Italian Fall Harvest Dinner Menu

Tags Menu, Bar, Restaurant, Nashville, Website

First, the tasty specials for tonight and Saturday from our sous chef extraordinaire, Jason Love:

SMALL PLATES:
— Calamari Fritti with two sauces
— Shrimp and grits with bourbon deglazing and Benton’s bacon

ENTREES:
— Grilled lamb chops and chicken sausage over potato rosti, with roasted apples, braised cabbage and whole grain mustard.
— Pan-seared grouper over porcini risotto, with charred corn coulis and fried shallots
— Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, arugula and roasted parsnips over potato gnocchi with red wine gastric

DESSERT
— Sweet corn beignets with peach ice cream

As for Sunday night, we’re hosting the Italian Fall Harvest dinner beginning at 6:30 pm to commemorate Boccacesca, an important Tuscan food and wine festival in the town of Boccaccio-Certaldo outside of Florence, Italy. This annual festival preserves and celebrates the cultural cuisine and artisans within its eco-region, and this year it runs today through Sunday and Oct. 10–12.

Sunday marks the first of Ombi’s “Slow Food or No Food” series of dinners, to be held at least once a month. The dinner will celebrate courses composed of food harvested or farmed within our eco-region in Middle Tennessee, as well as honor the tradition of Boccacesca.

Each course will be paired with only the finest Italian Tuscan wines, brought into this region by our friend and local 100 percent Italiano wine distributor, Andrea Danti (and his lovely and talented wife, Maria Pia). Cost of the fall harvest dinner will be $60 per person, which will include wine pairings, or $40 without wine. A percentage of the proceeds will be passed on to benefit Slow Food Nashville (http://slowfoodnashville.org/) and the Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee (http://www.foodsecuritypartners.org/) for all the work they do in this community. Space is limited, so please make reservations now by calling Ombi at 320–5350.

Here’s the menu, and it’s absolutely stellar:

ANTIPASTI: Benton’s prosciutto, Sweet Valley Farms sharp cheddar, honey crisp apples, grainy mustard with grilled bread.
WINE: Prosecco Maccari

PASTA: Ricotta ravioli with arugula pesto, heirloom tomatoes, charred corn and lardons of pork belly. WINE: Tenuta Carretta Gavi Il Sorello

SECONDI: DW Farms grilled leg of lamb with autumn vegetable puree and a juniper-thyme reduction. WINE: Rosso di Montalcino

DOLCE: Honey gelato with fresh macerated peaches and puff pastry “cigarettes”. WINE: Castino Moscato D’Asti

COMING UP

— Thursday, Oct, 16 at 6 pm, Hoyt Hill of Village Wines and Ombi will host at tasting of 2006 Burgundies and Rhone wine with Billy Weiss of North Berkeley Imports. Cost is $10. Anyone staying for dinner receives a 10 percent discount on food. Please call Ombi at 320–5350 to make reservations.

— Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 6 pm, Hoyt and Ombi will have a tasting of Tuscan wines with Kimberly Keslin of Henriot, Inc. Cost is $10. The same deal applies as above.

Before I close, for the past few weeks we’ve been featuring our new wine list, and here’s a personal invitation to visit us for our weekday happy hours. Drink and food specials, in the bar and patio area only, are from 4–6 pm every Mon-Fri. Any wine by the glass is half-price; Reva Sangria is just $4.50; specialty cocktails are $8, a $2 discount from the regular cost; and the whiskey/bourbon of the week is just $5. And the whole bar menu is full of inexpensive tapas and other discounted menu items, such as grilled hanger steak and pommes frites just $14. Also, selected quality wines are discounted 25 to 50 percent every single night at Ombi.

We hope to see you all really soon! Eat local!

Terry Raley

By Terry Raley on October 3, 2008