June 4: Casa MMMMM

I've been hearing about this place forever. Casa D'Angelo Ristorante in Fort Lauderdale is that kind of spot - one of those restaurants you hear about from friends. "You've got to try their food!" Or, "They have a wonderful wine selection!" That sort of thing. I won't bore you with the reasons I've never been here before, mostly just involving lack of money at those times when I otherwise might have gone. All that to say I finally experienced this restaurant on Tuesday night. And everyone was right - it's excellent. I was lucky enough to have been invited by some generous friends who sponsored a table at a big charity event held annually at Casa D'Angelo. The service, the wine and especially the food were standouts, I thought.

Chef Angelo and his staff created a luscious four-course meal with some lovely wines as accompaniment, including a massive appetizer of Tuscan vegetables, cold cuts and buffalo caprese. I'm not kidding you, the pieces of buffalo mozzarella were the size of baseballs with one whole chunk of this special cheese for each guest.

Second course: In Italian it was, "Paccheri Al Ragout Di Vitello Bianco." To those of us who only eat Italian it was, "large semolina rigatoni in a white veal ragout sauce served with baby string beans garnished with black pepper pecorino from Sardinia." Is that really the translation? Anyway, the taste needed no interpreter. The rigatoni was perfectly cooked and the sauce was subtly flavorful with excellent slivers of the pecorino cheese shaved on top. Mmmmmm! I actually had assumed this was our main course and was all ready for dessert when something else arrived. The main course! This was a filet mignon in a porcini mushroom Barolo glaze served over soft rosemary polenta topped with crispy truffle leeks. And it was mouthwatering, my favorite cut of meat prepared superbly. Dessert was an unusual, and unusually tasty, tiramisu - Angelo's homemade version. I could add more "M"s here, but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say that Casa D'Angelo lived up to all those raves. And that I can't wait to go back.