Pasta by grannies on a hill overlooking Como /TrattoriadelFagiano

Y (May '23)

SCORE: Tell yo friends

Highlights: Hare Ragout pasta, Bresaola plate

VALUE: Amazing 35 EUR for one with 2 spritzes

A good friend of mine introduced this place to me a year or so ago. The first time I went, I was convinced I was being led to a hillside house to get clipped. However what was at the end of this winding drive up the side of a hill on lake como... was a hole in the wall trattoria, run by this grandma who was just as bothered by the neighbourhood kid bawling as she was with making her customers happy. Everyone here seemed to know everyone else, and that impression has continued for every time I've gone there since.


This time, I sat down and asked for one of the hare ragu and one of the "sorpresa" - and grandma's face immediately lit up when I wasn't being a demanding tool, and just trusting her to give me something good.

The hare ragu was delicious, gamey, chunky rabit ragu with a beautifully al dente tagliatelle. And she was generous with the ragu too. I hate it when there isn't enough of the sauce. A lot of places give you pasta, and just enough sauce to 'dip' the pasta... Ain't no body got time for that.. This was delicious, and the beautiful sunshine, and brisk air, this worked amazingly well.


The sorpresa for today was a gnocchi with cream and chunks of fried boar ham. Textural contrast was amazing between the chewy fried chunks of boar, and the chewy sweet gnocchi. However, it was'nt the most well executed dish - the emulsion was starting to split, and on the verge of becoming gamey. Didn't change the taste being balanced and lovely, but made it a bit weird to eat it.

Finally, their presentation of bresaola - they add a chunk of tomini in the middle, and serve with a delicious drizzle of dark balsamic - very nice combo of meaty salty bresaola, sweet balsamic and tasty gooey tomini cheese. They should always have this as an appetizer. don't know why this isn't a more common appetizer.


The environment, the general quality of their game meats is amazing. I highly recommend it. On this trip, I only did pastas, so didn't quite show their specialty which are game meat stews. If you are there with a bigger group, please do get some of the gigantic stew portions.

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