You’ve probably seen him on the Food Network or Top Chef Masters – Michael Chiarello. Michael Chiarello is the celebrity chef name behind the widely popular Bottega Restaurant. He’s known for his cooking shows set against the backdrop of his Napa Valley home and his very Napa Valley style of cooking with fresh locally produced ingredients that lean towards Italian cuisine. Bottega also has Italian influences. I’ve always watched him and wondered what his food would taste like. I was lucky to finally try it. Truth be told, we were both ridiculously excited to try this spot.
The first amazing thing to appear at the table, the crusty grilled bread with this AMAZING pot of olive oil, grated parmesan, chili flakes, parsley and garlic spread:
Close up – see the chunks of parmesan? it was a flavor explosion and try as I might NOT TO, I polished off the loaf.
For the table, since we wanted so many things on the appetizer section and couldn’t just decide on two, we shared the short rib meatball:
The figs are amazing in Napa. I love fresh figs and they were so tender and delicate out there. The meatballs were divine. Full of that thick beefy richness you look for in short ribs. Because of the high fat content found in short ribs, these meatballs were very moist.
For appetizer, Cookie Monster got a twist on the burrata caprese. The burrata was whipped and the balsamic vinegar was made into tiny caviar pearls. Do you see how RED those tomatoes are?
They say one eats with their eyes – so trust me when I say, those tomatoes tasted as beautiful as they look. Strangely, do you want to know what we both remember the most about this dish? The toasted piece of bread served with it. I don’t know what they did to the bread but it was the best buttered and toasted bread we ever had. With a little tomato, some creamed burrata and we thought we were in heaven with every crunchy bite.
Still feeling the lingering high of Ad Hoc’s vegetable salad, I wanted more of that lovely Napa produce! So I got the “Succotash” – which was a salad of roasted summer squash & sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, arugula, corn pudding and a ricotta & chili stuffed zucchini blossom.
And I was not disappointed. I was a little timid given that there were some AMAZING selections on the appetizer section (one which included bacon and a runny egg with mushrooms!), but I was happy I chose this dish. The corn pudding and grilled corn (under the blossom) was so sweet, the tomatoes and squash so fresh and the fried zucchini blossom rounded out the dish with a nice fried (but fragile) crunch.
Main courses. Cookie Monster, after much hemming and hawing, settled upon the potato dough raviolo filled with spinach, ricotta and a farm fresh egg yolk, topped with shaved black truffles and sage browned butter.
Haha. I’m not going to lie, one bite made me gasp and put my fork down….because it was SO RICH. Ricotta? An oozy runny egg yolk meeting a full brown butter sauce? Throw in some truffles. Does that not sound decadently rich to you? I think I took two bites and I was full. JK. I wasn’t, but in all seriousness, one bite went a long way. Even Cookie Monster felt overwhelmed half way in.
Being the self proclaimed “Queen of bolognese pasta,” I got the bolognese with red wheat linguine.
The sauce was made of a hearty mixture of veal, pork & porcini mushrooms with hints of rosemary and topped with parmigiano reggiano. Lots of ground meat which made me happy. The flavors had a lot of depth to it. I did not love the healthy red wheat pasta but it wasn’t terrible.. Wheat pasta is just stiffer, doesn’t have the same bite, so just pointing out a preference.
We were full but then Cookie Monster saw his favorite dessert in the world: profiteroles….so out they came!
He found the room in his stomach to fit every last bite. It was good. That chocolate sauce was velvety.
Bottega was delicious! We really enjoyed our meal very much. Our server also waived the corkage fee for us! (In Napa, all restaurants allow you to bring your own bottle to your meal for a minimal corkage fee – we did so at Bottega) I wish we could go back but it’ll have to wait for some time in the distant future.
Bottega, 6525 Washington Street, Yountville, CA
