Scutari

This is a restaurant we’ve been waiting to show you for a while. The truly beautiful and completely delicious new spot named Scutari. Scutari is a brand new Italian restaurant in Hanover, Massachusetts. And it’s right around the corner from Alba, which is one of the most popular restaurants South of Boston.

Leo Keka is the man who brought these concepts to life, and with Scutari, he’s going all in on high end Italian cuisine. “It's a modern Italian restaurant. We consider ourselves a really ethnic Italian food because we make our own pizza, our own pasta, our own bread. We make it pretty much everything, every single day...local fresh ingredients as well.

We just have a theme of greens and soft colors. We wanted to make a little cozy dining room. “ That’s a pretty big understatement from Leo. The atmosphere is jaw-dropping here. There’s seating for over two hundred people, floor to ceiling windows, lots of greenery hanging everywhere, plus there’s a long bar, and even a pasta room where you can see them hand-crafting the fresh noodles every day.

Starting out with some small bites, or Cicchetti as they’re called. There’s the Potato and Parmesan Croquette. They’re made fresh every day with creamy mashed potatoes, and a mortadella stuffing, so they’re very soft and creamy inside, with a goldeen cornmeal crust on the outside with some tomato sauce on the side for dipping. If you’re in the mood for a seafood starter, check out the tuna crudo. This is sushi-grade tuna, sliced thin so it almost looks like spaghetti. It’s served over some avocado and then they pour a veal reduction over the top, and honestly that puts the FLAVOR over the top. I happen to a huge fan of crab cakes, and Scutari’s Venetian style crab cakes are some of the best I’ve tasted in a long time. I mean, they’re packed with fresh jumbo lump crab meat, along with some potatoes, garlic, and capers. Just give it a swirl into the mustard dressing, and you’ll be happy as a clam… or a crab.

Pizza lovers, Scutari might be your new favorite place. Because they’re serving real deal Italian style pizza, and everything is authentic from the state of the art pizza oven to the special imported flour. “Yeah, our flower makes a huge difference. We do have a family from Naples who come…every week and try a pizza. They said this is as close you get anywhere in New England to Italy. This oven is called Manaforna, as a company out of Italy, heats up to up to 1000 degrees. So makes the pizza very, very quick and rotates, so you can really make a pretty even big pizza.” And the flavors are big in every pizza. From the classic Margherita topped with Fior Di Latte cheese, San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh basil. To the Prosciutto Di Parma pizza, that’s made with fresh Buffalo Mozzarella, tomato sauce, arugula, and thin-sliced, sweet, salty, and savory imported Prosciutto.

Entrees are broken up into two sections at Scutari: Land and Sea. From the land, we have the Pork Milanese. The pork cutlets are pounded out nice and thin, it’s seasoned all the way through, served on the bone, and the Parmigiano-Regiano is aged for over 12 months, so there’s great depth of flavor. There’s also a beautiful Duck Breast, that’s served over some Faro Risotto and mushrooms, along with some broccoli rabe and a tangy sour cherry sauce. All kinds of tastes and textures popping off on here. And from the sea, I’d recommend the Grilled Swordfish. It’s one of the most stunning swordfish presentations I’ve ever seen. And with the combination of creamy polenta, slow roasted tomatoes, and golden raisins, this is one of the best pieces of fish you can find South of Boston.

We gotta recommend a couple pasta dishes as well. There’s the Tortellone Caccio a Peppe. So this has a pumpkin ricotta filling, and the sauce is a riff on the classic Caccio Peppe, so it’s very buttery and a little peppery. Real comfort food kind of dish. If you really wanna use your noodle, order the signature Spaghetti with Tomato and Burrata cheese. “Our spaghetti is a homemade spaghetti. We make it every single day. We didn't want a tomato sauce. We wanted a slowly cooked heirloom tomatoes, baby tomatoes. And we find this amazing burrata out of Italy. And we put on top of that, a little lemon zest. We love it. I love that dish.”

Listen, bottom line: Scutari is just a beautiful restaurant. You can watch them making your pizza, you can watch them making your pasta, the wine list is exceptional, and Leo is just the ultimate restaurateur. “The atmosphere has been great. The crowd's been very, very good for us. So we have…a great team of employees, hard work and kitchen staff, and we're ready to go.”