Lidia’s four-course feast takes your taste buds to Italy
Author Frances Mayes ignited a passion for all things Tuscan in her best-selling memoir, Under the a Tuscan Sun.
Every Monday, Lidia’s Kansas City in the Freight House District rekindles those flames with its Tuscan Grill feasts. The Tuscan Grill is a four-course, prix fixe, Tuscan-inspired dinner composed of seasonal, often local, ingredients. The menu changes weekly.
An early spring menu featured a salad of scallions, hard-boiled eggs and asparagus piled atop an olive oil-brushed slice of house-made bread and draped with a gossamer-thin slice of prosciutto San Daniele.
The pasta sampler, an offering of the three daily specials, followed: lamb Bolognese with spring peas moistening inch-wide pappardelle ribbons; ravioli stuffed with pureed asparagus sprinkled with butter-sautéed shrimp; and orecchiette tossed with cannelloni, sautéed arugula and roasted garlic.
Diners choose from four entrees, generally beef, pork and fish. Branzino, a wild bass with a finely textured flesh and mild flavor, was stuffed with fresh rosemary and lemon, then grilled. Filleted in the kitchen and drizzled with olive oil, the fish was ocean fresh. All entrees are served with two vegetables; on this night they were roasted slices of butternut squash drizzled with fresh citrus juices and braised chicory with garlic and pepperoncini.
Dessert is simple: a selection of Lidia’s house-made cookies and biscotti. Two glasses of wine — a white and a red — are paired with the meal. House-made grappa is served with the biscotti.
Reservations are not required. And if you’re on the e-mail list, the restaurant will send you its weekly menu. Just bring an appetite and a love of all things Tuscan.
The prix fixe meal is $35.
Each Monday the chefs at Lidia’s Kansas City prepare a seasonal, four-course feast that changes weekly. A recent evening’s meal included a fresh asparagus and egg salad on homemade bread, Branzino (wild bass stuffed with fresh rosemary and lemon) and a thick-cut grilled pork chop. The Tuscan Grill feast also includes the pasta sampler, vegetables du jour, dessert, two glasses of wine and grappa.By LAUREN CHAPIN, The Kansas City Star
