Giacomo's cibo e vino

I love trying new things so I am a huge fan of tapas because you get to try a few bites of lots of different things. I love Italian so when I found out that Giacomo's cibo e vino was Italian tapas, I knew I needed to go asap! They have a wonderful patio that is fenced in and a bit secluded with the foliage growing on the fence. The inside if funky and playful with bright colors. I started off with a "Fellini", a combination of prosecco and apricot nectar. It was fun that it came in its own pitcher, poured right in front of you. It was slightly bubbly, but certainly not overwhelming sweet. I was actually surprised at this because apricots are pretty sweet. It was a great cocktail option for something in between wine and a mixed drink.

One of my choices was salsiccia di pollo, homemade chicken sausage with frisee and arugula. I and not sure why, but I was expecting to be in the form of a link, not a patty. These were definitely not small, sad looking patties. It almost reminded me of slices of turkey meatloaf. It was delicious and was a lot less salty than most sausage is. It had a great herby, earthy flavor to it and the greens provided some lightness and freshness to the dish. The greens were tossed in some balsamic vinegar which helped cut through the heaviness of the sausage. The sausage was grilled and had the tiniest hint of crispiness on the outside. It was hard to me to determine what the ingredients might be in sausage, but they were much better than premade sausage.

Since I have recently developed a taste for brussel spourts, I was excited to try these. Known as cavoletti con pancetta, these were sauteed with pancetta, garlic and olive oil. They were bursting with flavor and had a nice crispness to it from the browning they got while being sauteed. The pancetta added salt and a nice textural element to the dish. Of course garlic and olive oil are two Italian cooking staples, but the fact that they are so flavorful means that you can make delicious dishes with very few ingredients. These brussel sprouts were tender on the inside and didn't have the characteristic cabbage taste that they can sometimes have. I don't really know why I waited so long in life to start trying brussel sprouts as they very yummy, but it was probably because they look a bit weird. Lesson learned...never let the way something looks prevent you from trying it.

Even though I was doing tapas, we were at an Italian restaurant so I had to get some kind of pasta. Gnocchi are soft Italian dumplings made from semolina flour. They usually come in potato flavor and are small bite sized, tube looking things. However, I was very surprised to see that these gnocchi were much larger than I expected and reminded me of polenta in the texture. They were very light and fluffy as opposed to the very dense texture of other gnocchi. These were topped with a tomato sauce, butter and parmigiano reggiano and then baked until they had a lovely golden crust. The tomato sauce was very thick, almost like it was just chunks of tomato. The cheese didn't cover the taste of the gnocchi, but added a bit id creaminess to it. Giacomo's cibo e vino is a great place to relax and enjoy so delicious Italian food with a twist. They had so many yummy sounds menu items that I will definitely need to go back and try some more.