Italian Classics and

150 Jennifer Road, Ste. F, Annapolis 443-949-0608 | pasticcioannapolis.com

PASTICCIO

Fresh Italian Kitchen

DINING REVIEW

Italian Classics and a Few Surprises

By James Houck Photography by Stephen Buchanan

Pasticcio is a neighborhood restaurant always at the ready to serve delicious, authentic, and fresh Italian cuisine and comfort dishes to it’s surrounding community. Did you forget to pull something out of the freezer the night before, for dinner today? No worries—take in a meal at Pasticcio. Are you running late to a dinner with friends and forgot to make an appetizer? Pasticcio can whip up yummy nibbles. Or, if like me and my family on one holiday evening, your plans unexpectedly shift and you have a car full of hungry kids and need to re-energize the troops, then call Pasticcio and put your faith in their take-out. Pasticcio has a full menu of Old

Country classics and creative contemporary dishes, all available for dine in, take-out, and even delivery. Though the current pandemic has certainly skewed business sideways for many of our beloved restaurants, those that have adapted by concentrating on a combination of these three dining options—with a renewed focus on take-out and delivery—are skirting by this unprecedented challenge, if not staring it down with their success altogether. That’s a long way of saying that Pasticcio is operating full speed ahead. When my family’s plans hit a halt (literally stuck in traffic en route to Lights on the Bay one December night), we hightailed a U-turn and made way back toward the lights of Westfield Annapolis, famished and tired from sitting in the car needlessly for an hour. My own bright light turned on, and I thought/said, “Hey, let’s try Pasticcio!” That was a good call, as it turns out. We reviewed the menu online, called in our order for takeout, and picked it up in about 20 minutes time. In fact, when I arrived for pick-up and walked inside the shopping center storefront located behind the larger Westfield complex, I wasn’t alone in hitting up this three-year-old restaurant to hit the spot. A line of patrons—all there for take-out—waited patiently, but not long, to receive their orders. The kitchen was buzzing, the front of house service was attentive and courteous, and the food came out lightning quick. With food in hand, we galloped home to set up our dining spread.

It’s always fun to unbox a mass of take-out dishes across the dining table and settle in for a feast. All total, we ordered seven specialties and each appeared a colorful delight due to the freshness of ingredients, for which Pasticcio prides itself. Smatterings of green pesto, red marinara, and pink vodka sauce adorned several dishes. For starting appetizers (although let’s be honest, we dove into all dishes seemingly at once), we chose the Crab Arancini, Pesto Flatbread, and Grilled Sesame Shrimp.

The arancini (six pieces total) were delicious orbs of the famous Italian fried rice concoction, served with an accompanying cup of marinara for dipping. With pronounced blue crab flavor lacing the soft interior filling inside the crisp outer layer, each bite was pleasing in taste and texture. We chose a Pesto Flatbread to try Pasticcio’s dough, the recipe for which is also used across the menu for pizzas (16 specialty pies available), strombolis, and calzones. The flatbread had an initial crunch and pillowy interior, and was topped with generous amounts of basil pesto, mozzarella, and chunks of grilled chicken. Though we didn’t sample the more popular pizzas that Pasticcio has become known for, this flatbread proved a smartly-sized and delicious introduction to its larger counterparts. The star of our appetizer show, however, was undoubtedly the Grilled Sesame Shrimp. Jumbo shrimp with telltale grill sears adorned deeply garlic-buttered and grilled toasts of Italian bread, with sprinkles of black and white sesame seeds and touches of a homemade dressing. The heavenly whole was a sum of savory parts. Well done. Our main selections ran the gamut of Italian cuisine with Lobster Ravioli, Chicken Saltimbocca, Classic Lasagna, and Gnocchi in Vodka Sauce enticing us most—a little bit of everything, so to speak. The dishes made for a fun family-style course, in which we swapped, shared and ate these dishes to our bellies’ content. The golden raviolis were large and filled-to-capacity with the sweet meat so often reserved for special occasions. Lightly dressed with a butter sauce, cherry tomatoes, and melted medallions of mozzarella, these raviolis hit high notes on the flavor scale. Meanwhile, we found the Saltimbocca a serviceable dish with excellent composition (bed of spaghetti topped with chicken paillards, prosciutto slices, spinach leaves, mozzarella—all dressed in a butter white wine sauce) but muted in flavor. In this case, I think there was a lack of added salt (actually a very good thing) by simply letting the prosciutto, butter, and mozzarella provide this flavor profile. Lasagna was the choice of our eight-year-old daughter and a good, safe one at that (how can you go wrong with a classic dish?). The properly constructed layering of shingle-sized noodles, seasoned ground beef, and cheeses (ricotta, mozzarella), all drenched in a delectable marinara sauce, delivered savory and tangy flavor. Equally so for the potato-based “pasta,” gnocchi, bathed in our choice of sauce, vodka—a creamy tomato base with the peppery notes that the spirit imbues. Simply delicious.

Having our fill—a very, very satiating fill—we packed away the remaining nibbles, to be had in the days after for lunch bites. With portions aplenty, we had enough food for a round two. I think a future trip to the restaurant will certainly be made and include even more Italian favorites (the menu is huge), selections of pizza, salad, perhaps a sub (hot/cold) or burger, and probably dessert. All of which can be catered for parties small to large. All in all, Pasticcio gave us what we hoped for and a few surprises.