Aventino cafe evaluation: Checking out Roman Jewish foods

All of which is how I bought my major other — Not An Organ Fan — to try, and return to, 1 of the signature appetizers at a restaurant that signifies a homecoming for Friedman and allows him to explore his Jewish roots as in no way prior to.

Aventino is sibling to the common Pink Hen and two All Function storefronts in the District and component of an uptick in great destinations to consume in Bethesda, like Chiko and the Salt Line. Friedman ticks off a listing of great good reasons he’s branched into Maryland: The chef is from Montgomery County, his first career was at Mon Ami Gabi there, and “my mother lives in Bethesda.”

Friedman grew up Jewish in an Italian group in New Jersey. “Close-knit cultures,” he states, “but they did not contact. In Rome, they touch.” Aventino usually takes its name from one of the famed 7 hills in historical Rome and considers the diet plan, like offal (off-cuts and organ meats) of the Jews compelled to dwell in the city’s ghetto.

This slice of heritage plays out in the risotto fritters, or suppli, which have the envisioned stretchy mozzarella and rice, but also minced hen livers, which impart a nice mineral flavor.

Aventino would make its individual mortadella, yet another pride of Roman cooking and finished with terrific ability by culinary director Erik Rollings, who transforms nearby ground pork and body fat back again into something pink and elegant with the enable of seasonings like mace, nutmeg and garlic. Kerchiefs of the completed product, sprinkled with crushed pistachios, are draped like a tent over hollow puffs of fried gnocchi and sweet darkish cherries in mustard syrup, what Italians call mostarda. The mix is my 2nd-preferred antipasti soon after the fried sweetbreads and a wonderful way to simplicity into the night time.

Then again, I really like the simplicity of the Italian flatbread, springy-chewy slabs slathered with tomato sauce and herbs. For a second, I’m back in Rome, outdoors the small Forno Campo de ‘Fiori ingesting the beloved bakery’s pleated rectangular pizza. And no, it’s not for the reason that the bartenders make good drinks. Friedman and staff know aspect of the magic driving Italian cooking is fewer, not additional. And what appears elemental can be deceiving. The cause you cannot prevent having the pizza rossa is simply because its fragrance arrives from Sicilian oregano and its sunny tang is a mixture of Italian plum tomatoes and a paste produced from tomatoes dried on rooftops that chef de cuisine Gennaro Esposito likens to “bottled time” for its depth of taste. (Esposito has experience at some of my preferred dining establishments in Washington, including Reveler’s Hour, Tail Up Goat and the very long-operating Obelisk.)

Artichokes populate the countryside of Rome and really should make an appearance on your table at Aventino. Though these are braised relatively than fried (my desire), the artichokes, fragrant with mint and dappled with salsa verde, still fulfill.

Personally, I could just buy among the appetizers and call it a giorno. Nonetheless the pastas contain factors to stray from the starters. One particular is the classic cacio e pepe, a minor black costume of a dish made with tonnarelli, cheese and black pepper. The mixture is familiar but added pleasing at Aventino, which ratchets up the drama with three sorts of black peppercorns: tellicherry, (crimson) kampot and cubeb — toasted to highlight their respective robust, spicy and subtly bitter notes. I also like the slight resistance in the housemade pastas. “I’m an al dente dude,” says Friedman, whose tonnarelli, like spaghetti but thicker, supports his preference. A further pasta of difference is spaghetti and clams, brilliant with lemon and white wine and finished with fantastic breadcrumbs mixed with bottarga, healed fish roe, to engage in up the ocean notes.

The much larger plates have their charms, much too. Thick, meaty and sweet dorade is splayed about wilted greens, every chunk soar-started out with currants, pine nuts and lemon. Lamb ribs rubbed with coriander, fennel and chile flakes and heaped around pickled fennel are their equal. For possibly secondi, a aspect of borlotti beans in tomato sauce with bits of prosciutto and a cover of breadcrumbs helps make nice arm candy.

Three visits afforded me various landscapes. The butter-coloured key eating space arrives with alcove booths and a watch of the open up kitchen area. Off the entrance is seating in dusty rose and mustard yellow, as well as a lofty view of the handsome environmentally friendly-tiled bar. The tableware shows considered. A welcome of olives arrives in a shallow gold dish whose cover is taken out to capture the pits, and the drinking water eyeglasses in good shape the hand like gloves.

Aventino’s significant tactic extends to the last training course. Pastry chef Anne Specker, late of the wonderful-eating dining establishments Kinship and Metier, delivers a moist round of apple cake Italianized with olive oil gelato and encircled with poached fruit, and a soft disk of almond panna cotta with a garland of vivid citrus interspersed with candied kumquats, shards of honeycomb toffee and fluffy scoops of orange mousse.

For a little something more informal, at AP Pizza Store up coming door, buyers can purchase Friedman’s signature deck-oven pies and a single of the area’s finest Caesar salads. The Pizza Shop, developed employing the classes of the pandemic, is Aventino’s superior-spirited kid sister, giving stickers, tablets for purchasing, canned beer and wine, a flirty pink neon tomato, and a takeout window in which you can get pizza by the slice (for the moment, just at lunch). The scene begs for a kids birthday bash.

Aventino, on the other hand, calls to anyone who would like to choose a trip to Rome by way of Bethesda.

4747 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda. 301-961-6450. aventinocucina.com. Open for indoor eating 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday by way of Thursday and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Charges: Appetizers $10 to $60 (for caviar provider), major courses $19 to $44. Seem examine: 79 decibels/Need to converse with elevated voice. Accessibility: A lift off the entrance allows wheelchair users get to diverse pieces of the restaurant, together with the bar/ADA-authorised restrooms.