Tutto Bene
p>“Tutto bene” means “it's all good” in Italian. And when you walk into this restaurant, you definitely get that it's “all good” type of vibe. But what drew me to this Brockton spot is the food is all tasty.
When you walk in, you see a real pretty restaurant. I love that the bar is right in the middle. There's Italian artwork, classical Italian music, a fireplace, everything to give you that soothing Italian field that I love at an Italian restaurant. “I can always tell someone who's been here for a first time, because they have a surprise look on their face. This being a restaurant in a strip mall, they don't expect it to look like this.The artwork on the wall is indicative of Tuscany, and I think they get the sense that it's sort of an upscale, but.. comfortable Italian restaurant.”
“There's a family atmosphere here that the people that work here all feel like they're part of something that's special, and I make them feel special, because I appreciate them. They all make me look good” Ben Albanese has been the owner and manager here for almost thirty years. He has tremendous passion for Italian food. He even looks the part. You could definitely put this guy's face on an ad for a marinara sauce. “I was probably 12, 14 years old before I realized not everybody made their own pasta at home, because we did every weekend it was something we did on a regular basis. So I learned to make raviolis and gnocchis, tortellinis, everything at home, because that was a tradition in my family.”
They've been making their own ravioli here for three decades. I think it's the best thing on the menu. So you may want to start with this appetizer of butternut squash ravioli. Has the fried prosciutto, the crispy fried sage, over a parmesan cream sauce. “We roast the butternut so it's caramelized, but it's not just mashed up butternut like you'd have at your Thanksgiving dinner. It's got shallots different spices we put in there, and it has a depth of flavor that you're not going to get just from squash. You shouldn't pass it up if you come here” The best thing here, may be the lobster ravioli entree. Five gigantic lobster raviolis packed with lots of lobster it's got ricotta cheese and a light lobster sauce. These are big ravioli. You're probably gonna have to cut it into at least eight pieces to get it into your mouth. You want to make sure you get lobster pasta and sauce in every bite… Mmmm Mmmm “We have chunks of lobster meat in ours. The filling ratio to pasta is probably two to one filling in lobster meat. It's almost like Tootsie Roll pops. You know, there's a, there's a prize in the middle, but the filling has lobster meat all through it anyway, but we put a chunk right in the middle. It's special, it's rich, it's buttery. It's the best lobster ravioli you're going to get anywhere.”
Phantom Gourmet probably leads the nation in coverage of chicken parmesan. So I always ask the owner, what's different about yours? Here they brine it, ensuring that it remains real moist. They pound it, they add panko bread crumbs. Of course, you have that golden brown cheese. And then it's served with a side of linguine with marinara sauce. To me, this is such comforting, wonderful Italian food. “It's a very generous portion…We pound it, but not too thin. This is by far my most favorite dish.”
The Torte di Polo is unique to this restaurant. I would call it the ultimate combination of Italian comfort food and American comfort food. “It's a chicken pot pie, Italian style. What makes it Italian style? It has, you know, it has roasted chicken and it has roasted vegetables, but it also has sauteed prosciutto, roasted red peppers that we that we roast in house, sweet peas and a combination of bechamel and Alfredo sauce, and then there's a flaky pie crust on the top.It's comfort food at its best.”
For dessert, there's a chocolate banana bread pudding. It's a brioche bread pudding, there's caramel, walnuts, Ghirardelli chocolate chips, and that amazing fresh whipped cream. “It's not a dense bread pudding. It's almost like a custard and all the whipped cream that we serve here is all hand whipped fresh each night, so that has the fresh whipped cream, caramel sauce, and we serve it warm. It's just delicious.” The Espresso Martini is all the rage in the restaurant business these days, so you may want to pair it with the Affogato. This is a modern Italian dessert. It has premium vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and nutmeg and Frangelico, and then they drown it in espresso. I don't think dessert gets any better than that. “The word Affagato means drowned, we have real good premium vanilla ice cream, but you drown it with fresh espresso, you pour that over it, and we drizzle it with Frangelico and we dust it with a little bit of nutmeg. And that's the real top up for the end of your deal of your meal.” I think if Billy Joel wrote that famous song, Italian restaurant about a deli or a barbecue place, it wouldn't really work. There's something so romantic and fun and wonderful about a neighborhood, locally owned Italian restaurant like Tutto Bene in Brockton.
