A Fall Dinner Al Fresco

Fall is my favorite time of year, when the heat and humidity of the summer begins to cool and the air in the city seems - fresher.  This summer in particular was brutal, testing the limits of my air conditioning unit and making the normal NYC smells that much smellier.  Thursday night I met Giggles and Stamps, my favorite dining companions, at Morandi in the West Village after a failed attempt to get a table at the packed Dell'Anima.  They were seated on the patio and had ordered a bottle of red (Montepulciano).  The best part of any patio is the people watching and this one was no exception, the corner of Charles and 7th Ave abuzz with pedestrians.  The patio itself had its share of sites, including one fahh-bulous woman draped in a fur jacket with a king charles spaniel obediently perched on her lap even as she ate.

I had been to Morandi several times for brunch (great baked eggs) and am obsessed with the bread, but never for dinner.  We reviewed the extensive menu and Stamps attempted to get a recommendation from our waiter.  "What's your favorite pasta?" she asked and he said uselessly "I love them all!" - gee thanks!  Our first course was the grilled octopus with celery and black olives, which arrived looking delicious, but disturbingly like an octopus.

"Octopuses are really smart" stated Stamps to which I replied "Yes and they even predict the results of World Cup matches" referring to Paul the psychic Octopus, who went 8/8 in his predictions.  In fact when he predicted Germany's win over Argentina, he received death threats from angry Argentinian supporters!  We looked down at our dish, with a slight feeling of mourning for the poor mollusc who may have predicted his own demise - that he would be caught, grilled and served drizzled with olive oil.  Smart and yummy.  For our mains, Giggles had the Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, Stamps the buccatini with sardines, fennel and walnuts and I had the fresh spaghetti with lemon and parmesan.

It was DELICIOUS - the pasta was al dente, lightly lemony and cheesy, but not at all heavy or oily.  I made Giggles and Stamps try it and they agreed that it was fantastic.  It was so good, that I twirled and slurped my way through the whole dish and wished there was more of it.  Definitely worth trying to make at home!  We finished the meal sharing the lemon pudding cake with berries, drank the rest of our mediocre bottle of wine and enjoyed the weather and atmosphere which felt rather Parisian.  Stamps took off to go see a concert leaving me and Giggles to finish the cake.  It was getting chillier and I shivered a bit in my thin jacket, suddenly wanting to rip the fur coat off the woman with the dog.

(Beautiful houses around the corner)

We sat and listened to some dude sitting behind us with a VERY affected, nasal voice, wearing one of those hideous shirts where the collar is white but the rest of the shirt is blue and white stripes, drone on and on about some famous guy he knows.  "We're close" he kept insisting to the fussy looking group of people with him.  I rolled my eyes lamenting internally at how we ate the smart little octopus earlier while this douche bag is allowed to live!

Okay, enough with the octopus - next time, they really need to just cut that thing up!