Piccolo Forno

Piccolo Forno is a restaurant we really like but sadly, for some reason, we had not dined there in a long time. I don't mean months. I mean years. This past Saturday, we set out to change that. We decided to not BYOB (I was still taking cold medicine) and drove to Lawrenceville. We were disappointed to learn that PF no longer offers fresh brewed iced tea.

Short detour/rant: Like many places, PF switched to a pre-made tea (Nestea, usually the raspberry flavor) dispensed through a fountain, like soda. Yuck. Fake iced tea. Here's one reason I dislike this fake iced tea: they use a sugar/Stevia combination to reduce the amount of caloric sugar in the tea.  It just tastes off. Plus all the other preservatives. I do not understand this recent trend at all.

Back to PF: So I asked for hot tea and our server knew exactly what I was thinking - right away he offered to bring a glass of ice plus an extra glass ice. SP did the same. We made our own iced tea and it was extra tasty because I chose English Breakfast tea and he chose Earl Grey.

Here's what we ate:

Insalata Mista (mixed greens with sliced radish, carrot, tomato, and cucumber, tossed in a balsamic vin, topped with shaved Parmigiano). Really nice salad. Lots of non-greens veggies and lots of cheese.

We shared two meals. Gnocchetti di Menta (ricotta and mint gnochetti with zucchini, sausage, lemon, and ricotta salata). Yum - such a lovely mint flavor. Generous ricotta salata. Sweet sausage.

And a pizza: Capricciosa (crushed tomato, fresh mozzarella, mushroom, artichoke, olive, prosciutto cotto and egg). I'm not a huge dippy egg on pizza person but SP really likes it. This was a terrific pizza. I love the combination of mushrooms, artichokes, and olives plus the prosciutto cotto.

We got two desserts, mostly because I knew that my dessert isn't SP's favorite and I wanted him to get what he wanted. He wanted the Panna Cotta with strawberries & chocolate cookie crumble.

I got Tiramisu. Hardly surprising. It's a little different than I remember. It tasted like they now include bits of candied fruit - ? Still yummy.

We really enjoyed our return to Piccolo Forno. Our server was terrific, the food delicious. Hopefully we'll have a return visit in months and not years!