Trattoria Taverniti VS Italy: Battle of Gnocchi

Trattoria Taverniti – 591 College St, Toronto, ON M6G 1B
Country: Italy
Seating: Small indoor space with limited patio seating, plus dineTO tables and shared back patio
Must-try Dish: Red Wine

Aperitivo
As our mission is to eat around the world in Toronto, we must also visit some of the more popular cuisines. This week Mandrea Bike had a cousin’s date at Trattoria Taverniti, an Italian restaurant located in the heart of Toronto’s Little Italy. This small family-run restaurant has been open since April 8th 2011 and is owned by Domenic Taverniti who works alongside his mother Rosina, son Anthony and daughter Vanezia.

We dined on a Tuesday and to our surprise, a reservation made at least a day or two prior would have been recommended. We opted to sit at the bar to avoid the lengthy wait for a table, which happened to be a bonus as we had direct access to our two lovely servers, one of which was Vanezia.

Our meal at Trattoria Taverniti:

We shared Polpette(meatballs) to start
Followed by Calabrese Pizza
Followed by Gnocchi Tricolore to finish (only available on Tuesdays)
All served with a fair few glasses of Red Wine

As I recently returned from a trip to Tuscany, we decided to shake things up this week and face off Trattoria Taverniti against the food in Italy.

PS. Everything at Trattoria Taverniti was amazing, I would highly recommend this restaurant and I will be returning to experience more from their menu. Unfortunately, I did not have any meatballs while in Italy to compare, though I can attest that the Polpette (meatballs) at Trattoria Taverniti were delightful. (Good enough that I would recommend them to my Dad who’s a real meatball lover).

Primi – PIZZA
Pizza is a dish enjoyed by all, is available in most parts of the world and can be prepared in a variety of different ways. This classic Italian dish has been transformed into new subcategories from traditional Italian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Greek and several American variations, such as New York, LA, and Chicago. As Italians immigrated around the world, they brought with them traditional recipes that they adapted to innovative styles that often included local ingredients. No matter the style, executing a good pizza requires mastering all three components: crust, sauce & toppings. If you do not perfect all three, the overall quality of the product will suffer.

Simply said, Trattoria Taverniti does a fantastic job at creating a product that is very similar to traditional Italian pizza, while adding their own flare. Dominic’s dough is worth all of the awards displayed on the walls of his restaurant. Their crust is exactly what you’d hope – soft yet crispy; and perfectly cooked.

In regards to their toppings, the Calabrese Pizza had a base of tomato sauce topped with mozzarella, hot soppressata salami, n’duja, black olives, all drizzled with honey. Most of the ingredients are traditional and the appearance of honey did a terrific job at adding extra complexity to the pie. We concluded that the honey balanced out the flavor between spicy and sweet.

Dominic’s pizza ranks right up there – it’s just as good, and in some cases, better than some of the pizzas I ate while abroad in Italy. The water and ingredients may not be sourced straight from the Old Country, but he does a fantastic job with the ingredients he works with.

In Italy, my favourite pizza would have been from Sienna. I ordered a simple pizza with buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, topped with fresh basil. Keeping it simple allowed me to better taste the fresh ingredients.

SECONDI – GNOCCHI
I’ve personally never been the biggest fan of gnocchi, though this could be because I’ve never had the good stuff. The store bought packages in which most of my exposure are based on are offensive to say the least.

Hands down, the best gnocchi I’ve ever had was in Tuscany (sorry Trattoria Taverniti). As this type of pasta is my sister’s favorite Italian dish, it was on the menu for our last night in Italy. We had an Italian chef cook a full Italian feast, and surprisingly, the gnocchi was the hit of the night. Each dumpling was soft and delicate with a silky smooth texture, so much so that chewing was barely necessary. There was just something magical going on in my mouth with the gnocchi’s that night.

As the goal was for the gnocchi to be the star of the meal, it was served with a simple fresh tomato sauce topped with parmesan. Although as the Tuscan gnocchi was the best I’ve ever had, this in no way reflects poorly on the execution at Trattoria Taverniti. The adjectives used to describe the consistency of the dish served to us is almost exactly the same, with just a small margin of a difference until Nona Taverniti’s Gnocchi sings songs in my mouth.

Since we dined at Trattoria Taverniti on a Tuesday, we were lucky enough to order the Gnocchi Tricolore. This was served in three different sauces: pesto, gorgonzola and a traditional tomato sauce(green, white & red to represent the Italian flag). The ability to not only critique the gnocchi themselves but also have a bit of a debate as to which sauce Mandrea Bike prefered. We did not come to a consensus, which is a good thing as all three sauces were unique and delicious.