I love it when an old favorite can still surprise you.
It had been a long while since we last visited Cucina 503, Chef Edward Mendoza’s Italian restaurant on Fury’s Ferry Road. We’ve come for both special occasions and just because. It’s upscale Italian—with fresh flowers, muted colors and lighting, gorgeous art posters on the walls, and heavy gilded drapes—but it’s also casual, with a bar in one room, butcher paper-covered tables, jazz playing overhead, and a friendly vibe from the staff.
So much on the menu was the same, which I loved, because I already had the pasta carbonara in mind. Other entrees include two kinds of risotto (shrimp and smoked tomato), six total pastas, and four proteins (pan-seared duck breast, pan-seared branzino, smoked bone-in pork chop, and braised lamb shank). But we wanted something new for our appetizer. We’ve enjoyed the salads (including a unique roasted beet salad) and had already sampled the mussels, fritto misto (fried shrimp, calamari and vegetables), and some of the flatbreads. But they all seemed a little heavy that night. So the trio of housemade dips somehow just felt right, light enough for the pasta meal that would follow.
Our serve slipped a plate of bread on our table while we waited, with both sweet butter and a balsamic-infused butter; I happily sampled both. Soon, our dip trio arrived with fanfare—the pita points all positioned on salute. Dips may sound blasé, but hear me out: These were all so inventive and packed with flavor. I think Italian can sometimes get a bad rap for being oily since so many dishes contain generous helpings of butter and olive oil, but these were all light and so delicious I was hard pressed to pick a favorite.
First, we had a sweet potato hummus, which had citrus notes and a nuttiness from the tahini. It was buttery and so fresh. Even fresher still was the pistou, a concoction of diced zucchini, olive oil, basil and garlic—you could taste each ingredient and it was so light and delicate on your tongue. Finally, there was the Bolognese sauce, which I don’t often think of as a dip, but I’ll have to rethink from now on. This was served warm, with that wonderful, slow-cooked flavor of the meat and carrots and tomatoes. We enjoyed every bit and even asked for extra bread so we could chase down every tasty bite. And we had fun playing guess the ingredient with our server (I was correct on the lemon but not the tahini on the hummus and guessed all the pistou ingredients!)
When it came time for our entrees, it may sound odd to say that a dish made of butter, egg, Parmesan cheese, noodles and bacon tastes light, but I stand by that. After I took a breath, broke the egg, mixed the sauce all together and tasted, the carbonara was rich, but it wasn’t heavy at all. Part of it likely was that the portion size was just right. But it also was that the tagliolini noodles were so delicate and fluffy. Plus, the sauce was creamy but just clung to the noodles and didn’t overpower them. The bits of applewood-smoked bacon took the place of the classic pancetta, adding that wonderful smoky pork flavor, and the peas added a bit of green to lighten the dish even more.
My husband Sean offered me a bite of his shrimp scampi tagliolini, which was terrific too—fat shrimp piled on a bed of wide noodles, drenched in butter, garlic and capers and infused with seafood flavor. But the carbonara was like an old friend I couldn’t get enough of.
“We need to come back here more often,” my husband remarked as we left that night. I couldn’t agree more.
Make Your Reservation
Cucina 503
502 Furys Ferry Rd., Suite 503
www.facebook.com/cucina503augusta/
Entrée cost: $17.95 to $32.95
