menu – Page 2 – OLIVETO RESTAURANT AND CAFE

More truffles in December!

Our annual truffle dinner just ended, and the event was a huge success. As we told you last month, this fall was a banner year for truffles — their quantity and quality are out of this world. In fact, we’re so in love with this year’s truffles that we’re going to have two truffle dinner revivals: December 11–13 and December 19–21.

We’ll be featuring three truffle dishes on this menu. Last month’s mortar and pestled truffles were such a hit, we’re bringing those back. The white truffles will be ground up with fresh, piquant olio nuovo and then slathered on grilled beef vitello. In addition, we’ll be serving truffle spumante alongside a poached egg topped duck confit-potato hash cake as well as a tajarin with sage butter and, of course, plenty of truffles!

But this truffle dinner isn’t the whole story. We’ll also be continuing to shave truffles over all of our menu items for the entire month of December.

Make your reservations for next week’s truffle dinner soon. Seats will go quickly!

Kate Williams2017-09-12T15:47:09-07:00December 2nd, 2014|2014, Events, Happened already...|1 Comment

2014 Dinners for Truffles & Autumn Mushrooms 2014

Tuesday, November 18th through Friday, November 21st Saturday, November 22nd

RESERVE NOW

Prices will be similar to our regular dinner menu.
White truffles shaved table side $6/gram.

Cold antipasti

Torchon of duck liver with poached pear, hazelnuts, and black truffle
Antipasto of roast root vegetables with Castelmagno cheese and bagna cauda
Crudo of fluke with black truffle, shaved artichoke, and Chalk Hill olio nuovo
Terrina of pigeon and duck liver with grilled crostino and old aceto balsamico
Garden lettuces vinaigrette

Warm antipasti
Sformatino of Italian chestnuts with roast Pink Lady apples and black pepper honey
Crispy sweetbreads with wild mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, and Madeira
Poached farm egg with duck confit-potato hash cake and sage
Fonduta Val d’Aosta with charcoal-grilled crostini and white truffle butter
Pan-roasted scallops with potato purée, broccoli di ciccio, and truffle spumante
Crespelle of Dungeness crab with stinging nettles and black truffle
Soup: vellutata of Chanterelle mushrooms with truffle zabaglione

Pastas
Tajarin al burro
Tortelli of celeriac with sage
German Butterball potato gnocchi with vin santo-duck liver sugo
Malted barley tagliatelle with ragù of rabbit
Acquerello Carnaroli risotto with Parmesan cheese and black truffle butter
Agnolotti dal plin with fonduta Val d’Aosta
Pici with ragù of Magruder lamb

Secondi: grills, sautés, and rotisserie
Pan-roasted striped bass with bacalà fritti, salsify, and sunchoke crema
Spezzatino of turkey and root vegetable with puff pastry and turkey sugo
Truffled rabbit boudin blanc with braised cabbage, apples, and poultry sugo
Potato-wrapped, sausage-stuffed pigeon with celeriac crema, Lacinato kale, and olio nuovo
Charcoal-grilled bone-in ribeye with roast potatoes, bone marrow, and Madeira sugo (for two)
Roast lamb chops with Floriani red flint polenta, Cipolline onions, and lamb sumo
Farroto of wild mushrooms, Delicata squash, Parmesan cheese, fonduta, and sage

Dolci
Milk and honey: honey and fior di latte sorbetto
Winter squash ice cream with spiced nuts
Tarte Tatin with black truffle ice cream
Bittersweet chocolate cake with truffle crema inglese
Cheese cake with chestnut crust
Bianco mangiare

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:13-07:00October 6th, 2014|2014, Events, Happened already...|0 Comments

Late Season Tomato Dinners: September 23–26

Tuesday, September 23 through Friday, September 26

It’s turned out to be another one of those years, where the Tomato Dinners have come and gone and a month later the tomatoes are still going and going, and we feel inclined to do it all over again. So…we are.

This time around it will be a bit more contained: a six-course prix fixe offering to celebrate the latter half of this year’s tomato bumper crop and highlight some of our favorite varieties. The menu has yet to be finalized but will look something like this:

Salad of heirloom tomato and melon with anise hyssop, crème fraîche and pink peppercorn

*

Rigatoni with fontina Val D’Aosta, Early Girl tomato and breadcrumbs

*

Tortellini of smoked tomato conserva with roasted poultry brodo

*
Tomato-poached petrale sole with Butter beans, lipstick peppers, and lemon agrumato (vegetarian option available)

*
Charcoal-grilled pigeon with slow-roasted Early Girl tomato, lacinato kale and salsa rosa

or

Black pepper cannoli with house-made ricotta, Parmesan cheese, Early Girl tomato and basil pesto

*

Buttermilk panna cotta with melon granita, Early Girl tomato coulis, and candied Sungold tomato

*

$65 per person

Please join us!

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:14-07:00September 8th, 2014|2014, Events, Happened already...|0 Comments

On the menu this week…

ON THE MENU:

Pan-roasted chicken rolata with braised Lacinato kale, King Trumpet mushrooms, and chicken sugo

Vitello tonnato
classic Northern Italian cold veal with tuna sauce

Charcoal-grilled local pole-caught Albacore with fresh Cranberry beans, eggplant puree, cherry tomatoes, and Armenian cucumber

*

This week’s aged wines by the glass:

Barbaresco, “Riserva,” Barale 1999

Barolo, “Vigna Castellero,” Barale, 1999

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:15-07:00August 22nd, 2014|Market Reports, Summer|0 Comments

Rabbit boudin blanc back on the menu

Two weeks ago, Chef Jonah made rabbit boudin blanc. It was heavenly. A perfectly smooth, creamy texture, with delicate, clean flavors. A beautifully realized version of a complicated preparation. And we wanted more of it.

So Jonah is offering it again this week, in the Secondi section of our menu accompanied by our own house-made sauerkraut.

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:16-07:00August 7th, 2014|This Just In|0 Comments

This Just In: Dungeness crab stuffed artichoke

photo by William Pye

Baked jumbo artichoke stuffed with Dungeness crab, preserved lemon, and green garlic

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:24-07:00March 26th, 2014|This Just In|0 Comments

Heritage Chicken Alert!

On the menu for a brief blip this Saturday, six White Leghorn heritage chickens from the awesome people of Heritage Foods USA. We don’t have the exact menu preparation yet, but Chef Rhodehamel will definitely be doing something very special for this rare delivery. If you plan to come in that night, please use the code “there’s a fox in the coop” when you speak to reservationist. Hahahaha. Just kidding. But do let us know that you are interested in ordering the chicken because we will only have twelve portions available.

Erin Fairbanks of Heritage Foods USA had this to say about the important work they are doing to help revive heritage chicken lines and create alternative markets for non-industrial bred chicken:

White Leghorn chicken

“Heritage Foods USA is proud to announce we are partnering with Frank Reese, the country’s preeminent poultry farmer, to show our customers what real chicken tastes like.

Heritage chickens are breeds that have been around since before the industrial era. Heritage birds grow at a healthy rate, while industry chickens are genetically manipulated to grow at an unnaturally fast rate that can be harmful to the skeletal, cardiovascular, and immune systems of bird.

The White Leghorn chicken was brought to the US from Northern Italy in 1853 and was admitted to the American Poultry Association’s standard of Perfection in 1874. These chickens are fantastic egg layers and known for being active and ambitious. Those raised on Frank Reese’s farm are still able to retain their foraging and productive nature. There are many different varieties of Leghorns, but the remaining non-industrial White variety is only raised by a very small number of breeders.”

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:25-07:00March 13th, 2014|This Just In|Comments Off

Full Belly Farm Durum-Iraq Fettuccine

After hosting a thrilling event this weekend, it feels right to showcase a few of the extraordinary wheats currently being grown here in northern California by our favorite forward-thinking farms. Chef Rhodehamel takes it the next step, turning these beautiful whole-milled flours into some of the most exciting pasta we’ve seen coming out of the kitchen and easily some the best we’ve tasted. Ever. In our whole lives. For reals. This is about as “local” as pasta can get.

Currently on the menu:

Red winter wheat penne alla bolognese

Red winter wheat bigoli with Venetian duck ragù

Front Porch Farm malted wheat cavatelli with mushroom ragù

Full Belly Farm wheat fettuccine with leek crema

NorCal represent!

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:25-07:00March 12th, 2014|Oliveto Grain Project|0 Comments

Changes to the Oliveto Cafe Menu

Exciting things are happening in the Oliveto Cafe! Starting in early February, Sous Chef Vince Sanchez has taken charge of the downstairs dinner menu rotating in new items every 2-3 weeks. This month’s menu features new antipasti, two new entrees and two new killer pizzas:

Oven-roasted mussels with saffron aïoli, garlic, and chili flakes

Roast chicken leg and thigh with lentils, Bloomsdale spinach, and salmoriglio

Roast yellowtail jack, with Cannellni beans, broccoli di ciccio, and Calabrian chili salsa

Pizze…

Potato, smoked mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, onions, and arugula

Braised endive, onion, Castelvetrano olives, prosciutto, and Parmesan cheese

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:25-07:00February 26th, 2014|Oliveto Cafe|0 Comments

This Just In: No rain…but we’ve got citrus

While it’s tempting to start putting strawberries on the menu (yes, there have already been reports of strawberries IN JANUARY) pastry Chef Kam Golightly is sticking to only what *should* be in season at this time of year: citrus.

She’s got two beautiful desserts on the menu right now:

Olive oil torta with Cara Cara oranges, citrus sauce, and whipped cream

Brûléed tangerine and mascarpone tart

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:47:27-07:00January 21st, 2014|This Just In|0 Comments