Pasta e Piselli on the 4 Seasons’ Riva Terrace in Minneapolis. (Sharyn Jackson/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Mild, luxe, a little bit transportive. That’s just about what I would like out of a poolside rooftop terrace lunch at a resort just like the 4 Seasons, and the pasta e piselli ($26) from Riva Terrace delivered. For this ultra-fresh pasta dish, al dente thumbprints are available in a transparent, savory broth, punctuated by nubs of guanciale and confetti shavings of Tuscan pecorino. The dish is scattered with pea shoots and little purple flower petals that make it nearly too fairly to devour. Greater than conventional pasta e piselli (aka, an Italian soup of little pasta tubes with freezer-bag peas), this introduced again reminiscences of a tortellini in brodo I had in Bologna greater than a decade in the past that has a everlasting spot in my private meals corridor of fame. While you want you could possibly take a shower in a brodo, you’re on to one thing.
Facet word: Don’t sleep on the pizza fries ($14). They’re simply fries — actually good ones — seasoned with nostalgic, dead-on pizza taste. (Sharyn Jackson)
Injera roll sampler with spiced purple lentils in berbere spice, chickpea stew and cut up pea stew from Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant in North St. Paul. (Nancy Ngo/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
When exploring a brand new menu, sampler platters are an effective way to get the lay of the land. And Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant (no relation to the previous Blue Nile in Minneapolis, in case you’re questioning) on this east metro suburb has that in spades.
Along with hearty samplers of stews and braised dishes within the entree part which can be served with injera flatbread to scoop them up with, this spot close to Hwy. 36 and Geneva Avenue additionally presents an appetizer model. For $10, you get three forms of vegetarian stews rolled in injera, reduce into bite-sized items. It got here with a pleasant vary of flavors — Misr spiced purple lentils in conventional berbere sauce that had a kick, Shiro chickpea stew that was wealthy and creamy, and a extra impartial Kik Alicha cut up pea that tasted homestyle.
