Dish of the week: Garganelli at BoccaLupo
BoccaLupo has a way of sending out dishes that are classic but also fresh and innovative. Bruce Logue’s Garganelli with chicken and veal ragu - delicate fluted tubes of fresh-rolled pasta blanketed in a hearty ladle of meat gravy - is no exception.
The name for the garganelli pasta shape is derived from a northern Italian dialect meaning chicken gullet. The pasta's quill-like form and perpendicular ridges are said to resemble the cartilaginous rings in a chicken’s trachea.
Logue takes squares of egg pasta, rolls them diagonally around a dowel (bastoncino) and then passes them over a ridged gnocchi board. The thin parcels are folded over on themselves, making a visible seam. The pasta reaps the benefits of the texture of the tools used to make it: The golden ridges of the light, eggy noodles trap meat sauce and the openings on the ends allow tidbits to make their way inside.
Logue changes the accompaniments to his rich white ragu with what farmers bring in. Recently, it included Romanesco cauliflower florets and slices of meaty porcini mushrooms. The dish has a gentle richness from hunks of chicken, lightness from the fresh vegetables and a soulfulness from the tender yet toothsome pasta.
It's so good, in fact, that after having been taken off the menu for much of last year, frequent requests have finally brought it back.
BoccaLupo. 753 Edgewood Ave. NE. Atlanta. 404-577-2332, boccalupoatl.com.
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