WineCountry.IT Selection – La Ciccia, Sardinian Restaurant
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| Lorella Degan and Massimiliano Conti, owners of La Ciccia | |
It has been over a year since I last wrote a piece for this infrequent column. Mostly it is because life is very busy and since this is a labor of love, you can believe that the destinations featured in this space are truly outstanding. A couple of weeks ago I had a business meeting in the city (San Francisco) on Friday afternoon, so my wife jumped at the chance, despite her cold, to go to the only Sardinian restaurant in town, La Ciccia, which we love almost as much as we love the Italian island itself.
Unfortunately for us, La Ciccia is located in Noe Valley, at 30th street and Church, so it's not exactly in our neck of the hood and we don't have many opportunities to go there. Though it opened less than a year ago and the cuisine is truly Sardinian, without many concessions to even the usual Italian fare, let alone to American taste, the restaurant already has carved out a niche for itself and has a faithful clientele.
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| La Ciccia Sardinian Restaurant, at 291 30th St. (at Church), San Francisco Tel. (415) 550 8114 Business hours: Tuesday - Sunday 5:30 - 10PM Reservations and credit cards accepted – Street parking |
The fact that the menu is written in Sardinian dialect and English, rather than Italian and English, is not just for being cute, but rather to highlight the true nature of the recipes.
"Keep it simple, don't complicate things. Be humble," says chef Massimiliano Conti who co-owns the business with his wife, Lorella Degan. According to Conti the true cuisine of a place belongs to its people, and following trends is tantamount as "to being swept away by the wind," to say it in his words. "As long as you follow trends, you will never be true to your identity."
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| Tonnu in Padella cun Cibudda e Zafferanu Sauteed Tuna with Saffron Onions and Vermentino Wine |
I ordered a special appetizer of Crostini di Tonno and Brigit the Insalara de Birdura cun Cibudda Cotta (Mixed Salad and Balsamic Onion). While waiting for hors d'oeuvres to arrive we munched on pani carasau, the flat, thin, crunchy Sardinian bread which is excellent with a light sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of serious olive oil, imported, of course, from Sardinia as well. Then Chef Conti, knowing how much we like the original flavors from the island, surprised us with a plate of succulent slices of cured tuna, which he calls 'salumi del mare', or 'cold cuts from the ocean', seasoned with a little oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, anise seeds and lightly dusted with shaved bottarga, sometimes called also the poor man's caviar, or premium quality Mediterranean caviar. It melted in the mouth with a delicious salty finish reminiscent of deep seawater.
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We cleaned our mouths with the excellent Argiolas' Selegas Nuragus di Sardegna DOC, a fresh white wine made near Cagliari, the capital city in the south of the island.
As main course we both ordered the seafood special, which that evening happened to be Grilled Wild Trout Filled with Aromatic Herbs. We couldn't have made a better choice. The aroma of the herbs had seasoned the pink meat, which was perfectly cooked under the charred skin, and a few drops of lemon completed the simple, gratifying, fulfilling plate.
To close on a good note, we ordered the cheese platter for dessert (Prattu du Casu Isolanu e Grana Padano), which we washed down with the delicious Moscato di Sorso Sennori, produced by the Cantina Cooperativa Romangia in the small town of Sorso, near Sassari, in the North Eastern part of the island.
As I was savoring the rich, sunny, golden nectar, which complemented the satisfying flavor of the cheese perfectly, my late Italian grandfather came to mind.
When I was just a little boy back in the Emilian countryside, at the end of the dinner that our extended family would eat together every day, my big, bold grandpa used sit me on his lap and we would share chunks of delicious cheese as he said, his mantra: "An't liver so da tevla mai, fin che la boca l'an sa'd furmai" ("Never leave the dinner table, unless the taste of cheese is in your mouth", in local dialect.)
Such is the cuisine of chef Massimiliano Conti: satisfying, fulfilling, gratifying to the point of becoming evocative.
Massimiliano left Sardinia in 1993 to work as a sommelier at Galileo, in Washington, D.C., but dreamed of sharing the recipes lovingly prepared by his grandmother back home. In 1996 he moved to San Francisco where he worked as waiter and sommelier at Antica, Palio d'Asti and Acquerello. Four years later he became district manager for Winebow, one of the bigger importers of Italian wines in the East Coast, so it's not a wonder that the list featuring over 100 wines is strictly Italian, and includes what's the largest selection of Sardinian wines in town and possibly in California, from Cannonau to Monica, to the already mentioned Nuragus and Moscato, and many more.
Last but not least, the service is friendly, yet very professional. Lorella Degan is a perfect host. She worked extensively in the hotel business and as concierge at the Mandarin Hotel before joining forces with her husband to open La Ciccia in the former location of Verona Pizza.
"Sardinian cuisine showcases what the land gives to the people, without being arrogant about it," says Conti. In fact, this is arguably the least pretentious, truest Italian regional restaurant I have ever eaten at on this side of the ocean.
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