Terrific Takeout: Spiga Winter 2016 Our Coverage Sponsored by Fresh Origins
Our friend Luigi Corea, co-owner of Spiga
Our friend Stefano Bosetti, Co-Owner and Executive Chef of Spiga
Life is short. Eat their banana pudding!!!
Fresh Origins is America’s leading producer of Microgreens and Edible Flowers. Combining the benefits of an ideal climate with a deep passion for quality and innovation, Fresh Origins products are sought after by the finest restaurants and top chefs. The farm is located in the picturesque rolling hills of San Diego County, where the near perfect weather allows for production and harvest all year. Fresh Origins produces almost 400 Microgreens, Petitegreens, Edible Flowers, Shoots, Tiny Veggies™ and related items. Many are not available anywhere else, with new introductions nearly every month. Fresh Origins products are on top of the finest cuisine in the world! Fresh Origins supplies distributors of specialty produce who serve fine dining restaurants and resorts nationwide. There are also a few online sources of their products available to private chefs and home cooks. Read our first Culinary Queen interview with Kelly Sasuga:
For more information about Fresh Origins, visit their website at
"Spiga is a trattoria with the exclusivity of a club that is testament to the quality of relationship we have with our customers, founded on the authentic Italian cuisine that makes us proud."
-Luigi Corea
It's not who you know, it's WHOM YOU KNOW and you should know our friends Luigi and Stefano at Spiga! Their true commitment to Italian authenticity evidenced by their fine food and respective Italian heritages is testament to why Spiga is one of our favorite Italian restaurants! It had been far too long since we had visited last spring and we aspire to visit more often-they are amazing!!!!
Everyone with great taste and intellect watches 60 Minutes on CBS; you might remember they had a piece recently on olive oil:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-overtime-how-to-buy-olive-oil/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-overtime-how-to-buy-olive-oil/
We took Luigi's picture with his olive oil because it is perfect and from Italy.
Even the bread is a delight at Spiga!
Spiga opened in 2005 and in 2007 Luigi took it over from his brother and has been at the helm for nine years now.
Tucked away on West 84th Street, Spiga was first featured in 2012 in Peachy's Picks:
and again in Spring 2015:
You will die and go to heaven via your tastebuds when you begin with the fabulously fragrant Insalata di granchio e avocado con sedano e zenzero! Delicious jumbo lump crab meat, avocado, celery, ginger radicchio and heart of palm waltzes towards your fork with delight. This beacon of summer will remind you to come back when Spiga opens their wonderful windows to let in the breeze of June, July and August. The seafood is sourced from Down East and Spiga changes their menu twice a year. The lemon dressing incorporates lemon olive oil from Sicily. Peachy picked out this fabulous appetizer.
Luigi suggested we also try the starter: Polenta morbida con salsicce di chinghiale e funghi misti: Soft polenta with grilled wild boar sausage and mixed mushrooms.
There it is a bit closer up. It is a winter wonder of unique carnivorous delight that you will revel in! Have you had wild boar sausage before? We had not and we liked it; there are not too many places in 2016 that are inventive enough to get us to try something we never have before, especially when they are Italian. We have been to the most Italian restaurants, by far. There probably are the most Italian restaurants...this sausage was sublime and its exquisite flavor puts other sausages to shame. Of course, the sausage is from Italy! (Tuscany and Umbria, to be exact.)
The green salad that Peachy chose looks like it walked off a runway: Spiga gets huge points for presentation here. Please meet the Insalata variegata con pompelmo ribes e parmigiano! The pink grapefruit is the star of this salad as it teams up with the organic mesculin salad and ideally shaved parmesean cheese.
Be prepared to smile big when the Pappardelle con sugo di cinghiale e funghi misti is put in front of you. Please be aware that this homemade white ribbon shaped pasta with wild boar sauce and mixed mushrooms can cause pure elation and over-the-top culinary satisfaction in your grateful stomach! It boasts an elevated winter flavor of sophistication achieving a rare balance between hearty and elegant: an uncommon and coveted quality in winter.
One of THE BEST entrees in recent memory was the Filetto di manzo all'amarone e tartufo nero by Spiga!!! Translated into English, it's sauteed beef filet mignon (from Ottomanelli on Bleeker) in amarone red wine reduction with black truffle, spinach, leeks and potato croquette boasting incredible richness that will make your day! Even you, Clint Eastwood.
It is a total bastion of decadence that is going to turn vegetarians to carnivores!
Be sure that one of the 42 seats at Spiga is yours.
The grand finale that you must not miss is the incredible Banana Pudding, otherwise known as Budino di pane con banane e cioccolato bianco. Caramel semifreddo (half mousse, half ice cream) is an added highlight to this banana white chocolate bread pudding, and it all gets an assist from bourbon sauce. GOAL in Peachy's stomach.
Spiga is definitely Terrific Takeout!
