. This ancient Etruscan city dates back to the 9th century BC and is filled with museums and churches with world—class works of art. It’s a charming and easily walkable small city, featuring a cathedral with 15th-century frescoes by Piero della Francesca.

Castiglione del Lago - The small town on the western shore of Lago Trasimeno is in the northern part of Umbria. It is pretty busy in summer, but was quiet in October. The off season became apparent when we arrived by train and there were no taxis at the train station, a good mile from the town. The owner of the shop at the station actually called a friend to take us to the town. The lake is the fourth largest in Italy and has three islands in the lake and castles in each town surrounding the lake. Ancient olive trees dominate the small park and you can climb the ramparts of the castle. The lake is just south of the hill town of Cortona, made famous by the book and movie, “Under the Tuscan Sun.”

Regardless of where you travel in Italy, walk the neighborhoods, get slightly lost and soak up the architecture and atmosphere that is uniquely Italian.

Book and Prepay Online by Clicking on This Link

New Mexico United &

M’tucci’s Moderno

Celebrity Host Kalen Ryden

Monday, November 14, 5:30 -7:00

Stop by and meet one of our football club’s premier defenders.

Order Your Thanksgiving Pies Now!

Back by popular demand, Chef Brianna and team will make an Old Forester Bourbon Pecan Pie with Vanilla Whipped Cream ($20) and Pumpkin Pie with Ginger Whipped Cream and Pumpkin Seed Brittle ($18). ⁠

⁠Order your pies by calling the location where you want to pick up. Ordering deadline is 11/20 and pick up days are 11/22 after noon and 11/23 after we open.

Thanksgiving Matchup

Several area bakeries, including M’tucci’s, will be participating in the Thanksgiving Matchup this year. Nearly 50 local bakeries and restaurants are matched with a local family in need and will deliver their special desserts to that family for Thanksgiving week. Our guests can join in giving by buying a gift certificate equal to or greater than the cost of a pie and we’ll provide a pie to one of the families now on the waiting list for a Thanksgiving dessert. Just tell your server or manager that you want to contribute. You can also contact Kandi Ramsey, co-owner of ABQ Sweet Spot or email [email protected] to see how you can help.

Whiskey Flight at M’tucci’s Italian

Featuring Maker’s Mark Barrel Selects

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Green Chile & Ricotta filling, Cockle Clams, Cotto Ham, Red Onions, Asparagus, Cherry Tomatoes, Roasted Poblano Cream Sauce, Pecorino, Micro Greens $27

14 oz Ribeye: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan-Seared California Halibut - Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $33

Braise - Cold Smoked Half Chicken, Braised in White Wine, Lemon & Rosemary, Sweet Potatoes Mash, Sautéed Broccolini, Braising Sauce $25

Weekend Cocktail

A Night in Monte - Montenegro Amaro, Fresh Lemon Juice, Honey Simple Syrup


M’tucci’s Moderno

14 oz. Ribeye - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $39

Pan-Seared Meagre - Roasted Artichoke, Braised Escarole, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $29

Chicken Portobello Spaghetti Pasta - Roasted Portobello Mushrooms, Mussels, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach, Mozzarella & Roasted Garlic Demi-Glace $21

Weekend Cocktail

Mark Your Calendar! - Teremana Blanco Tequila, O3 Orange Liqueur, Pasubio Amaro , Fresh Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

12 oz. Veal Porterhouse - Grilled Broccolini, Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Blackberry bone Marrow Butter $37

Pan-Seared Icelandic Cod - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $33

Sackett Farms Pork Loin Marsala - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Roasted Bell Pepper, Caramelized Onions, Spinach and Marsala Sauce $24

Weekend Cocktail

Tangsgiving - Diplomatico Exclusiva Rum, Tripe Sec, Hot Water, Holidays Spices


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Pan-Seared Icelandic Cod - Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Braised Arugula, Garlic, Pan-Seared Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $33

Cold Smoked Herb Roasted Game Hen - Smoked Gouda au Gratin, Za’tar Braised Carrots, M’tucci’s Pancetta, Escarole, Caramelized Onions, N’Duja Butter $27

Weekend Cocktail

Chai Me a River - Myers Rum, Kahlúa, Chai Mix, Ginger Bitters, Half & Half

Live Music for November

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - Wed 6:30-8:30. Sunday noon-2pm

11/13 Oscar Butler

11/16 Shane Wallin

11/20 John Martinez

11/23 Ron Martinez

11/27 Shane Wallin

11/30 Oscar Butler

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - Thursday 6:30-8:30 * Friday 7:30-9:30

11/11 Lani Nash

11/17 Rj Perez

11/18 Matt Jones

11/25 Rob Martinez

M’tucci’s Moderno - Thursday 6:30-830 *Friday 7:30-9:30

11/11 Rj Perez

11/17 Matt Jones

11/18 Lani Nash

11/25 Alex Long

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

"New" Italian Wines

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A night of Italian wines you’ve probably never tasted will be featured with the next Five-Course Pairing Dinner at M’tucci’s Italian on Thursday, November 17.

Chef’s Shawn and Cory sat down with local distributor who imports wine from small producers. One of the wines that is popular on the East Coast is Orange Wine. It is made from white wine grapes (rosé is made from dark-skinned grapes) that is crushed and left in contact with the skins for several days.

They have chosen wines from throughout Italy, Puglia, Veneto and Piedmont for this wine dinner. The menu will be added to this space and to Facebook soon.

Here are some notes about the wines from the importer, Portovino:

Our first course will begin with Flora Prosecco. Col di Luna is a Prosecco producer at the foot of the Dolomites, in the Vittorio Veneto area of the Prosecco growing area, and they have a long family tradition of producing a zingy Brut Prosecco. Pairs well with all kinds of dishes, from aperitivo foods and light meals, to crudo and sushi.

Two wines from the small, boutique vintner, Sfera, will go with the next two courses.

Sfera is a natural wine project that collaborates with small organically certified wineries throughout Italy– from the Alps to the Mediterranean– to bottle distinctive wines in small batches. In the spirit of full transparency, each vineyard is represented on the always changing back label. Macerato is a clean and structured, textbook example of orange wine, with moderate acidity and medium body. Verdeca grapes are harvested in mid-September, and then see 14 days of skin contact in stainless steel vats. Notes of sandalwood and spice dance with citrus peel and saline minerality.

Sfera’s at once terroir-driven, but also an interesting take on liters, and bottling wine in general. As Sfera says on their quirky site: Cosmic Verve in a Grounded Italian Liter…From the Alps to the Mediterranean.  Sfera collaborates with multiple small certified-organic farmers to bottle liters in limited runs, and are keen to give the producer credit by clearly putting the winery’s name and providence on the back label.

This all means that the producers change, but front labels don’t. Another constant is that the wines are naturally made, and fall into certain guidelines that are lab tested before and after bottling. It’s a win-win, small certified organic producers get to do a fun liter project, and we get to explore Italy. 

While working in Africa for National Geographic in 1999, I met an Italian photographer who invited me to visit his home in the Piedmont. The hill town of Avolasca is surrounded by farms and vineyards in the valley called Colli Tortonesi. The wines were memorable, particularly the Barbera.

From Portovino: “Walter Massa is the real deal: a contadino (farmer) with deep family roots in his native Colli Tortonesi who’s usually plowing his vineyards or buzzing around his cellar when someone arrives for a visit. He’ll then stop to spend hours pouring wines for, and talking with the continual waves of journalists, sommeliers, importers, buyers, and just plain fans who make their way to his village of Monleale in the southeast corner of Piemonte. Massa is universally known as the Maestro di Timorasso — he rescued it from obscurity and near-extinction and now leads a mini-renaissance of the variety in the Colli Tortonesi. But he also produces amazing and distinctive reds (and the occasional rosato) from the local varieties Barbera, Croatina, Freisa, and Nebbiolo. Besides being one of Italy’s truly great producers, he’s a stellar example of what the Italians call a personaggio — a real personality. This is his all cement Barbera that is a fun and funky daily drinker, and a great introduction into the reds of Vigneti Massa. People from all over Italy come to fill up their glass jugs (damigiana) from his cavernous cement tanks he has in his cellar.

Expanded Food Menu at Teddy Roe’s Bar

Make a Reservation by Clicking Here

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Portobello & Ricotta filling, Beef Tips, Turnip Greens, Caramelized Onions, Brodo Cream Sauce, Pecorino, Micro Greens $27

14 oz Ribeye: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan-Seared Swordfish - Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $33

Braise - Confit Octopus - Roasted Red Onion, Roasted Butternut Squash, Creamy Sage Risotto, Arugula, Micro Greens $25

Weekend Cocktail

Hungover You - Sazarac Rye, 6pm Montanaro, Fresh Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup, Orange Bitters


M’tucci’s Moderno

14 oz. Ribeye - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $39

Pan-Seared Icelandic Cod - Roasted Artichoke, Braised Escarole, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $28

Shrimp Diavolo - Pink Patagonia Shrimp, Caramelized Onion, Pepper Flakes, Capers, Green Chile, Garlic, Marinara Sauce, House Made Spaghetti $21

Weekend Cocktail

O Canada - Knob Creek Rye, Maple Syrup, Chocolate Bitters


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

14 oz. Ribeye - Grilled Broccolini, Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Blackberry bone Marrow Butter $39

Pan-Seared Artic Char - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $33

6 oz. Sackett Farms Pork Belly Risotto - Crispy Pork Belly, Creamy Risotto, Sugar Snap Peas, Roasted Fennel, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Blackberry Lemon Beurre Blanc Sauce $24

Weekend Cocktail

Fall Into Spice - Spiced Rum, Strega Liquore, Ginger Beer, Liquid Alchemist Apple Spice


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Pan-Seared Ruby Trout - Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Braised Arugula, Garlic, Pan-Seared Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $27

Sea Scallops - Rosemary & Vanilla-Brined Sea Scallops, Roasted Golden Beat and Italian White Bean Succotash, Citrus Grilled Escarole, Tomato & Crab Beurre Blanc, Fresh Herbs and Cracked Pepper $43

Weekend Cocktail

The Takeoff - Absolut Grapefruit Vodka, Aperol, Strega Liquore, Fresh Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup

Live Music for October & November

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - Wed 6:30-8:30. Sunday noon-2pm

11/6 Nathan Fox

11/9 Rj Perez

11/13 Oscar Butler

11/16 Shane Wallin

11/20 John Martinez

11/23 Ron Martinez

11/27 Shane Wallin

11/30 Oscar Butler

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - Thursday 6:30-8:30 * Friday 7:30-9:30

11/4 Jason Seel

11/10 John Martinez

11/11 Lani Nash

11/17 Rj Perez

11/18 Matt Jones

11/25 Rob Martinez

M’tucci’s Moderno - Thursday 6:30-830 *Friday 7:30-9:30

11/4 John Martinez

11/10 Rob Martinez

11/11 Rj Perez

11/17 Matt Jones

11/18 Lani Nash

11/25 Alex Long

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Two Perfect Weeks in Tuscany

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If last week’s La Gazzetta inspired you to visit Tuscany and the Chianti region, here are some tips on how to do it right. September is a great month for travel and October is even better with cooler weather, wine and olive harvests and festivals throughout the region.

Begin your trip by flying into Rome, taking the Leonardo Express train to Rome’s Termini station, then booking the fast train to Florence. Book online with Trenitalia and choose the Freccia option for fast train (about two hours). If you have an hour or so at Termini, there is a large food court on the second level and next door to the station.

Day 1-3: Find an Airbnb or nice hotel in central Florence. Make sure to book your visit to the Uffizi gallery well in advance. Visit the Duomo, which dominates the main piazza, cross the Arno River on the Ponte Vecchio, and escape the crowds by visiting restaurants near Piazza San Spirito. Rent a bike or take a taxi to Piazzale Michelangiolo to watch sunrise over the city. Take an easy bus to the hill town of Fiesole to enjoy the restaurants and views looking over the entire city and the Arno Valley. Do make reservations at Buca Mario, one of the oldest restaurants in the city or try the bistecca alla Fiorentina at Regina Bistecca. The Central Market is the place for olive oils, dried porcini and quick bites for lunch.

Days 4 & 5: Take a taxi or bus to the airport to pick up a rental car. Driving in Italy is fun and easy, so don’t hesitate to get a car to visit hill towns not accessible by train. Book two nights in one of Chianti’s hill towns such as Panzano, Greve in Chianti or Castellini in Chianti. There are an overwhelming number of wineries, restaurants and cooking classes available. Near Castellini in Chianti is Azienda Agricola Casamonti, a farm (that breeds Cinta Sinese free-range pigs) and winery. They offer short tours and a large lunch. Antinori Winery with its modern visitors center, tasting room, gift shop and restaurant is a popular destination. TV celebrity chef Dario Cecchini holds forth nearly every day at his butcher shop/restaurant complex in the hill town of Panzano. There are three different restaurants from which to choose, based on your desired level of meat consumption.

Days 6 & 7: Drive to Siena for two nights. Explore the city with the grand Piazza del Campo, the home to the exciting Palio horse races and the majestic Duomo. The best views are gained by climbing the Torre del Mangia. Study the Google maps well, since there is little parking available in the center of the ancient city. You’ll park your car in lots that are located in the periphery, so book a room somewhat close to a parking lot.

Days 8 & 9: Drive west from Siena, stopping to see the towers of San Gimignano. Try to get there early to beat squadrons of buses and their passengers that descend upon the medieval city. On the main piazza here is a local gelato shop, Gelateria Dondoli, whose proprietor has won the world gelato competition twice - the perfect breakfast!

Continue on the town of Bolgheri in the wine growing region of Coastal Tuscany. The town, surrounded by vineyards, is walkable with several good restaurants and spots to taste the famed Super Tuscans. Visit the hill towns of Bibbona and Castagneto and Marina di Castagneto -Donoratico and San Vincenzo for views of the Tyrrehian Sea. Any of these towns would be good for base for two nights.

Days 10 & 11: Drive east through the countryside to my favorite Tuscan hill town, Montalcino. This town has it all, great restaurants, stunning views of the surrounding vineyards and lots of places to enjoy one of Italy’s finest wines, Brunello di Montalcino. La Fortezza is good for sampling many Brunellos and its less costly cousin, Rosso di Montalcino. Like Siena, you will have to park in one of the parking lots that surround the small town, so be prepared for a little walking to your hotel. Don’t make the same mistake I did and arrive on a Saturday without restaurant reservations. The small town is a popular weekend destination for Italians and travelers. The same goes for all of the restaurants that I have mentioned - make reservations.

Days 12 & 13: Here are two options, depending on your mood. If you have had enough of small towns and wine country and want some big city life, then return the car to Florence and return to Rome on the train. Two nights in a hotel/Airbnb near the Campo di Fiore or Piazza Navona could be the perfect end to your Tuscan travels. Or you could choose to continue east to the hill town of Cortona, made famous as the setting for the book and move, “Under the Tuscan Sun” by Frances Mayes. It has the same charms as Montalcino, with views that take in Umbria and Lake Trasimeno.

Last Day: Instead of sleeping in a disappointing hotel near Termini in Rome the night before your flight, consider staying in the town right by the airport. However, don’t stay at a drab chain hotel at the airport, instead go to the port city of Fiumicino, which has two terrific (according to the writer, Frances Mayes) hotels,. The Seccy and Hotel QC Terme Roma are both within walking distance of good restaurants and they both are only 10 minutes from the airport. Buon Viaggio!

September and October Festivals in Tuscany

Expo Chianti Classico of Greve, which gathers producers from all over the Chianti Classico territory, a chance to sample Chiantis in Chianti. It takes place on the second weekend of September, in the splendid square of Greve in Chianti with tastings, art exhibitions, and concerts. Which means it begins today, so unless you are already there, you’ll have to plan for next year.

Also for next year is the Fiera del Cacio Pienza, the fair that celebrates Tuscan pecorino and is held the first Sunday in September.

Castelnuovo Berardenga celebrates grapes with the Festa dell'uva in Vagliagli.

At the end of October, the 6 municipalities of Chianti adhere to the "Camminata Tra gli Olivi", in collaboration with the Associazione Città dell'Olio: a day dedicated to the discovery of the "green gold" at the time of the olive harvest and pressing.

Next Thursday at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five!

Don’t Miss it!

Click Here to Book Now on Open Table!

Stuffed Squash Blossom is the First Course for the Pairing Dinner with Ex Novo

Albuquerque Journal: Friday, September 9, 2022

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Pesto Ricotta Ravioli: Mushrooms, Spicy Capicola, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Green Chile, Pesto Cream Sauce, Parmesan & micro Greens $25

12 oz Veal Chop: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $37

Pan-Seared Swordfish: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $33

Braise - Lamb, Gorgonzola Creamy Polenta, Haricot Vert $31

Weekend Cocktail

Berto’s Manhattan- Bullet Rye, Berto Vermouth, Grapefruit Bitters, Slap of Basil


M’tucci’s Moderno

14 oz. NY Strip - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $36

Pan-Seared Rockfish- Roasted Artichoke, Braised Escarole, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $24

Sackett Farms Pork Piccata - Arugula, Tomatoes, Feta, Capers, Lemon Butter Sauce tossed with Spaghetti $19

Weekend Cocktail

Blueberry Spritz - Aperol, Pasubio Amaro, M’tucci’s Sparkling Wine, Cherry bitters


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

12 oz. Veal Porterhouse - Grilled Broccolini, Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Blackberry bone Marrow Butter $37

Pan-Seared California White Sea Bass - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $34

Calbrain Pork Shank Ragu - San Marzano Tomatoes, Red Bell, Carrots, Red Wine, Prosciutto and Calabrain Chile over House Made Pappardelle $19

Berry & Kiwi Shortcake - White Cake with Rosemary, Rum, Chantilly Cream, Berry Chutney and Fresh Fruit

Weekend Cocktail

The End of Summer - Effen Cucumber Vodka, Fresh Lime Juice, Simple Syrup, Chamoy & Tajin Rim


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Pan-Seared Butterfish - Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Braised Arugula, Garlic, Pan-Seared Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $39

14 oz Bone-In Ribeye - Herb Dusted Smashed Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Pancetta & Chanterelle Mushroom Au Poivre $39

Duck Pate - Citrus Dressed Cucumber & Arugula Salad, Butter Toasted Almonds $7

Weekend Cocktail

Gotta Lotta Mint - Espolon Tequila, Cassis, Simple Syrup, Fresh Lime Juice, Mint

Live Music for September

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - Wed 6:30-8:30. Sunday noon-2pm



9/11 Shane Wallin

9/14 Sloan Armitage

9/18 Amy Faithe

9/21 Chessa Peak

9/25 John Martinez

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - Thursday 6:30-8:30 * Friday 7:30-9:30



9/9 Alex Maryol

9/15 Melissa Rios

9/16 RJ Perez

9/22 Amy Faithe

9/23 Lani Nash

9/29 Chessa Peak

9/30 Jacob Chavez

M’tucci’s Moderno - Thursday 6:30-830 *Friday 7:30-9:30

9/9 Russel Ash

9/15 Shane Wallin

9/16 Cali Shaw

9/22 Melissa Rios

9/23 Alex Maryol

9/29 Austin Van

9/30 Paul Hunton

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Authentic Italian

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A UNM student, recently returned from a stay in Italy, contacted us for an essay she needed to write on Italian authenticity. What is authentically Italian? I explained my and M’tucci’s views on what constitutes authentic Italian food.

First, Italian cuisine is regional and the definition of Italian cuisine has many flavors and descriptions. Long-time readers of La Gazzetta know that polenta and risotto come from the north, pesto originated in Liguria, cicchetti are synonymous with Venice, Cacio e Pepe is Roman, bitter greens are popular in Puglia and arancini come from Sicily. However, you can find pizza, pasta, mozzarella and tomatoes throughout the country.

Elizabeth asked what our Chefs learned on our trips to Italy and how did we apply that knowledge to being “authentically Italian”?

It’s not only the foods we ate, but experiencing how Italians view food, cooking and eating. In short, authentic Italian is gathering the best ingredients possible, cooking them simply and enjoying a long meal with friends and family.

So, during this holiday weekend, if you can’t visit a M’tucci’s for Italian food, buy the best ingredients you can find, prepare them simply and enjoy a long, leisurely lunch with friends and family. It’s the M’tucci’s way.

All M’tucci’s locations are closed on Monday, July 4th.

Happy Independence Day. Be safe!

Chef Damien & M’tucci’s Bar Roma in the Vegan Chef Challenge!

Vegan Options at M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Grilled Watermelon Bruschetta - Market bread, Fresh Basil, Balsamic Reduction, Maldon Salt $5

Risotto Oro - Smoked Golden Beet Risotto, Charred Fennel, Braised Greens, Served with a Vanilla Thyme Oil and Beet Chips (shown above) $16

Mango Apricot Sorbetto $6

Try them all and vote often!

July Dinners at M’tucci’s

July 7 @ M’tucci’s Italian

July 14 @ M’tucci’s Moderno

July 21 @ M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

ABQ The Mag - Best of the City

Let’s make it 3 Years in a Row! Vote now by clicking here or using the QR code.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Pesto/Ricotta filled: Chicken, Sautéed Mushrooms, Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce, Crispy Prosciutto, Pecorino & Chives $27

14 oz Herb-Rubbed Hand-Cut Ribeye: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan-Seared Swordfish: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $33

Braise - Sackett Farms Pork Shank - braised in Red Wine, over Creamy Polenta, Braising Sauce & Gremolata $27

Weekend Cocktail

America’s Sweet-Tart: Redemption Rye, Creme de Violet, Simple Syrup, Fresh Lemon Juice, Rhubarb Bitters


M’tucci’s Moderno

24 oz. Hand Cut Porterhouse - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $41

Pan-Seared Artic Char - Roasted Artichoke, Sautéed Organic Arugula, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $27

Chicken Portobello - Garlic, Butter Pan-Roasted Demi-Glase, Spaghettini Pasta $21

Weekend Cocktail

Red, White and Blueberries: Campo Bravo Reposado Tequila, M’tucci’s Blueberry/Raspberry Shrub, Lavender Honey Syrup, Muddled Blueberries, Splash of Soda


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

24 oz. Hand Cut Porterhouse - Grilled Broccolini, Whipped Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Smoked Blackberry bone Marrow Butter $41

Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $33

Porchetta - Slow Roasted Pork Belly stuffed with Italian Herbs, Pine Nuts, Mortadella; Smoked Cauliflower Purée, Braised Greens, Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Apple/Raisin Demi Glace $24

Weekend Cocktail

Blackberry Sour: Michter’s All American, Fresh lemon Juice, Blackberry & Mint Infused Simple Syrup, Egg White, Rhubarb Bitters


M’tucci’s Bar Roma

Pan-Seared Grouper - Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Braised Arugula, Pan Seared Artichoke Hearts, Served With a Lemon Caper Butter Sauce. $34

Veal Porterhouse - Garlic Whipped Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus Fritti, Fesh Heerbs with a Mushroom & Marsala Wine Sauce $35

Cicchetti Specials - House Duck Pate, Blueberry/Raspberry Shrub Jam, Agave, Fresh Basil, Maldon Salt.

Weekend Cocktail

White Negroni: Ford’s Gin, Contrato Bianco Vermouth, Luxardo Bitter Bianco, Orange Bitters & Lemon Twist

Live Music for July

M’tucci’s Bar Roma - Wed 6:30-8:30. Sunday noon-2pm

7/3 Rob Martinez

7/6 RJ Perez

7/10 Austin Van

7/13 Lani Nash

7/17 RJ Perez

7/20 Cali Shaw

7/24 Melissa Rios

7/27 Amy Faithe

7/31 Nathan Fox

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - Thursday 6:30-8:30 * Friday 7:30-9:30

7/1 RJ Perez

7/7 Eryn Bent

7/8 Melissa Rios

7/14 RJ Perez

7/15 DeAndre Aragon

7/21 TBD

7/22 Matt Jones

7/28 Chessa Peak

7/29 Jason Seel

M’tucci’s Moderno - Thursday 6:30-830 *Friday 7:30-9:30

7/1 Lani Nash

7/7 John Martinez

7/8 Alex Maryol

7/14 Matt Jones

7/15 TBD

7/21 Oscar Butler

7/22 Chessa Peak

7/28 Austin Van

7/29 Matt Jones

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Prosecco

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Warmer weather and outside dining mean that it’s time for prosecco - sparkling Italian sunshine in a glass. Compared to Champagne and to California’s well-known sparkling wines, prosecco is a relative newcomer to the U.S., becoming popular around 2000. I recall having a glass on my first trip to Venice in 1994, then returning home to find it unavailable in wine shops.

Prosecco has been made in the Northeast region of Italy since the 16th Century, predominantly from the glera grape. DOC and DOCG designations allow a 15% blending of other grapes including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio or Pinot Noir. The valley surrounding the town of Prosecco was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2019. The prosecco from the valleys of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano have received DOCG status, the highest status in the Italian wine world.

In addition to the attractive, crisp flavors of apple and peach, prosecco is popular because of the price. This is mostly due to the method of production. Instead of using the methode champenoise, when the second fermentation is in the bottle, prosecco uses the charmat method with the second fermentation taking place in large steel tanks. Consequently the wine is less expensive to produce.

Prosecco is an excellent aperitif and is used in a variety of popular cocktails, such as the Bellini (ideally made with fresh peach puree), Aperol Sprtiz, and (one of my favorites), the Negroni Sbagliato. The Negroni Sbagliato is a variation on the Americano (Campari, Sweet Vermouth and soda) substituting prosecco for the club soda. Try all three at all M’tucci’s locations.

M’tucci’s Sparkling wine is a collaboration between M’tucci’s and award-winning winemaker Gruet. The aim was to create a sparkling wine that was closer to a prosecco than the Champagne style for which Gruet is well-known. It’s terrific as an aperitif or in a summery Aperol Spritz.

At M’tucci’s Italian Arcy makes the classic French 75 with Gin, Fresh Lemon Juice and Ruffino Prosecco. Another great way to begin your meal!

M’tucci’s to Collect Food for NE New Mexico Fire Victims

Beginning Monday, May 23, all M’tucci’s location will have boxes for food donations for New Mexico fire victims. All collected items will be delivered to The Food Depot, who will handle the distribution. Here is what they request as the most needed items:

Beef jerky

Bottled water of any amount

Gatorade

individually wrapped, non-perishable snacks

Chapstick

Eyedrops

Socks

Sunblock

Hygiene products including but not limited to: baby wipes, Q-tips, women’s menstrual products, soap, toothpaste

Guests who donate can tell their server they've donated to receive $5.00 off their dining check. We hope this drive will only run two weeks, because we hope the need won’t extend beyond that. However, if the need is there we will extend our collections based on the wildfire situation throughout the state. So bring some stuff so we can fill multiple boxes!

Looking for a Career?

We are hiring for most positions at all locations. Are you ready for a career? We have a few management positions available. Join a company that believes in promoting from within, creating opportunities for our team members and offering a four-day work week for managers in the kitchen or front of the house.

Click here to read about team members who started as servers, bartenders or pizza makers and who are now managers and partners. You can complete a brief online application.

Chad, Michelle, General Manager Amanda, Audrey & Jessica are the FOH managers at M’tucci’s Bar Roma.

Taste of Nob Hill

As the newest members of the Nob Hill District, M’tucci’s Bar Roma will participate in the event held on Saturday (5/21) from Noon - 3:00 on Silver between Tulane and Amherst. We will feature Meatballs with marinara, Caprese Shooters and our famous Lemon Ricotta Cookies. Come out and experience the wide variety of what Nob Hill has to offer. Some of the other participants include: Chocolate Dude, Olo Dessert Studio, Soo Bak Seoul Bowl, Two Fools Tavern, Flying Star Cafe, Slice Parlor, Tractor Brewing Co., Ajiaco Colombian Bistro, Scalo, Lizard Tail Brewing, Little Bear Coffee Co., Cinnamon Sugar & Spice Café and Gather/3128 Social House. There will be live music as well. Entrance fee is $15 in advance or $20 at the gate, which gives you 15 tickets to redeem for food and drink. Get your tickets online by clicking here.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Mushroom Ricotta Filling, Crispy Duck Prosciutto, Capers, Artichoke, Sun Dried Tomato, Red Onion, Fennel, White Wine Butter Sauce $27

24 oz Hand Cut T-Bone: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $37

Pan-Seared Yellowtail: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $27

Braise - Sackett Farms Red Chile Braised Pork Shoulder - Calabacitas, Roasted Corn, Red Onion, Red Chile Braising Sauce, Corn Shoots & Tucumcari Feta $23

Weekend Cocktail

California Dreaming - Calirosa Rosé Tequila, House Made Rose Bud & Spiced Syrup, Fresh Lemon Juice, House Bitters and Egg White


M’tucci’s Moderno

14 oz. NY Strip - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $36

Pan-Seared Baqueta Sea Bass - Roasted Artichoke, Sautéed Organic Arugula, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $36

Beef Tip Tortelloni, Grape Tomatoes, Cajun Seasoning, Rosa Sauce and Gorgonzola Cheese $21

Appetizer: Fried Oysters with Garlic Aioli

Weekend Cocktail

8 Foot Punch - Hollow Spirits BA Rum, Myer’s Rum, Turani Cherry, Fresh Lime Juice, Simple Syrup


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

6 oz. Filet Mignon - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $35

Pan-Seared Artic Char - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $27

Pork Shank Ragu - Slow cooked Sackett Farms Pork Shank, Gigante Beans, Calabrian Chiles, with Pappardelle Pasta, Shaved Parmesan and Smoked Sage Oil $24

Weekend Cocktail

May-ngocita - Espolon Blanco Tequila, Ginger Liquid Alchemist, Mango Purée, Tamarindo Agua Fresca with a Chimoy & Tajin Rim

Live Music for May at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and M’tucci’s Moderno

Thursdays @ 6:30 & Fridays @ 7:00

M’tucci’s Italian has soft cello or violin dinner music every Thursday night beginning at 6:00.

Next week’s La Gazzetta will have the music schedule for June, including Wednesdays and Sundays at M’tucci’s Bar Roma.


MODERNO

5/20 RJ Perez

5/26 Oscar Butler

5/27 Kirk Matthews



TWENTY-FIVE

5/26 Alex Maryol

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Northern Italian Wines

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More than one wine writer has said that Piedmont, in Northern Italy, is the country’s greatest wine region. This may come as a surprise to lovers of Chianti, Brunello and the Super Tuscans from Central Italy. While the wines from Southern Italy are gaining prominence and popularity, the big, bold reds from Piedmont and the variety of whites from Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Veneto have been favorites of wine aficionados for years.

The Langhe Valley, near Turin, is the home to two of Italy’s best wines, Barolo and Barbaresco. Both are made from 100% nebbiolo grapes. A Barolo must be aged a minimum of 3 years before release, while a reserve Barolo must be aged a minimum of 62 months. One of Italy’s most renowned winemakers, Angelo Gaja, brought Barolos and the wines of the Piedmont to the world stage, partly by introducing new techniques of fermentation and using new oak barrels for the initial aging of his wines.

Equally good, but not as pricey, are Piedmont favorites Dolcetto and Barbera from Alba and the surrounding area.

The regions of Alto-Adige and Friuli are well-known for white wines. They produce Pinot Grigio that rises above the common, inexpensive versions of that grape that are produced elsewhere.

If there is one region that claims as much notoriety as Piedmont, it would be Veneto, the home to Verona and Venice. Soave, Prosecco, Valpolicella and the magnificent Amarone della Valpolicella are produced here.

Amarone is definitely a “special occasion” wine, not least because of it’s price. This wine is mainly made from the corvina grape, a dark grape whose name means “crow” in Italian. The grapes are picked ripe, then allow to dry for three to four months before being pressed. This process is called appassimento - “to dry and to shrivel” in Italian.The evaporation produces concentrated flavors which is further enhanced by a slow fermentation of 30 - 50 days and then aged in oak for a minimum of two years.

Some of the red Northern Italian wines that you will find at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and M’tucci’s Italian are shown above. M’tucci’s Twenty-Five has a wide selection of white wines by the glass from the North including: Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, a Pinot Nero Spumante and a Pinot Bianco. The Franco Serra Nebbiolo is available by the glass and is a great introduction to Piedmont wines without spending the big bucks for a Barolo.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Pickled Fennel Ricotta filling, Green Chile Pork Sausage, Sautéed Mushroom, Caramelized Onions, Asparagus, Red Wine Braising Sauce. $25

24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan-Seared Ruby Trout: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $29

Braise - Sackett Farms New Mexico Red Chile Braised Pork, Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Haricot Vert, Pickled Red Onions $27

Weekend Cocktail

The Tie Fighter: Starward Two Fold Australian Whisky, Bigallet China China Amaro, Fresh Lemon Juice, Cane Sugar


M’tucci’s Moderno

14 oz. Hand Cut NY Strip- Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $31

Pan-Seared Yellowtail - Roasted Artichoke, Sautéed Organic Arugula, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $26

Frutti di Mare: Pink Shrimp, Mussels, Baby Scallops, Clams, Baby Clams, Spicy Seafood Sauce, House Made Fettuccine $24

Weekend Cocktail

Rock the Bells: Campo Bravo Reposado Tequila, Aperol, Fresh Lime Juice, Honey Simple Syrup with a Jalapeño Salted Rim


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Pescare Pasta - White Clams, White Cockles, Pink Patagonia Shrimp, Grilled Octopus, Marinated Tomatoes, Red Pepper Flakes, House Made Spaghettini, Lemon and White Wine Brodo, Fresh Herbs, Garnished with Basil, Shaved Parmesan and Cracked Black Pepper. $27

14 oz. Hand Cut NY Strip - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $31

Pan-Seared Arctic Char - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $29

Weekend Cocktail

Suns Out Buns Out: High West American Prairie bourbon, Mango & Peach Puree, Grapefruit Bitters, Fresh Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup

Live Music for April & May at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and M’tucci’s Moderno

Thursdays @ 6:30 & Fridays @ 7:00

M’tucci’s Italian has soft cello or violin dinner music every Thursday night beginning at 6:00.


MODERNO

4/15 Lani Nash

4/21 RJ Perez

4/22 Kirk Matthews

4/28 Austin Van

4/29 Cali Shaw

5/5 Eryn Bent

5/6 Nathan Fox

5/12 Sloan Armitage

5/13 Lani Nash

5/19 Alex Maryol

5/20 RJ Perez

5/26 Oscar Butler

5/27 Kirk Matthews




TWENTY-FIVE

4/21 Eryn Bent

4/28 Oscar Butler

5/5 Kirk Matthews

5/12 Amy Faithe

5/19 Austin Van

5/26 Alex Maryol

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Wines of Central Italy

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The wines of Central Italy come from the regions of Molise, Abruzzo, Lazio (Rome), Le Marche, Umbria and Tuscany. There is little doubt that the most popular of these regions is Tuscany. Consequently, the region dominates our wine lists with a mix of Sangiovese-based and Super Tuscan style reds and crisp whites. Super Tuscans are the wines most commonly produced in the western coastal part of Tuscany around Bolgheri and the Maremma. They are notable for their blending of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, then aging the wine in oak barrels.

It’s easy to always select a Tuscan wine, since they are so familiar. Don’t overlook the whites from Abruzzo, La Marche and Umbria, where they specialize in Verdicchios and Trebbianos. Verdicchio from Le Marche has green fruit aroma and almond flavors while Abruzzo’s Trebbianos are light and dry. At M’tucci’s Twenty-Five you’ll find a CaselFarento ‘Fontevecchia’ DOC Classico Superiore Verdicchio from Le Marche, the region that borders the Adriatic. On your next visit try a Torri Cantine ‘420’ Trebbiano d’Abruzzo or a Tuscan Chardonnay from Frescobaldi.

Different styles of Tuscan reds available at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

While there is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or Lungarotti from Umbria, when we think of red wine from Central Italy, we think of Chianti or Brunello di Montalcino. The dominant grape in Tuscany is Sangiovese. Chianti and Chianti Classico are required to be at least 75% Sangiovese and Brunello di Montalcino is only made with Sangiovese.

One of our most popular Chiantis (available at all M’tucci’s) is Tenuta di Arceno, which is available by the glass or bottle. Their vineyards are south of Castellini and Greve in Chianti near the town of Castelnuovo di Berardegna. The tasting notes from their website describe why this is our most popular Tuscan red, “Unmistakably Tuscan in origin, offering a level of depth, power and concentration that is rare for its classification. The fruit, showing dominant flavors of plums, cherries, earth, and cedar, comes from some of the coolest blocks on the estate and adds a vibrant acidity to the wine.”

The Frescobaldi Terre More is a classic wine from the Maremma, the coastal area of Tuscany which has hot summer days and nights cooled by the breezes from the Tyrrhenian Sea. It’s predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah. Elegant and rich - perfect with Five Pork Bolognese.

Explore the wines of Central Italy during your next visit to M’tucci’s!

M’tucci’s Five-Course Pairing Dinners - April 5, 6 & 7

Call now to reserve your spot. There is limited seating for our $75 Five-Course Dinners with local favorites, La Cumbre Brewing, Hollow Spirits Distillery & Sheehan Winery.

M’tucci’s Bar Roma is opening in April and we are looking for talented bartenders, servers, cooks and managers. Attend the Job Fair this weekend or next weekend.

Apply online by clicking here.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Spinach & Ricotta filling: Sautéed Artichokes, Spring Peas, Carrots, Caramelized Onion, Thyme Gorgonzola Cream Sauce $23

24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $39

Pan Seared Ruby Trout: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $29

Braise - Napoleon Porcini Braised Sackett Farms Pork Shank, Creamy Polenta, Red Wine Braising Sauce, Sautéed Spinach $23

Weekend Cocktail

Copper Sour: Copper & Kings Apple Brandy, Muddled Lemon & Cherries, Fresh Lemon Juice, Cane Sugar


M’tucci’s Moderno

24 oz. Hand Cut Porterhouse- Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $39

Pan Seared Barramundi - Roasted Artichoke, Sautéed Organic Arugula, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $27

Sackett Farms Pork Milanese - Salt Water Potatoes, Arugula, Diced Tomatoes, Feta Cheese, Lemon Butter Sauce $19

Weekend Cocktail

Paper Plane: Hollow Spirits Red 96 Bourbon, Nonino Amaro, Lemon Juice


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Vino e Cozze Pasta - Mussels, Clams, Light White Wine Brodo, Shallots, Garlic, Red Peppers Flakes & Fresh Herbs over House Made Fettuccine $22

8 oz Filet - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $37

Pan-Seared California Halibut - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $30

Weekend Cocktail

Scrum-Diddly-Umptous: Tru Organic Vanilla Vodka, St. Germain, Liquid Alchemist Passion Fruit Syrup, Fresh Lime Juice

Live Music for March, April & May at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and M’tucci’s Moderno

Thursdays @ 6:30 & Fridays @ 7:00

M’tucci’s Italian has soft cello or violin dinner music every Thursday night.

3/25 Kirk Matthews @ Moderno

3/31

John Martinez @ Moderno

Austin Van @ 25

April & May

MODERNO


4/1 Alex Maryol

4/7 Oscar Butler

4/8 Nathan Fox

4/14 Sloan Armitage

4/15 Lani Nash

4/21 RJ Perez

4/22 Kirk Matthews

4/28 Austin Van

4/29 Cali Shaw

5/5 Eryn Bent

5/6 Nathan Fox

5/12 Sloan Armitage

5/13 Lani Nash

5/19 Alex Maryol

5/20 RJ Perez

5/26 Oscar Butler

5/27 Kirk Matthews


TWENTY-FIVE


4/7 Kirk Matthews

4/14 Amy Faithe

4/21 Eryn Bent

4/28 Oscar Butler

5/5 Kirk Matthews

5/12 Amy Faithe

5/19 Austin Van

5/26 Alex Maryol

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Wines of Southern Italy

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When most people think of Italian wine, they think of Chianti or maybe Pinot Grigio or even Prosecco. All three are the more popular wines from Central and Northern Italy. The wines of Southern Italy and Sicily are gaining prominence, so let’s take a look at some of them today, focusing on the wines from Puglia, Campania, Basilicata & Sicily.

The South has abundant sunshine and great soil. The higher elevations on the slopes of volcanoes provide cool nights for complex wines. The south’s reputation is predominantly built on the red grapes Aglianico, Primitivo, Negroamaro and Nero d’Avola and the white grapes Vermentino, Greco and Trebbiano. The first grape vines came from Greece nearly 4,000 years ago. One of the more popular white wines in Campania is named Greco di Tufo.

I thought I knew Italian wines until our trip to Sicily last fall proved otherwise. I had never heard of Grillo or Carricante. The Grillo was soft and not to my taste, but the biancos from the slopes of Mt. Etna had more structure and balance and were better with the seafood that we seemed to order for every meal.

The widest selection of Southern Italian wines are found at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and include:

Glass or Bottle

Tormaresca Calafuria Rosato Salento (a Negroamaro Rosé from Puglia)

Villa Pozzi Dalla Sicilia Moscato IGT - Sicily (crisp, refreshing white, slightly effervescent)

WHITE (Bottles Only)

2017 Claudio Quarta Vignaiolo Sanpaolo Vineyard DOCG Greco di Tufo Campania

REDS (Bottles Only)

Pietra Dolce Nerello Mascalese Etna Rosso Sicilia

Cantine Colosi Nero d’Avola Sicilia

Antica Masseria Primitivo Puglia

Terredora di Paolo Aglianico Campania

Adam Stellmon is one of the managers at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and is in charge of the beverage program. Take a tip from him for your next wine selection: “I love the Cantine Colosi and the Terredora Rosato, they both are great.”

Some Southern Italian wines can be found in local stores including Total Wine. All under $20, look for:

Apassimento Salento Bonari (Red Blend - Puglia)

Mucchieto Primitivo (Puglia)

Marchese di Borgosole Salice Salentino (Negroamaro - Puglia)

Tenuta del Portale Aglianico del Vulture (Aglianico - Basilicata)

Donnachiara Falanghina (Falanghina - Campania).

Now, you are ready to discover some of the best of Southern Italy!

Changes to M’tucci’s Social Media

Instagram

We now have one Instagram feed, called M’tucci’s Restaurants, which will feature company news and videos of our team and guests. There will not be posts for each location on Instagram. Follow us on Instagram: @mtuccis_restaurants

Facebook

There is a Facebook page for each M’tucci’s location. This is where you will find Live Music schedules, Weekend Specials and the occasional bit of news about our restaurants

TikTok

Fun videos posted every week for the single account: mtuccis

YouTube

More than 80 videos showing cocktails, cooking demonstrations and the M’tucci’s on Monday segment that airs every other week on KRQE’s New Mexico Living program. Watch the videos and subscribe to the channel by clicking this link.

M’tucci’s Catering

M’tucci’s Catering will continue to have an Instagram feed: @mtuccis_catering and a Facebook page: MtuccisCatering

New Mexico Living Cooking Demos now on our YouTube Channel. Here are the most recent.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli - Prosciutto Ricotta filling, Patagonia Pink Shrimp, Mushrooms, Roasted Red Bell, Pepper, Artichoke, Cilantro Cream Sauce $27

Cut of the Day -24oz Hand Cut Bone-In NY Strip: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $38

Pan Seared Rockfish: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichokes, Lemon Caper Sauce $25

Braise - Red Wine Braised Beef, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Caramelized Onion, Creamy Brodo and Pan Seared Gnocchi $25

Weekend Cocktail

The Caddy: Green Hat Navy Strength Gin, Grand Marnier Cuvée Louis-Alexandre, Fresh Lemon Juice, Cane Sugar, Dried Lemon


M’tucci’s Moderno

Cut of the Day 24 oz Hand-cut T-Bone - Traditional Italian Salsa Verde, Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, & Grilled Asparagus $38

Pan Seared Mahi Mahi - Roasted Artichoke, Sautéed Organic Arugula, Mashed Potatoes, Caper Lemon Butter Sauce, & Smoked Prosciutto Powder $27

Seafood Cannelloni: Pink Shrimp, Atlantic Lobster, Crab & Ricotta filling, Tomato Cream Sauce, Fresh Pasta $27

Weekend Cocktail

M’tucci’s Mai Tai - Bumbu Rum, Orgeat Syrup, Fresh Lime Juice, Diplomatico Rum Float


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Frutti di Mare: White Clams, Black Mussels, Wild Shrimp, Spicy Roma Tomato Sauce, Linguine $21

16 oz Veal Porterhouse: Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $38

Pan-Seared California Halibut: Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Braised Greens, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $31

Appetizer: Black Mussels, Spicy N’duja, Shallots, Seafood Brodo, Local Feta & House Bread $7

Weekend Cocktail

De la Louisiane Who Say Mardi Gras Has to End? - Rye Whiskey, D.O.M. Benedictine, Italian Vermouth, Aromatic Bitters, Absinthe. “This classic New Orleans cocktail is the perfect way to keep ‘them spirits alive.”

Live Music for March at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and M’tucci’s Moderno

Thursdays @ 6:30 & Fridays @ 7:00

M’tucci’s Italian has soft cello or violin dinner music every Thursday night.

3/4

Lani Nash @ Moderno

3/10

Lani Nash @ 25

Nathan Fox @ Moderno

3/11

Melissa Rios @ Moderno

3/17

Amy Faithe @ 25

Jason Seel @ Moderno

3/18

Lani Nash @ Moderno

3/24

Eryn Bent @ 25

Melissa Rios @ Moderno

3/25

Kirk Matthews @ Moderno

3/31

John Martinez @ Moderno

Austin Van @ 25

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao

Italian American Cuisine

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The United States and Italy have been linked since the explorers Amerigo Vespucci and Cristoforo Colombo arrived on our shores. Italian immigrants have had major influences on our art, politics, business and culture. Not least of the cultural influences is cuisine.

The biggest influx of Italians to the U.S. came between the years of 1880 and 1914, with most coming from the South and from Sicily due to dire economic conditions. At one time, the newly unified Italy encouraged men of the South to leave and seek their fortunes elsewhere. Nearly 5 million came to the U.S. during that time.

Many of the new arrivals worked in factories and in agriculture. In the Northeast and in California, Italians started truck farms, selling their produce in markets in the cities. Many of those early farmers went on to establish large food companies: Chef Boyardee, Contadina, Progresso and Ghiradelli Chocolate. Some of the earliest grape farmers and wine makers in California were Italian: Gallo, Mondavi, Sebastiani, Seghesio, and Simi. These Italians pioneered winemaking until Prohibition came along in 1919. Many of these early wine makers survived by producing grape juice or sacramental wine for the Catholic Church, while others ripped out their grapevines and planted peaches or plums.

The cuisine brought from the South, la cucina povera (food of the poor), consisted mostly of vegetables, grains, pasta and rice. Southern Italian dishes formed the basis for Italian American cuisine. Pizza, dry pasta, tomatoes and eggplant all came from the Southern regions of Italy & Sicily.

In America, meat was relatively less expensive and it started showing up in some the traditional Italian dishes. Because of the availability of meat, meatballs and spaghetti became popular.

In 1906, Leone’s Restaurant opened in New York City, serving primarily traditional Italian food, but with dishes that were somewhat “Americanized”. Pizza first appeared in New York, Boston and Trenton, NJ around 1905, but didn’t gain widespread popularity until after the second world war. Soldiers returning from Europe had been exposed to Italian food and were a big market for pizza.

The concept of Italian American food was solidified by the introduction of packaged foods in the 1950s and 1960s. Growing up a in small Midwest town with zero Italians and no pizza parlors, we were introudced to Italian food by Chef Boyardee. Housewives (including my mother) were thrilled with spaghetti from a can and with “pizza kits.” Pizza from a box (before frozen) included a can of sauce, a package of dough mix and package of grated cheese. It was a popular item at our house on Sunday night. Today, I prefer M’tucci’s.

Later, during visits to St. Louis, usually to see a baseball game, we sometimes stopped at Ragazzi’s on the Hill (St. Louis’ version of Little Italy) for deep fried ravioli, a dish definitely not found in Italy.

Later, in my twenties, I traveled to San Francisco for the first time and was introduced to cappuccino and cioppino in the Italian area of North Beach. While cioppino might have been inspired by fish stews in Italy, it is definitely an Italian American San Francisco invention. Stroll along Fisherman’s Wharf and choose from Alioto’s, Capurro’s, Soma’s and Cioppino’s!

My favorite East Coast references to Italian American food came from “The Sopranos” television series. In it the housewives created dishes called pasta fazool (pasta e fagioli), and cooked with gabagool (capicolla) and rigoat (ricotta). Now that’s Italian American!

The menu at M’tucci’s is inspired more by traditional regional Italian cuisine, rather than Italian American. One of Company President John Haas’ early mentors came from Italy to work for awhile in the restaurant where John worked. Trips to Italy during the past few years have added more Italian inspiration to the food on our menus.

La Dolce Vita at M’tucci’s is inspired by Italy, not suburban New Jersey. Salute!

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

Ravioli: House Made Ravioli filled with Wagyu Beef & Ricotta with House Pancetta, Artichokes, Crimini Mushrooms, Green Onions and a Light NM Red Chile Cream Sauce $27

24 oz. Hand Cut Herb-Rubbed T-Bone: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $36

Pan-Seared Alaskan Cod: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichoke Hearts, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $29

12 oz. Fennel-Rubbed Braised Wagyu Beef Short Rib, Creamy Polenta, Sautéed Haricot Vert, Red Wine Fennel Braising Sauce $36

Weekend Cocktail

The Gambit: Starward Australian Whisky, Bigalet China China Amaro, Black Walnut Bitters


M’tucci’s Moderno

12 oz Hand-Cut NY Stript: Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $28

Pan-Seared Icelandic Cod: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Organic Baby Arugula, Roasted Artichoke, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $25

Sackett Farms Pork Picatta: with Arugula, Tomatoes, Capers in a Lemon Butter Sauce topped with Feta over House Made Spaghettini $19

Weekend Cocktail

The Purple Rabbit: : Casamigos Mezcal, Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, Raspberry Puree, Simple Syrup and Fresh Lime Juice


M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Seared Duck Breast: Bacon Sautéed Spinach, Roasted Beet & Mascarpone Risotto , Roman Artichokes, Vanilla& Thyme Oil, $21

14 oz NY Strip: Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $28

Pan-Seared Norwegian Ocean Trout: Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Escarole, Stem on Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Butter Caper Sauce $29

Applewood Smoked Beet & Lemon Risotto: Wild Mushrooms, Thyme Oil $15

Weekend Cocktail

The Cure for What Ails You: Blended & Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Ginger Syrup, Fresh Lemon Juice, Ginger Beer and Aromatic Bitters

Live Music for January, February & March at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five and M’tucci’s Moderno

Thursdays @ 6:30 & Fridays @ 7:00

M’tucci’s Italian has soft cello or violin dinner music every Thursday night.


January

1/28

Jason Seel @ Moderno

2/3

RJ Perez @ 25

Eryn Bent @ Moderno

2/4

Lani Nash @ Moderno

2/10

Melissa Rios @ 25

Jason Seel @ Moderno

2/11

Cali Shaw @ Moderno

2/17

Kirk Matthews @ 25

Rj Perez @ Moderno

2/18

Lani Nash @ Moderno

2/24

Amy Faithe @ 25

Kirk Matthews @ Moderno

2/25

Eryn Bent @ Moderno

3/3

RJ Perez @ 25

Kirk Matthews @ Moderno

3/4

Lani Nash @ Moderno

3/10

Lani Nash @ 25

Nathan Fox @ Moderno

3/11

Melissa Rios @ Moderno

3/17

Amy Faithe @ 25

Jason Seel @ Moderno

3/18

Lani Nash @ Moderno

3/24

Eryn Bent @ 25

Melissa Rios @ Moderno

3/25

Kirk Matthews @ Moderno

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao

Italian Sausage

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Sausage making in Italy probably originated in Southern Italy in Basilicata, which was known as Lucania in ancient times. In the 5th Century BC, the Roman historian Marco Terenzio Varrone described soldiers stuffing meat into pig intestines together with spices and salt. They called the minced meat stuffed into a casing lucanica, because soldiers learned how to prepare it from the Lucanians.

The dish was served to Roman emperors who fell in love with it and its popularity then spread throughout the country. A version of the original sausage is now produced in Northern Italy and called luganega. Today its typical recipe includes salt, chili pepper, wild fennel, pepper and anise. It has a long horseshoe shape and is sold by the length instead of by weight.

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Sausage differs from North to South in Italy. Here a few descriptions from lacucinaitaliana.com:

Finocchietto mon amour: This Calabrian sausage has a similar shape but different ingredients: in addition to the ubiquitous pork shoulder and belly, there is generally also a significant amount of spicy chili pepper, in addition to sweet chili peppers.

Cervellata in Toritto: Puglia offers both pork sausages and numerous specialties that mix beef and pork. This is prepared with selected cuts of beef (70%) and pork (30%) along with a rich condiment including fresh basil, garlic, pepper, salt and grated pecorino.

Canon: In Tuscany and Umbria, their salsiccia uses fatty meats more abundantly and seasons them with salt, pepper and lots of garlic, in addition to red wine.

Sausage is not cured and must be cooked, unlike salami and prosciutto, two other prominent pork products.

Our partnership with Sackett Farm Family, who raise only heritage breed Berkshire/Duroc pigs, allows us to offer more flavorful and extremely high quality product. M’tucci’s has been making sausage since we opened, using it on pizzas, in pasta dishes and braised over polenta, but we think our dishes with pork have risen to new heights.

After a lot of testing and tasting, we’re pretty excited for M’tucci’s Old World Artisanal Italian Sausage with Red Wine to be available in Albertsons Markets and M’tucci’s Restaurants in the next week. It will be sold in one pound packages in stores in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.

The recipe was created by Company President/Executive Chef John Haas when M’tucci’s Italian opened eight years ago. The recipe had minor changes two years ago and is a blending of Southern Italian and Tuscan styles. Some of the ingredients are toasted fennel, garlic, crushed pepper and red wine. It’s all natural and does not contain any preservatives. Two videos are below, one showing how we braised it in a casing and serve it with soft polenta and one showing how to make Sausage Burgers. We know you will love it!

Prepare for sausage jokes:

What did one sausage say to the other? Let’s Link Up!

What did the female sausage say to the male sausage? Wait, did you put on a condiment?

Did you hear the one about the German Sausage? It was the wurst.

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Pasta Della Forma at M’tucci’s Italian

A popular restaurant pasta preparation in Italy and in California is now in Albuquerque - only at M’tucci’s Italian. Pasta Della Forma (from formaggio which is Italian for cheese) is finished table side in a cheese wheel. We use Fresh House Spaghettini and Piave Vecchio, a cheese from the Veneto region near the Dolomite mountains. You have a choice of two toppings:

Mushroom Duxelle: Baby Portobello Mushrooms, Thyme, Garlic, White Wine

Roasted Red Bell Pepper/Sun-Dried Tomato Relish

Pasta Della Forma: Minimum of two people, Prepared Table side $38 Chef’s Condiments Add $3

I recommend a healthy grinding of fresh pepper. A short video shows how it’s done.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Balsamic Reduction $38

Pan-Seared California White Sea Bass - Sweet Potato Puree, Broccolini, Sweet Pea and Duck Prosciutto Succotash $29

Crab & Cream Cheese Ravioli: House Crispy Bacon, Artichoke & Sweet Peas tossed in a Crab Thyme Cream Sauce $23

Pasta Della Forma: House Made Spaghettini & Piave Vecchio Cheese, Minimum of two orders, Prepared Table side - $38, Chef’s Condiments Add $3

Appetizers

Beer Battered Herbed Ricotta Stuffed Squash Blossoms: Capers, Oil Pickled Zucchini $10

Clam Toasts & Pancetta with Fennel, Sun-Dried Tomato, White Wine Butter Broth $12

Weekend Cocktail

Aloha Weekend: Pyrat Rum, Pineapple Rosemary Shrub, Vanilla Syrup, Orange and Lime Juice

Sunday Only

Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

16 oz. Veal Porterhouse: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $36

Pan-Seared Barramundi: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $26

Crispy Chicken Confit Risotto: Wild Mushrooms, Roasted Celery & Carrots, Creamy Carnaroli Rice $19

Weekend Cocktail

Avión: made with Blanco Tequila, Creme de Violette, Maraschino Liqueur, Pineapple and Lime Juice

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Stuffed Sackett Farm Pork Loin: Stuffed with Seared Mushrooms, Artichokes, Spinach & Pecorino. Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $22

Pan-Seared Ono: Seared Artichokes, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $21

Surf & Turf: 5 oz. Beef Tenderloin, Grilled Patagonian Pink Shrimp, Sweet Potato Mash, Grilled Broccolini, Balsamic Reduction $28

Gelato: Chocolate Hazelnut Stout

Sorbetto: Triple Berry

Tell ABQ - Taste of Summer

A new radio program that features local restaurants and is hosted by Jade and Ashley will have M’tucci’s Twenty-Five Chef/Partner Shawn Cronin as a guest on Tuesday, June 1 at 12:30. To listen to the live hour-long interview and to hear the hosts review of a recent visit to M’tucci’s Twenty-Five go to the App store for Apple or Android and download the Tell ABQ app. If you miss the live program, the show will be archived so you can listen at your own convenience. Don’t miss it!

Jade & Ashely from Tell ABQ - Taste of Summer, loving gelato at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Jade & Ashely from Tell ABQ - Taste of Summer, loving gelato at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

M’tucci’s Gourmet TV Dinners

We appreciate your support, but all good things must come to an end. When the current inventory of TV dinners is gone - then they will be gone. There are a few left at each location.

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Summer Food Reading

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Just before Memorial Day, we are used to seeing magazines and newspapers listing their recommended books to read for summer vacation or summer travel. We would like to suggest a few that emphasize food and travel. Food and travel writing often go together, since eating well can be the best reason for traveling. Few people were better at this than Anthony Bourdain, who introduced us to cultures through their food.

I have visited more than 50 countries and only a few of them had disappointing food. One was Greenland, primarily because it was Spring and they hadn’t had a supply ship since October. Seal meat and narwhale stew remain the two most disgusting things I have ever eaten. During my first visit to Cuba, the food was dreadful, primarily due to food shortages. Restaurants were owned by the government and the governments chefs were indifferent at best - any worth cooking was overcooked.

If I am not excited about a destination’s food, then I’m usually not excited about going there.

Here is a list of favorite books about food and travel, beginning with Italy.

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Eating My Way Through Italy by Elizabeth Minchilli (St. Martin’s Griffen 2018)

Minchilli moved to Rome with her family when she was twelve and never left. She is married to an Italian and travels and eats in off-the-beaten-path towns in Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. She lists places to eat, sleep and the best times to visit. As a plus, there are a few recipes in each chapter.

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See You in the Piazza by Frances Mayes (Crown 2019)

The best-selling author of Under the Tuscan Sun also visits small towns around the peninsula and on the islands. Having lived in Italy for many years, she writes passionately about the food and the culture. If you are a fan of churches with their frescoes and artwork, this book will thrill you. A great resource for planning your next trip to Italy. Although you’ll probably need a bestseller, a hit movie, or a winning lottery ticket to be able to afford the hotels and restaurants she visits.

Pasta, Pane, Vino by Matt Goulding (Harper Collins 2018)

La Gazzeta printed an excerpt of this book last month, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it is a favorite. Golding writes with authority and great insight into the joys of eating, traveling and cooking in Italy. My most recent purchase, which is on my reading list for summer is his book about eating and traveling in Spain: Grape, Olive, Pig.

One of my favorite novelists, the late Jim Harrison, was also a lover of good food and wine. For a number of years he wrote a food column for Esquire magazine and contributed food essays to many magazines. Two of his books include some of those columns and essays about food and travel. He, like Matt Golding, was a friend and dining companion of the great travel and food writer, Anthony Bourdain. Both of Harrison’s books about food and travel, The Raw and the Cooked (2007) and A Really Big Lunch (2017) should be in your library. His writing is poetic and some of his meals legendary, especially the 37-course meal in France which inspired the title for one of the books.

Finally, an essay by Nevin Martell on National Geographic’s website suggests several titles of both fiction and non-fiction that will make for good summer reading. These sound good:

Dirt (2020), by Bill Buford. After befriending the always great (now late) French chef Michel Richard, the Italophile-turned-Francophile writer winds up at a cooking school in Lyon studying the country’s gastronomic secrets. Ultimately, he walks away having “learned the taste of good food. That comes from a place, as it has for thousands of years, from a soil that is a testament to its ancient history.”

The Spice Necklace: A Food-Lover’s Caribbean Adventure (2010), by Anne Vanderhoof. As an intrepid couple pilots their sailboat, the Receta (Spanish for recipe), around the Caribbean, they dig into local delicacies along the way. The breezy memoir-cookbook will make you want to head to the tropics—or at least your kitchen—to try chilled curried pumpkin soup or toothsome coconut-custard tarts.

Now that you are hungry, check out the Weekend Specials and don’t forget to make a reservation!

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

16 oz Hand Cut Ribeye: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Balsamic Reduction $38

Pan-Seared Rockfish - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $21

Appetizers

Beer Battered Herbed Ricotta Stuffed Squash Blossoms: Capers, Oil Pickled Zucchini $10

Clam Toasts & Pancetta with Fennel, Sun-Dried Tomato, White Wine Butter Broth $12

Weekend Cocktail

Twilight Hour: Caravedo Pisco, Aperol, Sherry, Lime & Simple Syrup

Sunday Only

Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

6 oz. Beef Tenderloin: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $36

Pan-Seared Rockfish: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $21

Shrimp Diablo: Patagonia Shrimp, Spicy Marinara & Spaghettini $19

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

NY Strip: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $23

Ruby Trout: Seared Artichokes, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $21

Smoked Beef Tip Tortelloni: Cold Smoked Beef Tips, Roasted Mushrooms, Marinated Tomatoes, Cajun Tomato Cream Sauce, 5 Cheese Tortelloni Garnished with Scallions and Feta. $19

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Coming Soon to all M’tucci’s Restaurants and to Albertsons Markets in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.

We’ve been working on this for awhile and are pretty excited to share it with you.

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

M'tucci's Ravioli

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One of our favorite pasta dishes is ravioli, those light, fluffy pillows stuffed with varying combinations of herbs, greens, meat, seafood or cheese. The word "ravioli" is derived from an old Italian word “riavvolgere”, which means "to wrap."

Ravioli are a square shape. If you see them semi-circular, they would be called mezzelune (half-moons). Cappellacci are ravioli stuffed with a sweet pumpkin-based filling and are popular in the northeastern part of Emilia-Romagna. The Italian pumpkin used for this ravioli isn’t available in the U.S. so orange-fleshed sweet potatoes make a perfect substitute.

Many other types of Italian pasta contain fillings, such as tortelloni and tortelli, however they are usually smaller and more time consuming to make by hand.

Ravioli appears in writings as early as the 14th century and they were reportedly served at a papal conclave in Rome in 1549. The favored stuffings vary by region, for example ricotta cheese and spinach are popular in Rome. Many ravioli dishes come with a tomato or cream based sauce, however they were traditionally served en brodo, in a broth.

Because we make all of our own ravioli, it’s usually a weekend special at M’tucci’s Italian. M’tucci’s Moderno has Artichoke Pesto Ravioli and M’tucci’s Twenty-Five serves Lobster & Prosciutto Ravioli.

Some of the past favorite fillings have been; Wild Mushroom and Ricotta, Red Chile Three Cheese, Roasted Fennel and Duroc Pork with Goat Cheese and Butternut Squash and Mascarpone with a Browned Butter Sage Sauce.

Here is a speeded up video of our ravioli process. As you can see there are a few tools that allow us to hand-make our ravioli. Can you imagine how long it would take to make 1,200 totally by hand?

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Don’t forget to vote for M’tucci’s in the Journal’s Reader’s Choice Awards. We are nominated for Best Italian, Best Chef, Best Business Lunch, Best Cocktail and Best Dessert. How we didn’t show up in the Best Pizza category is a mystery and a huge mistake. Oh, well.

Special Wine at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

This weekend we are featuring a selection from Kermit Lynch, one of the most prestigious wine importers and merchants in the U.S. Here is what their website says about the Kermit Lunch Cote du Rhone, which is primarily made from the Grenache varietal:

“The growing success we have enjoyed over the last three vintages is proof enough that the KL Côtes du Rhône fits both the taste profile and quality standards that our customers have come to expect. Since 1929, this winery has been bringing local vignerons together from the outlying areas of Avignon in the Southern Rhône to produce delicious wines that epitomize the region’s complex terroirs. Kermit works closely with winemaker Jean-François Pasturel to develop the blend. Pasturel is thrilled to be able to have the chance to produce a Côtes du Rhône he does not have to filter to death. It is his tête de cuvée, his pride and joy.”

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Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24 oz Hand Cut T-Bone: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $36

Pan-Seared Ruby Trout - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $25

Appetizers

Beer Battered Herbed Ricotta Stuffed Squash Blossoms: Capers, Oil Pickled Zucchini $10

Clam Toasts & Pancetta with Fennel, Sun-Dried Tomato, White Wine Butter Broth $12

Weekend Cocktail

Lilly Pad: Beefeater Gin, Lillet Blanc, Absinthe, Lemon & Simple Syrup

Sunday Only

Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

6 oz. Beef Tenderloin: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $32

Pan-Seared Yellowtail: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $21

Beef Tortellini: Cajun Spiced Beef Tips, Tomatoes, Green Onion, Rosa Sauce & Gorgonzola Cheese $19

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

7 oz. Chianina Flatiron Steak: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $27

7 oz. Pan-Seared Ono: Seared Artichokes, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $24

Skin-On Calabrian Braised Salmon, Creamy Pesto Polenta, Caramelized Onions, Citrus Vinaigrette Dressed Greens $21

Gelato: Chocolate Cake

Sorbetto: Cherry Limoncello

M’tucci’s Catering

Brunch, Lunch, Dinner or a party, your place, our place or an event center. You bring the people, we’ll bring the food. Here are a few photos from the Mother’s Day Brunch at Gruet Winery.

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Italian Cooking

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In the introduction of her indispensable book “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” Marcella Hazan writes: “Ask an Italian about Italian Cooking and, depending on whom you approach, you will be told about Bolognese, Venetian, Roman, Milanese cooking or Tuscan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, Neapolitan. But Italian cooking? It would seem no single cuisine answers to that name. The cooking of Italy is really the cooking of regions that long antedate the Italian nation, regions that until 1861 were part of sovereign and usually hostile states, sharing few cultural traditions and no common spoken language - it was not until after World War II that Italian began to be the everyday language of a substantial part of the population - and practicing entirely distinct styles of cooking.”

I’m fortunate to be part of the M’tucci’s Family where I not only get to eat Italian food on a regular basis, but I can observe and experience the cooking techniques and styles of our talented chefs. Before M’tucci’s, I learned most of my Italian cooking skills from cookbooks. I still rely on those cookbooks today.

A few years ago, “Tasting Italy” by National Geographic & America’s Test Kitchen, was a surprise Christmas gift. Organized by region, the large book is filled with a vast amount of background information on each region’s history of eating and cooking, and it has some terrific recipes. I love cooking the Porchetta, pork shoulder rubbed with olive oil, garlic and rosemary. My favorite dish is from the chapter on Puglia, Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage. We grow broccoli rabe, or rapini, in our garden, or find it at Sprouts or Whole Foods when the garden is fallow. The blending of rich flavors of the pork sausage and the bitter greens is a flavorful, easy pasta dish to make at home.

For more complex dishes, I love the Five Pork Bolognese at M’tucci’s Italian, the Artichoke Pesto Ravioli at M’tucci’s Moderno and the Prosciutto Cotto and Five Cheese Tortolloni at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five - all dishes that I am not going to make at home!

Another terrific book for your kitchen library is “Red, White & Greens” by Faith Willinger. It’s all about vegetables and how they are cooked in the Italian style. When our zucchini and squash start producing, we pick the male flowers and stuff them with ricotta, parmesan, and Italian parsley and simmer them in a garlic/tomato broth.

But the book that I use the most is Marcella Hazan’s. She combined and updated the recipes from her first two books for the “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking”, published in 1992. I have had it since it was published and it’s getting a bit worn out.

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There is a wealth of information on Italian ingredients and techniques, and, of course, some great recipes, which are perfect for the beginning or experienced cook. One of my favorites is an amazingly simple roast chicken with lemons. Start with an organic free-range chicken and follow her techniques and timing, and you’ll be amazed at the flavors from this simple dish - just salt, pepper and lemons. There are valuable guidelines for making Pesto and Risotto. She suggests freezing the Pesto sauce before adding the cheese, and I follow her instructions every year when I harvest our basil. We enjoy fresh-tasting pesto throughout the year - not just during the summer. While I love making these at home, making risotto is time consuming. I’m always impressed with the richness of the Seafood Risotto at M’tucci’s Italian. It doesn’t hurt that they insist on buying the most expensive Italian rice, Carnaroli.

Seafood Risotto at M’tucci’s Italian

Seafood Risotto at M’tucci’s Italian

If you were to only have one Italian cookbook, this should be it. Forget Lidia, Giada and all the others. Marcella is the true Goddess of Italian cuisine. Try the Braised Pork Chops with Tomatoes, Cream and Porcini Mushrooms; the Pasta e Fagioli; or the Pasta Amatriciana. Her comments for that pasta dish will give you an idea of her approach to cooking: “When making Amatriciana sauce, some cooks add white wine before putting in the tomatoes; I find the result too acidic, but you may want to try it.”

While “Red, White & Greens” is devoted to Italian vegetables, Marcella is no slouch in this department either. One dish that you will probably never find on a restaurant menu (since it takes a long time to cook) is her Braised Carrots with Parmesan Cheese.

“I know of no other preparation in the Italian repertory, or in other cuisines for that matter, more successful than this one in freeing the rich flavor locked inside the carrot,” she writes. I agree.

Marcella Hazan and M’tucci’s share the same philosophy when it comes to Italian food: use the best ingredients and prepare the dish to bring out the flavors of those ingredients. You can experience those flavors paired with M’tucci’s Private Label Wines in a special 3-Course Prix Fixe Dinner this weekend. You only have three more days to enjoy this meal, so don’t let the opportunity pass. It’s available all day at all three M’tucci’s locations.

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The dessert course for the M’tucci’s Private Label Pairing.

The dessert course for the M’tucci’s Private Label Pairing.

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $38

Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $29

M’tucci’s Braised Sackett Farm Pork Ricotta filled Ravioli: , Sautéed Mushrooms, Caramelized Onion, Roasted Red Bell Pepper, Vodka Cream Sauce $23

Weekend Cocktail - Dreaming In Italy: Beefeater Gin, House Made Limoncello, Orgeat, Half & Half and Cappelltti Aperitivo

Sunday Only: Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

12 oz. Certified Black Angus NY Strip: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $27

Pan-Seared Rockfish: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $21

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

21 oz T-Bone or 24 oz Porterhouse: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $32 or $38

7 oz. Pan-Seared Ling Cod: Seared Artichokes, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $23

Toasted House Made Rigatoni with Sun-Dried Tomato, Spinach, Cold Smoked Beef Tips, Pecorino Cream Sauce Garnished with Gorgonzola $19

Gelato: Chocolate Cake

Sorbetto: Cherry Limoncello

Mother’s Day

We still have some space for Mom for Mother’s Day. Call soon.

M’tucci’s Moderno - Brunch Menu - Open at 10:00 (but no Mimosas until 11:00)

M’tucci’s Catering

With the promise of fewer dining and gathering restrictions in the next few months, now is the time to reserve one of our private dining rooms, or to plan for your wedding reception. Our Catering Manager, Taña Martinez, is ready to help you with all of your catering and event needs. Call her at 505-350-0019 or email: [email protected]

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Aged Italian Cheese

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Cheese is an ancient food, possibly originating in Egypt and brought back to Italy by visitors (soldiers?) around 6,000 years ago. The center for cheese making was Rome, with many artisans experimenting with cheese made from sheep, goats and cows. The Roman artisans were credited with developing the techniques for aging and preserving cheese. While there are many cheeses made throughout Italy with familiar names like provolone, mozzarella, fontina, asiago and gorgonzola, today we focus on the three aged hard cheeses that are most important to our dishes at all three M’tucci’s locations: Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

These cheeses are only similar in the sense that they are made of only milk and rennet, and aged for a minimum amount of time: Parmigiano for 18 months (we buy only 24-month old parmesan), Grana for nine months and Pecorino for at least five months. Each is made in a different region of Italy and has a different flavor profile.

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Grana Padano - is similar to Parmigiano in flavor and is made from cow’s milk in the Po River Valley of northeastern Italy. All of the pastas and pizzas at M’tucci’s Italian Market & Pizzeria are made with Grana. “We like it because it has a bright, nutty flavor, akin to the best parmesan, but it also has little salt crystals that impart awesome bursts of flavor onto any dish,” said Chef/Partner Shawn Cronin. It is not quite as salty as Parmigiano and it is usually cheaper. I normally buy Grana for grating over pasta or making pesto.

Parmigiano-Reggiano - this cheese comes from partly-skimmed milk from pasture grazed cows in the Emilia Romagna region surrounding Bologna, Parma and Pisa. It is aged a minimum of 18 months in the form of a wheel which usually weighs around 80 pounds. We serve Parmagiano-Reggiano on our charcuterie boards at all three locations. I like to use a vegetable peeler to shave curls of it on my salads. When the wedge is finished, I keep the rinds in the freezer in a baggie and add them to minestrone or pasta e fagioli soup while it cooks. As a grated cheese over pasta, it usually pairs better with butter-based sauces. One notable exception is the use of it in pesto sauce, which is made with olive oil

Pecorino Romano - pecora means sheep in Italian and, when aged, this sheep’s milk cheese is distinctive. It has a bright, tangy, salty flavor that the late cookbook author, Marcella Hazan, says is perfect for stronger flavored pasta sauces containing broccoli, rapini, or those that are made with olive oil. Although it originated in the area around Rome, Pecorinos are also made in Tuscany and Sardinia and can be found as a young cheese, as well as one aged for grating.

Always look for the imprint of the cheese’s name on the rind. If there is no imprint, it’s not authentic. Usually, it’s best to buy as much as you think you will use in 2-3 weeks. Never grate an aged cheese ahead of time (they can dry out and lose their flavor). They are best stored wrapped in wax paper, then wrapped with foil or placed in a baggie in the refrigerator.

People who are lactose intolerant can digest sheep’s milk cheeses, since the lactose is set free in the whey.

I like the flavor of Pecorino and always combine some of it with Parmigiano when I make pesto. Our chef’s at M’tucci’s Italian and M’tucci’s Moderno use it grated or in ribbons on our pastas and pizzas.

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Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24 oz Hand Cut Bone-In NY Strip: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $33

Pan-Seared Branzino - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $27

M’tucci’s Braised Sackett Farm Pork Shank Ricotta filled Ravioli: , Sautéed Artichokes, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Caramelized Onion, Roasted Orange Fennel Cream Sauce garnished with Pickled Fennel $23

Sunday Only: Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

12 oz. Certified Black Angus Rib Eye: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $27

Pan-Seared Fresh Jumbo Diver Sea Scallops: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $36

Sackett Farm Pork Picatta: Spaghettini, Arugula, Caper, Diced Tomatoes, Feta Cheese, Lemon Butter Sauce $19

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

8 oz. Pan-Seared Alaskan Halibut: Seared Artichokes, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $24

Toasted House Made Rigatoni with Sun-Dried Tomatoe, Spinach, Cold Smoked Beef Tips, Pecorino Cream Sauce Garnished with Gorgonzola $19

Gelato: Stracciatella

Sorbetto: Cherry Limoncello

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Italian Trattorias

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Editor’s Note: I am on vacation this week, but we are honored and excited to feature an excerpt from an essay in Pasta, Pane, Vino by James Beard Award-Winning author Matt Goulding. Probably one of the best books written about Italian food and travel, Pasta, Pane, Vino takes the reader on a culinary adventure throughout the peninsula. A more detailed bio and a link to his books follow the essay.

In the chapter about Rome, he answers the question (with great examples): what is a trattoria? When I read his description, I thought, “he just described M’tucci’s.

We hope you enjoy it enough to buy the book, in addition to the other two in the series about Japan and Spain. Read on.

Rome

Rome

“Ristoranti, the most formal class of dining in Italy, have the prices and the worldly clientele to experiment, but the heart of Italian food culture, especially Roman food culture, is the trattoria, an institution historically built on an infallible formula: good product, unfussy technique, reasonable prices. According to my friend Alessandro, there are only a few true trattorie left in Rome, and he dispatches me to one with a friend, Andrea Sponzilli, another intrepid food writer. “He’ll know what to order.”

Among the pillars of Italian cuisine, pasta is the most sacred—the one that has inspired thousands of books, millions of journeys, and infinite debates about the way to do it right.

The rest of the world openly wonders what makes Italian pasta so good and theirs so mediocre, but the answer is right in front of their faces: the pasta itself. The bond between flour and water (and in some cases egg) is sacrosanct, and it must not be broken unnecessarily, compromised by sloppy cooking or aggressive saucing or tableware transgressions. That means cooking it properly, ignoring package or recipe instructions and instead relying on a system of vigilant testing until only the barest thread of raw pasta remains in the center of the noodle. That means saucing it sparingly, in the same way a French chef might dress a salad, carefully calibrating the heft and the intensity of the sauce to the noodle itself. That means refraining from unholy acts of aggression: throwing it against the wall, adding oil to the boiling water, spinning the pasta against your spoon, or for God’s sake cutting the noodles with a knife and a fork. Above all, that means thinking not addition but subtraction, not what else can I add, but what can I take away?

Italian cuisine, at its very best, is a math problem that doesn’t add up. A tangle of noodles, a few scraps of pork, a grating of cheese are transformed into something magical. 1 + 1 = 3: more alchemy than cooking.

No strain of regional Italian cooking expresses that more clearly than the iconic pastas of Rome: gricia, carbonara, amatriciana, and cacio e pepe. “They are the four kings,” says Andrea as we peruse the menu of Cesare al Casaletto, a trattoria in Monteverde. It’s ten minutes from the center of Rome, but for tourists who rarely cross the Tiber except to dip a toe in Trastevere, it might as well be in Florence. Our table of four decides to divide the royalty among us, and when the four dishes arrive, a silence falls over us. There’s a near-spiritual significance to having these four pastas on the table at once—each revered enough to have achieved canonical status among carb lovers the world over, but none containing more than a handful of ingredients.

Carbonara: The union of al dente noodles (traditionally spaghetti, but in this case rigatoni), crispy pork, and a cloak of lightly cooked egg and cheese is arguably the second most famous pasta in Italy, after Bologna’s tagliatelle al ragù. The key to an excellent carbonara lies in the strategic incorporation of the egg, which is added raw to the hot pasta just before serving: add it when the pasta is too hot, and it will scramble and clump around the noodles; add it too late, and you’ll have a viscous tide of raw egg dragging down your pasta.

Cacio e pepe: Said to have originated as a means of sustenance for shepherds on the road, who could bear to carry dried pasta, a hunk of cheese, and black pepper but little else. Cacio e pepe is the most magical and befuddling of all Italian dishes, something that reads like arithmetic on paper but plays out like calculus in the pan. With nothing more than these three ingredients (and perhaps a bit of oil or butter, depending on who’s cooking), plus a splash of pasta cooking water and a lot of movement in the pan to emulsify the fat from the cheese with the H2O, you end up with a sauce that clings to the noodles and to your taste memories in equal measure.

Amatriciana: The only red pasta of the bunch. It doesn’t come from Rome at all but from the town of Amatrice on the border of Lazio and Abruzzo (the influence of neighboring Abruzzo on Roman cuisine, especially in the pasta department, cannot be overstated). It’s made predominantly with bucatini—thick, tubular spaghetti—dressed in tomato sauce revved up with crispy guanciale and a touch of chili. It’s funky and sweet, with a mild bite—a rare study of opposing flavors in a cuisine that doesn’t typically go for contrasts.

Gricia: The least known of the four kings, especially outside Rome, but according to Andrea, gricia is the bridge between them all: the rendered pork fat that gooses a carbonara or amatriciana, the funky cheese and pepper punch at the heart of cacio e pepe. “It all starts with gricia.”

And that’s where I start, lifting the pasta from the big-bellied bowl and marveling at its humility: nearly naked, with only the faintest suggestion of human interference. To truly enjoy a pasta of this austere simplicity is to surrender yourself entirely to the scope of its achievement: How to extract so much from so little? How many ingredients in any other cuisine around the world would it take to create a dish as satisfying as this one? Why doesn’t my pasta taste like this?

You could argue that the two central ingredients at the heart of Rome’s pasta culture aren’t really ingredients at all: the first is water. Not just any water, but the water used to cook all those batches of pasta throughout service, each successive batch of noodles leaving behind a layer of starch that steadily transforms the water into an exquisite binding agent, perfect for adding to a pasta sauce to adjust the consistency and clinginess.

The other vital ingredient in the Roman pasta canon is a simple but vital technique: a flick of the wrist, the aggressive movement needed to emulsify the cooking water with the fat in a pan of pasta sauce. By swirling the pan with one hand and using a set of tongs with the other to keep the starch in constant motion, like a Cantonese chef taming the breath of the wok with a hand that never stops moving—what Italians call la mantecatura—a thirty-second mating ritual of intense amorous energy wherein pasta and condiment become one. Without water and without the wrist motion, cacio e pepe would be nothing more than pasta dressed with cheese and pepper, gricia would be noodles in a mess of rendered pork fat. (Of course, most non-Italian cooks don’t even attempt this delicate dance, opting instead to go the route of poor Nigella, adding cream to their carbonara and cacio e pepe.)

The Cesare specimens are among the finest I’ve tasted. Using rigatoni instead of spaghetti for carbonara would evoke an avalanche of angry Facebook posts from pasta purists, but there’s no doubt that the hollow shape makes a more generous home for the silky sauce. The gricia is deserving of its fame across the city, the toothsome strands of housemade tonnarelli robed in a soft blanket of warm pig fat and pecorino. And the cacio e pepe, well, let’s just say the cacio e pepe will follow me everywhere across this country in the months to come, a three-ingredient measuring stick for the greatness of Italy’s regional cuisine. Albert Einstein said he saw the possibility of a higher power in the harmony of the natural world; some find it in the magnificent complexity of the human body. I see it in the miracle of cacio e pepe.

Before the hushed reverence of our pasta moment threatens to turn lunch awkward, the sound of happy eaters snaps us out of our silence. “The story of Roman cuisine is the story of the neighborhood restaurant,” says Andrea. “Any real romano will always believe the best osteria is next door. Their loyalty is always to the neighborhood.” You can feel that loyalty in the room today: parents linger over dessert as their kids play under the table, old couples hold hands as they finish off the last few sips of wine. Maybe some have made the trip from other parts of Rome—it’s certainly worth it—but chances are that most live within strolling distance.”

If that doesn’t make you want to go to Rome and eat, I don’t know what will. Thanks Matt!

  • Used with permission From Pasta, Pane, Vino - Deep Travels Through Italy’s Food Culture by Matt Goulding, an Anthony Bourdain/HarperCollins book (2018)

  • Matt Goulding is an Emmy and James Beard Award-winning author and producer, now based in Barcelona. The former food editor at Men’s Health, he is the author of the very popular Eat This, Not That and the co-founder of Roads & Kingdoms, a digital publication that focuses on travel through food. He met Anthony Bourdain in 2010, who became a friend and a supporter of Roads & Kingdoms, and who then published Goulding’s three books about food and travel in Japan, Spain and Italy: Rice, Noodle, Fish; Grape, Olive, Fig; and Pasta, Pane, Vino. I highly recommend all three. Buy them by clicking this link.

  • Roads & Kingdoms was founded by Matt and Nathan Thormburg. Possibly one of the most valuable and comprehensive online travel and food publications available. Subscribe to Roads & Kingdoms by clicking here.

  • Follow Matt Goulding on Instagram: @mdgoulding

Burrata, Prosciutto & Artichoke Hearts at Obicá Campo di Fiori in Rome

Burrata, Prosciutto & Artichoke Hearts at Obicá Campo di Fiori in Rome

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24oz Hand Cut Porterhouse: Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $34

Pan-Seared California Halibut: Garlic Mash Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $26

Ravioli: Crab Ricotta Ravioli, Sautéed Pink Shrimp, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Haricot Vert, tossed in a Brown Butter $23

Pasta: Harris Ranch Beef Tips, Wild Mushroom Gorgonzola Cream Sauce, Red Bell Pepper, Carrot, Sweet Peas, Crispy Shallot Garnish $21

Sunday Only: Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

Coming soon.

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

8 oz Wagyu Tri-Tip: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Broccolini, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $27

Pan-Seared Amberjack: Seared Artichokes, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Escarole, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $21

Salmon Fish and Chips: Green Apple, Golden Raisin, Fennel, Kale Slaw, Cajun fries, Remoulade Sauce $19

Gelato: Stracciatella

Sorbetto: Blueberry Blackberry (combined)

Thanks for reading. See you next week. Ciao!

Italian Easter

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Easter (Pasqua) in Italy is not only a religious holiday, it also marks the end of Winter and the time of year when Italians celebrate the beginning of Spring. There are several prominent dishes served at this time of year including Colomba, an Easter version of Pannettone. Eggs symbolize rebirth, so Italians make a variety of cakes and pastries with eggs (sometimes cooked whole inside the cake), and serve boiled eggs and salame for lunch. Chocolate Easter eggs are given as gifts.

Nothing is more ubiquitous on the Italian Easter table than lamb. Sheep are raised throughout the Central and Southern regions, and on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, producing a variety of meats. Their milk is used to make a wide variety of cheeses, the most well-known being Pecorino. Sheep are raised in the mountains, grazing in the hills in the summers and moving to the lower elevations during the winter, as they are in much of the Western U.S.

The cut of lamb used is determined by the family budget. Most of the recipes I have seen call for lamb shoulder, which is roasted whole, or which is cut into pieces and slow-cooked for ragù. Rack or leg of lamb would be considered a splurge.

Roasted Rack of Colorado Lamb

Roasted Rack of Colorado Lamb

Regional specialties vary for Easter preparations. In Emilia Romagna the shoulder is roasted with rosemary, garlic and white wine. In Rome and Lazio, they prepare abbacchio, which is a pan-roasted shoulder with sage, garlic, rosemary and anchovies. Another popular Roman dish is abbacchio con scotaditto (lamb ribs), which utilizes the famous Roman artichokes now in season.

To the east of Rome, in the mountainous regions of Abruzzo and Molise, sheep are predominate and lamb is typical at this time of year. Agnello cacio e uova, lamb with cacio (a semi-soft cheese) and eggs, unites two of the most symbolic ingredients of Easter. The sheep graze on high mountain grasses and flowers and are considered among the most flavorful in Italy. One of the staples of Abruzzo is ragù, slow cooked with mountain herbs (sometimes saffron), vegetables and maybe a bit of guanciale.

EASTER MEAL KIT - Dinner for 2 - Only $37

1st Course: M’tucci’s Spicy Tucumcari Feta Dip w/ Marinated Cucumber and Red Bell Pepper

2nd Course: Lamb Ragù - Lamb, Guanciale, Pancetta, Carrots, Onions, Celery, San Marzano Tomatoes over M’tucci’s Rigatoni

3rd Course: Strawberry Parfait - Lemon Lavender Sponge Cake, Vanilla Chantilly Cream & Macerated Strawberries

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24 oz Hand Cut Porterhouse - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $32

Pan-Seared California Halibut - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $23

Pasta: Beef & Goat Cheese Ravioli with Pan-Seared Shrimp, House Bacon, Spinach, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions in a Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce $23

Cocktail: Kentucky Gold: Old Forester 86, Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup, Pimento

Sunday Only: Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

12 oz. Angus NY Strip: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $27

Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi: Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $25

Lobster & Shrimp Pasta - Shrimp, Lobster, Grape Tomatoes in a Lobster Cream Sauce & Spaghettini $29

Cocktail: Beach Glass: Muddled Strawberry, Amaro Lucano, Orange Juice, Lime Juice, Prichard’s Crystal Rum Goslings Float

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

12oz. Harris Ranch NY Strip - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $24

6 oz. Pan-Seared Amberjack - Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Grilled Escarole, Seared Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $22

Honey Chicken Truffle Pasta - Lightly Breaded Chicken with Root Veggies, Snap Peas, Fresh Herbs in a Butter Mascarpone Sauce topped with Honey Truffle Oil over House Made Fettuccine $17

Cocktail: Golden Corduroy: Whiskey Jane Rye, Cardamaro, Roasted Lemon-Honey Simple Syrup, Grapefruit Bitters and a pinch of Salt.

Gelato: Whiskey Malted Milk Stracchiatella

Sorbetto: Lemon & Lime

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Italian St. Patrick's Day

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St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, so M’tucci’s will commemorate the Irish holiday with a meal kit of Corned Beef and Cabbage. Strange? Not really, since legend suggests that Patrick was really Patrizio, born into a Roman family living in Roman England in the 5th Century. Possibly, St. Patrick is Italian!!

Today, due to Irish emigration, there are Irish communities throughout the world, most prominently in the U.S., but also in Italy. Several celebrations, cultural and religious, are held in Italy around March 17th.

Religious observances for St. Patrick’s Day in Rome are held at St. Isadore’s College and at the Basilica of San Clemente (although they were cancelled last year because of the Covid lockdown). Scholars Lounge in Rome is the largest Irish Pub in Italy and received the award of Best Irish Pub in the World.

Irlanda en Festa is held in 10 Italian cities during the week of St. Patrick’s and is recognized by the Irish Ministry of Culture as the most important Irish Festival in Europe. It has been held every year since 2007 and features Irish music, culture and cuisine. The Bologna Facebook page for Irlanda en Festa has more than 23,000 followers. The festival lasts for three days in Florence where more than two dozen Irish pubs host Italians and Irish alike.

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Corned beef is salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Corned Beef & Cabbage is not an Irish National dish, but was created by Irish Americans and is derived from the traditional dish of bacon & cabbage. Corned beef is popular in the cuisines of Israel and Philippines.

M’tucci’s Corned Beef & Cabbage Meal Kit is a collaboration between Chef/Partner Cory Grey and Executive Pastry Chef Brianna Dennis. Cory created the spice kit for cooking the three pound piece of corned beef and Brianna created the dessert with an Irish theme. She has used Steelbender Brewyard’s Brickie Stout to make a Brownie, then crumbles it into what she calls an “Irish Car Bomb Gelato.” The gelato is not a reference to the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, but a popular cocktail similar to a Boilermaker, where a shot of Bailey’s and Jamesons Irish Whiskey is dropped into a glass of Stout. The gelato is a Baileys gelato with a Jamesons Caramel Swirl.

We predict that you probably won’t consume the entire portion of meat for St. Patrick’s Day, so we are including M’tucci’s Rye Bread, House Made Mustard and Sauerkraut so you can make your own Reuben Sandwich the next day.

We are taking phone orders for this kit, which can be picked up on March 16 & 17. Only $49.

Let Chef Cory show you how easy it is to prepare your Corned Beef & Cabbage in this video on our YouTube Channel.

Weekend Cocktail Specials

Weekend Food Specials

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

8 oz Beef Tenderloin - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $29

Pan-Seared Ruby Red Trout - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $23

Sunday Only: Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

12 oz Hand Cut Rib-Eye: Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Salsa Verde $33

Frutti di Mare - Shrimp, Baby Scallops, Baby Clams, & Mussels in a Spicy Marinara on Fettuccine $19

Pan-Seared California Halibut - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $24

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

7 oz. Harris Ranch Hanger Steak or 12 oz Chianina Rib Eye - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $21/$56

6 oz. Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Escarole, Seared Artichoke Hearts, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $22

Chianina Beef Picatta - Thin, Lightly Breaded Chianina, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Artichoke/Tomato Relish, Lemon Caper Beurre Blanc $23

Gelato: Chocolate Hazelnut

Sorbetto: Pineapple-Limeade

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

The Pasta of Rome

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Three of the iconic pastas of Rome have their differences, but the use of Pecorino Romano sheep’s milk cheese is the common denominator. Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe and Amatriciana are the holy trinity of Roman pasta dishes on restaurant menus. Quite often, U.S. versions take liberties with the recipes, using bacon instead of guanciale (cured pork cheeks) or even Parmesan!! That will not happen in Rome.

Carbonara is traditionally made with Spaghetti, crispy pork (guanciale) and a blend of lightly cooked egg and cheese. M’tucci’s Twenty-Five makes an amazing version with Capicola (Applewood Smoked Pork Shoulder) and Prosciutto. Italians consider it to be one of the most popular pasta dishes in Italy, after Tagliatelle Bolognese.

Cacio e Pepe is a deceptively simple dish, with only three ingredients: pasta (with some pasta water), cheese (Pecorino), and fresh cracked black pepper. However, it’s probably the one dish that most confounds home cooks who can end up with rubbery, chunks of cheese instead of a silky sauce that clings to the pasta (me included). All three of our restaurants serve this dish with our eggplant parmesan, except M’tucci’s Moderno puts a little twist on it and calls it Cacio e Pesto.

While Amatriciana is the only red pasta of the three, it is popular throughout Italy. It originated in the town of Amatrice, which is northwest of Rome in the mountains. An ancient city with Roman ruins, it was devastated by an earthquake in 2016, which killed nearly 300 people and destroying 75% of the buildings in town.

While many Italian sauces are harmonious, this is one sauce that has contrasts with the saltiness and richness of the pork, the sweetness of the tomatoes, and the zing of the red pepper flakes. The Italians are very passionate and rigid when it comes to the ingredients in this dish. A little wine is OK, Onions are OK, too, but never garlic. A few years ago, a celebrated Italian chef suggested on a television program that you could add garlic to Amatriciana. The country’s largest newspaper La Repubblica published an article the next day denouncing the chef.

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The main course for this week’s meal kit is Pasta Amatriciana, (no garlic), made with M’tucci’s house cured guanciale, San Marzano Tomatoes, Pecorino and tossed with M’tucci’s version of fresh Bucatini pasta. Toss the salad with marinated tomatoes, follow the easy instructions for making the sauce, bake M’tucci’s Chocolate Chip Cookie dough and 20 minutes later you are ready for a three course feast. Order now, because at $32 to feed two people, these won’t last long. This card and an instructional video are included with every M’tucci’s Meal Kit.

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Super Bowl Sunday - At all M’tucci’s Locations

Patio or Carryout

Any Two Pizzas for $18

Family Charcuterie Board for $18

M’tucci’s Valentine’s Weekend

Don’t miss the special meal kits for Valentine’s Weekend. Executive Pastry Chef Brianna Dennis has created a fondue kit loaded with house made sweet goodies and Chef/Partner Cory Gray has a special three course meal that includes all of the major Valentines food categories: lobster, steak and chocolate. The Fondue ToGo will be $25 and the three course dinner is $49. Phone orders Please.

Fondue Togo kits $25.00 Available for order now.


Limited supplies at each M’tucci’s location starting 2/12-2/14
Kit includes:Caramel Chocolate Ganache
Chocolate Brownie pieces
Prosecco marshmallows
Strawberries
Palmier cookies
Pound cake


Meal prep kit for 2 people $49.00 - Order Now

Limited supplies picked up at each M’tucci’s location starting 2/12-2/14


Appetizer: Buttered Lobster Cream Cheese Puff Pastry w/ Lemon Cream Caper Beurre Blanc

Entree: M’tucci’s Bacon Wrapped 6oz Filet Mignon, Roasted Asparagus, Salt Water Potatoes with a Creamy Tuscan Garlic Shrimp Sauce.

Dessert: Cannolis with Sweetened Ricotta filling and Chocolate Covered Strawberries.


Dessert Special $8.00

Limited supplies at each M’tucci’s location starting 2/12-2/14

Chocolate Covered Red Velvet Cake Roll filled with Chantilly Cream, topped with Raspberry Meringue and Chocolate Cake Pieces.



Valentine’s Day Gelato and Sorbetto special:

Limited supplies at each M’tucci’s location starting 2/12-2/14, $8.00 per pint

Cheesecake Gelato with Strawberry Swirl

Chocolate sorbet

Raspberry Prosecco Sorbetto

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

12 oz Hand Cut Bone In Sackett Farm Pork Chop - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction $23

Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $29

Sunday Only: Half Rack of Smoked Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, House Made Cole Slaw and House BBQ Sauce for $18

M’tucci’s Moderno

Pork Belly Risotto w/ Celery, Carrots, Mushrooms, Alfredo Sauce $19

Pan-Seared Rockfish - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce, Prosciutto Powder $21

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

7 oz Chianina Flatiron Steak - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $22

Gelato: Blackberry with Blackberry Jam Swirl

Sorbetto: Raspberry Lemon

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!