Italian Food started my New Years Eve with a Bang.

Checked out a new Italian restaurant last night, New Years Eve, which can be risky but it turned out all right. It was an intimate corner restaurant off of Columbus on 1800 Mason called Trattoria Contadina. The place was packed so I was thankful hubby made a reservation otherwise we would have been out of luck. The four of us ended up at the corner table which was a bit cramped but it all worked out fine. We started off with the Caesar salad, which wasn’t bad but didn’t hit my top favorites. We also tasted the Caprese which had fresh mozzarella but unfortunately since tomatoes are not in season they were not the best, infact a bit mushy, so next time I’ll try a different salad. Oh yea there will be a next time because my husband’s dish was the best at the table. I believe it was homemade rigatoni pasta because of its thick toothy texture, different than al dente, not too soft, not too hard but a nice chew to it. It was the Carlesimo: Rigatoncelli, pancetta, porcini mushrooms, peas, sun-dried tomatoes in a spicy tomato cream sauce, all for $17. I will think of this pasta until the day I return. I ordered one of the specials which contained four things I love, shirmp, risotto, pesto and sun dried tomatoes but together the flavors competed. It was just too much going on in one dish. Risotto would have been great, gnocchi with pesto would have been better and the sun dried tomatoes in the Carlesimo were excellent, but this combo won’t get repeated by me. Fortunately it was a special so the odds of me seeing it again no less trying it are slim. I would like to add however that it wasn’t bad, I did eat almost all of it, I simply don’t feel the flavors played well together. All but one of the pasta dishes were under 18 which was fair, the chicken dishes however were on the high side at $27 but the bite of Marsala I tasted was quite yummy. I believe a good time was had by all and i will return for the Carlesimo but next time I'll try the Carpacio, and either the Fruitti di Mare or the Gnocchi and if I happen to make it to brunch the Good Morning Carbonara with Fettuccine, sausage, bacon, scallions, parmesan, sounds like the best breakfast ever.