Photo by Richard Maack

VEG OUT

“Like most things, we are not reinventing the wheel, and we are trying to stay true to our southern Italian farmhouse roots,” says Executive Chef Christopher Nicosia of Sassi.

Has anyone ever confused this lavish North Scottsdale restaurant for a farmhouse? We doubt it. However, we do recognize the beauty in the rustic southern Italian food Nicosia turns out.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a vegetarian dish among the first and second courses, but Nicosia has peppered the starter menu with stunners like roasted pear and Trevisio blue cheese drizzled with saba (grape must syrup); and crisp fingerling potatoes tossed with fried chickpeas, garnished with rosemary and sage, and served with a tart lemon aiolo dipping sauce. More delicious still are the rustic Sicilian Eggplant Cakes ($9), a twist on a Calabrian eggplant “meatball” dish called polpette.

Nicosia puts a Sicilian spin on the dish by adding currants and toasted pine nuts to the canonical roasted eggplant, garlic, egg, fresh bread crumbs, mint and parsley. He then subtly Americanizes the dish by flattening it into a crab cake shape. Coated with dry bread crumbs (from bread made in-house), the cakes are seared in a pan but finished in the wood-burning oven, nestled in a cast iron skillet of simple-but-rich San Marzano tomato and basil sauce.

“I’ve tried to take this dish off the menu,” Nicosia says, “but our regulars made such a fuss that it’s now a permanent fixture.”

DETAILS
Sassi
10455 E. Pinnacle Peak Pkwy.
Scottsdale, 480-502-9095
sassi.biz