The last time I visited Providence I enjoyed a great Irish Pub. This visit I thought I would check out one of the many Italian restaurants. It was a hard choice to make but I narrowed it down to Rosalina. The menu looked fantastic.
Rosalina’s is not far from the convention center. It is a cute restaurant that is not too big on the inside. I would recommend making a reservation. As soon as I walked in I could smell the homemade bread baking in their ovens.
My waiter was very energetic and extremely friendly. He did make a few suggestions on the menu. He brought over a nice basket of the fresh baked bread. The smell of the butter and garlic was intoxicating.
The bread had a crunch to it. The texture reminded me of pita chips. It had a buttery taste that was almost savory in my mouth. I also really enjoyed the crunch. However, the funny thing about the bread was the waiter said the chef cooked it a little too long. It actually was not supposed to be crunchy. It was suppose to be soft. Well I thought it was a great “mistake”. Hopefully by allowing me to try it, they can add a new item to the menu.
For my cocktail I ordered the Limonata. The perfect cocktail starts with perfect ingredients. So this certainly fit the bill.
They used muddled lemons, simple syrup, limoncello, citrus vodka, and topped with San Pellegrino limonata Italian soda. An interesting part of this cocktail was the limoncello. It turns out at Rosalina they make their own. This alone made me happy I ordered this drink. After taking a sip it reminded me of a lemon drop martini. It was slightly sweet, slightly tart, and very refreshing.
Ordering something to share with the table was a must. The waiter recommended the antipasto. When it came out he was not kidding, this plate of meats, cheese, and tomatoes were huge.
There were some awesome items on this plate. The meats included Prosciutto de Parma, and Sopp Resata. These were extremely fresh meats. They were tender to bite into and full of flavor. For cheese, they included Burrata cheese that was tremendously creamy. They had two types of salty olives – Calvestrano and Kalamata. They had a few roasted peppers and a ton of fresh cherry tomatoes. These tomatoes were the star of this plate. These were the sweetest and juiciest cherry tomatoes I have ever had. And when the juices combined with the balsamic vinegar and oregano on top enhanced the flavor even more.
The offered two types of gnocchi on the menu. One had a creamy sauce and the other had mussels in a wine sauce. It was a tough choice but I chose the version with the mussels because that is not normally something I see. This dish was called Gnocchi Vongole.
Their fresh potato gnocchi was sautéed with white wine, roasted garlic, butter, and cherry tomatoes. They used fresh Little-Neck Clams that were drenched in the wonderful sauce. The gnocchi was surprisingly light and fluffy. They tasted so good in the buttery wine sauce. the butter flavor enhanced the gnocchi.
The clams were cooked to perfection. They were super easy to get out of the shells. The meat was tender, not at all chewy. They also were amazing with the butter wine sauce. I felt that the garlic in the sauce enhanced the flavor of the clams. The perfect pairing.
My meal was fantastic at Rosalina. I will definitely go back to try something else. Check out their Italian dishes at http://www.rosalina-ri.com/
Enjoy!
T
