We decided to dine about 25 minutes out of town at the novel and exciting Marconi in the small village of Sasso Marconi, south of Bologna. Chef Aurora Mazzucchelli has earned a Michelin star for her innovative cuisine which verges on odd, but has some wonderful flavors. Alas, we arrived at 730pm to a deserted space and they escorted us onto a large shaded terrace where all the tables were most elegantly set. We all looked at each other in the 90+degree heat and settled in to melt. We ordered some water and then more and more and a bottle of the De Fratelli Extra Brut Ca' de Noci 2014 which is made by the owners of the restaurant and was quite refreshing with a deep amber color and a slight hint of yeast. A server brought over a small tray covered with a towel and showed us a loaf of raw dough and whisked it away to cook for us. We looked at the menu and could not agree on a multi-course meal(everyone at the table must choose the same number of courses) so went a la carte.
A while later we were served some bread made from camut flour, sweet potato and almond with an EVOO from Loretto Apertino in Abruzzo, which was nice, but Will did not like it at all...Amuses arrived on multiple plates and we were happy. A small bowl of bacon cream with egg yolk mixed in and barley crumbs for a crunch which was heavenly was first followed by adorable giant toothpicks held vertical in salt(FB pictures abound) skewered with fried octopus and fried whitefish(bianchetto). A large plate had multiples foreach of us of fried meatballs, a pickled and fried radish(extremely intense flavor), fried pasta, bread with mayo and red shrimp for us and paprika-mayo for Sam, beignet with mortadella mousse and pistachio which was a favorite for us all and something with monkfish butter.
It took us a while to get through all these yummy and odd bites and we wondered if the chef had a fetish for frying??
We finished our bubbly and ordered a bottle of Sacrisassi 2014 La Due Terre from Friuli to the north of us made from Shioppettino, Refresco and Prepotto grapes, all new to us. The wine had an intense Sulphurous nose, but we all agreed it was tasty with our quite wild starters.
Will had the Octopus with fig leaf milk, salted lemon & thyme mayo sauce and I chose the Hering Ice Cream with peach sauce and raw rose shrimps. The former came shaped and cannelloni as a play on pasta and mine was wonderfully tasty and novel. Sam skipped the first course and went directly to the pasta, but before that the loaf of bread arrived and the baker broke it open to steam and cool tableside. It was so hot we had to wait a good 15minutes before we could eat it, and it was delish!
Sam had the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese tortelli with lavender, nutmeg and almonds, Will chose the Pasta with pork and ricotta while I had the Risotto with raw fish mosaic which was huge and tasty with raw shrimp(gamberetto), scallop, amberjack and egg sac all topped with algae powder.
I moved to a glass of red wine with a Pignoletto Classico Vigna del Grotto from Vigneto San Vito in Orsi right in Bologna which was ideal with my Lamb flank, brains, sweetbread, tongue and cheek served with cheese bread crumbs which needed only a small veggie on the side. Will had the Sweet & Sour Eel which was smokey with white corn polenta and leeks while Sam went for the Diaphragm of beef with red algae and caramelized onion.
We were all quite full and my risotto was huge, so we agreed to split one dessert, but first came yogurt mousse with tapioca for all and then the main dessert of White Chocolate, Fruit Ceviche(it had a slight spice, but not intense like some ceviches),arugula ice cream and lime. Yup you read that right. Grapes, blueberries, apricot and wild strawberries were in the mix and overall it was a huge success.
Next the cuter guy who was helping our server came over with a huge cone of chocolate truffle which he shaved for us tableside(video on FB) and offered up a tone of different cookies with custard to dip in; we were glad we ordered one dessert!
We headed back to town full and surely a bit confused about food logistics, but felt that the experience was a bit too outre for us.
Tonight--2 Michelin stars(we are moving up!) at San Domenico in Imola about 30 minutes east of Bologna.
