Many restaurants in Italy change their menus with the season in order to offer diners fresh ingredients. Percosi Enogastronomici di Ricerca goes a step further by highlighting what it has fresh to offer in any given month. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Many restaurants in Italy change their menus with the season in order to offer diners fresh ingredients. Percosi Enogastronomici di Ricerca goes a step further by highlighting what it has fresh to offer in any given month. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
It would be hard to visit Percosi Enogastronomici Di Ricerca in Moro, Italy, without sampling at least some cheese. The cheese shop is an offshoot of the Perenzin family dairy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Percosi Enogastronomici Di Ricerca is a food store/restaurant just north of Conegliano, Italy, that specializes in an array of locally produced cheeses. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Cheese isn't all that's offered at the cheese shop of Percosi Enogastronomici di Ricerca. Hanging prosciutto forms one wall of the store. Pasta, various sauces and numerous other food products are also sold. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
This zucchini soup served at Percosi Enogastronomici di Ricerca features shrimp. Diners are encouraged to drop the zucchini sorbet into the soup. It adds a level of sweetness without changing the temperature much. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
The name of the place is a mouthful: Percorsi Enogastronomici di Ricerca.
But once you digest that, there are plenty of tastier things you’ll want to shove in instead.
The name, translated literally, means “food and wine trails research.” Located in the town of Moro, a bit north of Conegliano, Italy, it’s a food store and restaurant. Both are part of the Perenzin family dairy enterprise. The cheese business dates back four generations.
“The mission of our historic dairy in Bagnolo di San Pietro di Feletto is to preserve the traditional knowledge of four generations of cheese makers and constantly innovate the production,” according to a brochure.
Though cheese is indeed prominent in many dishes, the restaurant takes “innovate” to heart. Many dishes could be characterized as modern Italian, with new twists on traditional classics or combinations of ingredients not typically Italian. A few don’t appear to have any cheese.
It was possible to sample only a few dishes in a single visit. An appetizer featuring flat bread, prosciutto and cream cheese made us decide to buy the cheese in the store afterward. We tried a zucchini soup with shrimp, which you’re supposed to eat after adding a zucchini sorbet. We were doubtful, but the sorbet added a sweetness that improved what by itself was just an OK dish. And it didn’t make the soup much colder.
A phyllo pastry filled with curried chicken and almonds definitely didn’t seem Italian, but the chicken was cooked well, and it wasn’t heavy.
Appetizers ranged from 5 euros to 8 euros. They included a breaded mix of zucchini, mortadella and cheese in meatball form; eggplant and cheese; marinated beef and garden vegetables; and veal tongue and green sauce.
Among the first courses were tagliatelle pasta with mushrooms; pasta with black truffles and cheese; and macaroni with montasio cheese and ravioli with a pistachio pesto sauce. They ranged from 7 euros to 11 euros.
Second courses cost between 10 euros and 17 euros; they included a filet of pork, frico with potatoes and onions, and a beef filet.
There are three hefty salads for 8 euros each and a cheese plate and a few fondue options (prices for the last two vary according to quantity).
You walk through the store to get to the restaurant. The store sells a lot of different kinds of cheese produced locally from cows, goats and water buffalo. In between the store and the restaurant are about a dozen tables — dubbed a cheese bar — designed for those who want to concentrate on cheese and wine-tasting.
