Slow Food DC, A Night in Tuscany

Executive Chef, Dean Gold of Dino Restaurant

It’s about time that I dished on the  italian dinner feast at Dino Restaurant. In a cozy upstairs room, around 40 Slow Food DC members met and mingled over a five course authentic traditional meal from the province of Sienna in central Italy, the quaint little village of Montalcino. Our host, restaurateur Dean Gold, regaled us of tales of his many visits to this rustic town, its folkways and foodways.

Slow Food Night in Tuscany

Pickled Celery

The meal started with pickled celery and pickled ginger, which was quite unusual. I asked Dean if he was familiar with the cookbook with a whole section devoted to fermenting vegetables, Nourishing Traditions, and he was not.

DINO's Wild Boar Sausage and Prosciutto

Next came the antipasti course, with housemade wild boar prosciutto and wild boar sausages. My, my chef Dean Gold could be a Weston Pricer, for sure! Turns out, he used to work for Whole Foods and is a fanatic about local sourcing of ingredients. He invited me to join him some Sunday, for his weekly trip to the farmers market, to source ingredients for his DINO offerings. I think I will take him up on that (sounds like a good blog for the future).

The meal was served family style, which was a lot of fun. While we ate we listened to Dean’s tales of life and tradition in the small Italian village, which he and his wife have visited many times. For an evening, we were transported to another place and seemingly back into time, to the old world, far removed from the uptown D.C. location where we were dining.

Here is my favorite dish of the evening, which he kindly agreed to share with you. It was a pasta dish with light and flavorful duck stock sauce. Outstanding!

Dino's Pasta Al Briciole

Click here for the recipe for Pasta Al Briciole!

Hunter's Style Stew Served Over Polenta

Next came the warm you to your toes entree, a hunter’s style stew of rabbit and boar, served over a three cheese polenta. We were also introduced to the famed wine of the region, Brunello di Montalcino, which was one of the highlights of the event.

And, finally the dessert course with two rustic cakes, one almond, the other chocolate,. Just as you would imagine the Tuscan villagers would serve their families!

Rustic Almond Cake

Dino's Chocolate Cake

Slow Food DC is part of the international organization, which promotes traditional foodways, food culture and sustainable farming. Our local Weston A. Price sponsored meetup group has done joint events with them in the past. Where we emphasize the nutritional reasons for traditional foods, they seem to emphasize the joy of honoring our hertitage foods. We have a common mission, and I see a great opportunity for us to work together for a brighter future!

Wether you live near or far, on your next trip to D.C., Dino restaurant is a must for your “To Dine” list! Please tell Dean that Kimberly of hartkeisonline.com sent you!

To learn more about Slow Food DC, visit their website. To learn more about the international Slow Food movement, here is their website, SlowFood.com.