A dinner at Nostrana, thanks to a special event that evening… egg pasta handmade from scratch and done the old fashioned way with a rolling pin from the tradition of Bologna and the Emilia Romagna region. Francesca (and her brother Tommaso) are from Bologna, Italy and doing a 1 month “pasta class tour” in the US that had started with Texas and then Seattle and had stopped in Portland next before going off to California for the rest of October (go to her website and email her if you are interested in signing up). I’m jealous that she was only in my area for a week but California is getting her for a month for opportunity of learning from sweet Italian girl (at least she appeared that way whenever I glanced over to the banquet table where she and her brother, Cathy Whims, and other guests were having dinner family style right next to us…). It seems a lot more lighthearted fun (and less intimidating) than learning from an Italian grandmama.

I started out with a wine flight of Vini del vulcano, red wines from Mt Etna “a magnificent wild terroir”. I’m a big fan of wines made from grapes in volcanic soil regions. I was in love with the middle wine especially, a Etna Rosso DOC I Custodi ‘Aetneus’ 2007 from grapes of 100+ year old vines, because it was so smooth and almost buttery in feel while being light berry forward. Meanwhile, F was excited and enjoyed some tasty Italian beers such as D’uvaBeer by LoverBeer and Genziana by Birra del Borgo.

Starterwise, both the salad (Insalata mista with lettuces, crisp seasonal vegetables, arbequina olive oil and red wine vinegar) and House charcuterie plates were big hits. I was glad they refilled our bread plate so that I could use it to balance out all the rich meaty goodness. The House Charcuterie plate included, from upper left corner clockwise, crispy pork trotter, lamb liver and fresh herb pate, porchetta di testa, apple mostardo, coppa di testa, smoked ham, pickled radish and pattypan squash

Finally, the beautiful handmade pastas from Francesca Tori, thick and doughy and fresh. The favorite pasta was the Caramelle candy-shaped pasta filled with Red Kuri squash, nutmeg, parmigiano, and sage butter (although maybe a little too generous with the butter, but nothing a little shake couldn’t help with), although the wonderful sauce with the Garganelli with prosciutto, arugula, brandy, milk, tomato, parmigiano was good enough to drink as a soup.

We wrapped up with a Tiramisu of ladyfingers, rum, mascarpone, Spella espresso and Pizzeria Mozza’s butterscotch budino with salted caramel. You cannot go to Nostrana without having budino!

Nostrana will sometimes host various dinner and even cooking events with visiting chefs, so keep an eye on their Facebook and website to see what Nostrana is exploring next!