NYC Restaurant - Risotteria

Risotteria
270 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10014
212-924-6664
www.risotteria.com

My wife and I recently made it over to Risotteria for dinner after hearing about it for a long time. It's a nice corner restaurant, which means the seating is minimal and packed in.

Who cares?

They've got a menu that has almost everything available in a gluten-free version. That might not sound like much, but this is an Italian restaurant.

We were hungry, so we ordered three entrees.

1. Arborio rigotti (w/ calamari, roasted red peppers & olives) $12.25 - Diana wasn't blown away by this dish. She's wondering if it was just the unusual ingredients (calamari). Next time she'll try something else.
   
2. Panini (w/ Italian sausage, mozzarella, peppers & olives) $13.25 - This sandwich was AWESOME - I've always been jealous since I've missed out on the grilled sandwich fad. Not this time! The sausage was sliced thinly making the sandwich easy to eat.
   
3. Olive Puree Pizza (w/ soppressata, mozzarella & hot peppers) $12.75 - This was ok, I think the problem was the fact that I ate the entire pie and that's a lot of olive paste to eat. The soppressata was so thinly sliced, I was reminded of the Seinfeld episode with the meat slicer. I'm looking forward to ordering a regular pizza next time I visit. The crust was nice and thin with great texture.

Overall Rating: FIVE STARS - Both of us were very impressed with the menu and the food. We just need to explore more. There was nothing terrible, just two entrees that weren't our favorites.

If you have celiac you must visit Risotteria.

Pizza - Shiloh Farms Bread & Pizza Crust Mix

We're back! (This is Diana writing under Rob's account)

Continuing our pizza theme, we thought we'd try Shiloh Farms brand pizza crust. This was purchased at the local health food store in Maryland for $5.29 + tax.

The Shiloh Farms mix is made out of white rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, sweet rice flour, corn meal, cream of tartar, and baking soda. To make the crust you'll need egg white, olive oil, honey, water and sea salt.

Unfortunately the package does not offer any nutritional information so I'm inclined to think it's not packed with vitamins.

Directions: Preheat oven to 450F. Beat egg white, oil, honey for 1 minute. Stir in the water. Combine salt with mix and add to liquid. Blend using a large spoon until the dough begins to form a ball. Roll out between waxed paper to a 11 inch circle. Place on an oiled cookie sheet. Bake the pizza shell for 8 minutes. Add sauce and your favorite topping. Bake 7 to 10 more minutes.

Ease of Preparation: The only issue I had was the actual mixing of the ingredients with the large spoon. It was a pain in the neck to stir- I think a mixer would work better but I'm not sure how it will affect the crust. I did not roll it out on waxed paper, instead I rolled it out directly on the pizza stone with plenty of corn meal spread over the stone. I then brushed the crust with olive oil, and added a few sprinkles of sea salt before I pre-baked it. After 8 minutes I checked it and it was not nearly finished. It took an additional 10 minutes and the results were impressive. I had a nicely browned and crisp looking pizza crust. Please note that the additional cooking time could have something to do with our poorly calibrated oven and not with the mix but who knows?

After the pre-baking process, I thought I would try some Mediterranean flavors this time. I added oregano, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, feta and olives and I couldn't resist a bit of mozzarella. I then baked for 12 minutes and took it out after 10 in a 350 degree oven.

Level of Realism - high
Shiloh Farms was a smashing success. The crust was light, had a good texture (I think the olive oil and sea salt helped!) and bordered on focaccia. I was very impressed. Rob liked it but still prefers Whole Foods.

Taste: Very delicious- though I think the toppings helped.

I will definitely be purchasing Shiloh Farms again.

Be back soon!

Where are all the reviews?

That's a great question.

Things have been hectic, but we've got plenty on the way.

In the meantime I've posted three different Celiac related posts on my personal blog:

1. The hidden cost of undiagnosed celiac

2. Efforts to raise $10,000 for celiac research in the 5th annual run

3. Celiac beer!