Taranta – Peru Meets Italy

Peru meets Southern Italy and it works!  The name of the restaurant, Taranta.  It’s located in Boston’s North End on Hanover Street.  It’s owner/chef, Jose Duarte incorporates spices and foods native to Peru into an Italian menu.

We’ve never been and were looking forward to it.  Waiting for our friends G and B to arrive we ordered a bottle of Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino from Sardinia.  It seems that Vermentino is becoming popular and showing up more and more.  I hope so because it’s a perfect summer white and it always reminds us of of our trip to Sardinia!

Our waiter was knowledgeable about the preparation of every dish as a good waiter should be.

We started with the evening salad special, arugula, beet and pan seared goat cheese.  The arugula tasted like it had just come out of the garden.  The seared goat cheese was a perfect touch against the argula and went well with the beets.

One of the Peruvian touches is that there’s always a ceviche on the menu because Peru is known for it’s ceviche.  Last night it was a combination of fluke and calamari.  Our waiter was quick to mention that the fish had just been caught and was local from Rhode Island.  The ceviche was delicious, perfectly marinated and so fresh.

Then the entrees we chose were ravioli stuffed with three cheeses and lobster , a beautiful piece of pan seared trout brushed with saffron butter and pan roasted organic chicken stuffed with fontina and served with crispy polenta and slow roasted tomatoes.  Every dish was beautifully prepared.

 

 

For dessert tiramisu with a twist.  It was made with a fruit native to South America (I can’t remember the name due to the effect of 2 bottles of Vermentino) tasting like butterscotch and limoncello sorbet which was the creamiest sorbet I’ve ever had .

We all loved Taranta and it was a terrific evening with good friends. One of the many good things about Taranta is that you can actually have a conversation without yelling and that’s a big plus.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Boston’s North End in the summer is so much fun.  Always a crowd and even with the heat last night, you could barely walk on the sidewalk without bumping into people.

We didn’t have enough dessert so we had to stop for a gelato on our way to the car!!

I have a question and it’s why is Mike’s Pastry so popular?  It’s like seeing Black Dog t-shirts.  Every other person is carrying a Mike’s Pastry box.  I don’t get it when there are so many other good options.

See you at the bar…..