Following on from Eating in Italy (Padua) – Part 3 – El Gaucho, another dinner location in the town of Arqua Petrarca that my aunt took us to is Locanda Bel Fiore. It’s such a charming little country house set on top of the hill. My aunt frequents this restaurants and somehow the manager stayed open and waited for us to arrive (it was quite late and other diners had left) to cook us dinner.
We were warmly welcomed into the restaurant and had our pick of tables. Menus are handwritten (no English) and change daily. The owner is from Ferrara, and so the food reflects the specialties of that region.
I was then shown to the back of the restaurant to the dessert cabinet. All desserts are homemade every day and there was so much to choose from.
Where to start? I took some photos and thought about what to get during dinner.
We received a bread basket as well as homemade vegetable slice with a dough crust on the outer edge.
I’m told that the ‘X’ shaped bread stick is common in the Ferrara region (where the owner is from).
First courses were a taste of two different pastas – the pumpkin cappellacci with ragu (there was also a choice of butter and sage sauce), and the tagliatelle with wild boar ragu. Both absolutely delicious.
My aunt ordered the cuts of black angus (tagliata) which came out medium rare to rare. The beef was tender but didn’t have that amazing flavour, that I think living in Australia has really spoiled us for good beef. Accompanying the beef, are a side of polenta and roasted mixed vegetables.
Since wild boar is also a popular dish at Locanda Bel Fiore and Ferrara, my aunt also ordered the wild boar stew for us to try. It was a very large portion with so much tender pork that pulled apart easily. It was quite rich so none of us managed to finish this. The polenta and mixed vegetables were much needed to break up the richness. We also had to save room for dessert.
I chose four slices from the dessert cabinet – raspberry tart, zuppa inglese, pear and chocolate torta, and tiramisu. All homemade and not too sweet. I would have loved to try out the other homemade items.
Lastly, we finished off with a selection of digestifs. The owner brought out the entire bottle for us to pour and try which is so very generous of her. I tried one but left the rest to the other two.
Wonderful service. Even though we were the only customers in the restaurant, the owner was so warm, welcoming and absolutely lovely doing everything she could so we could enjoy our night. If you love sweets, the dessert cabinet at the back is a must-try. The country house is gorgeous and I just love the hand carved coat racks that look like branch (because they were hand carved from an actual thick tree). My aunt tells me it’s even more beautiful during the day time, so it would be good to visit again. It was an enjoyable experience for all of us.
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