Quintessenza, Trani, Italy, June 2017

The attentive reader will have noticed - there was a break in my star of the week reports. Was I slacking off? Not eating my share? Fear not! To start of my week in beautiful Puglia, Italy, I had dinner at one of the few Michelin starred restaurants in the region - the Quintessenza Ristorante in Trani - to experience their high-end interpretation of Apulian cuisine. And finally, here is the report.
I had made this reservation a few weeks in advance, and was really looking forward to it. I had researched typical cuisine of Puglia, already excited to experience some - and trying my best for "all" - of the bountiful abundance of the fruits, vegetables, seafood, slowfood, oils, cheeses, pastries, pasta ... However, compared to Berlin, Michelin starred restaurants are slightly further apart than just a few blocks, and thus we had specifically planned our route to be close to this one. (Staying at the picturesque Masseria Torre di Nebbia, whose kitchen deserves its own article, but which is highly recommended.)

Arrival

Since we had already been in Trani before, we had allowed ample time for the - sorry, dear friends - madness that is Italian traffic and street parking. Of course, having planned for it, we immediately found a trivial, perfectly legal parking spot and thus arrived hopelessly early and still during the siesta. Since the weather was wonderful we took the time to walk around a few blocks, sat down at a piazza, and watch the city wake up from its collective nap.
Making our way over a few minutes after the restaurant opened, we were warmly greeted by Domenico who had also handled our reservation by mail.
Quintessenza is a minimalistic restaurant in its interior, very modern and light and white. This was enhanced by us being the first guests, but it would fill up over the rest of the evening with a colorful bouquet of guests. The ambiance was then casual and very lively.

The choices

Food

Quintessenza offers both a la carte dining as well as a choice of several tasting menus that cater to different budgets and desired durations for the meal. Based on the recommendation by our host, we choose the Liberamente - the six courses are meant to allow the chef and his team express their culinary intentions while taking into account the availability of the best ingredients on the day. That sounded exactly like what we wanted - a whole evening's journey!
(And while I normally prefer to not mention this aspect it deserves to be noted that, for an award winning restaurant, Quintessenza is rather reasonably priced.)

Drinks

So, let us get this out of the way. If you're not going to drink wine, why are you in Italy? Yet, here we were. We decided to go with aqua naturale for the evening. That was expected, even if their wine menu looked - to my uneducated eye - quite impressive, and as always I would hope for the same effort that goes into alcohol to be afforded to other beverages.
However, it should be noted that I really, really liked their glasses. Which I promptly failed to take a proper picture of (they are somewhat visible in the first one, and of course on the reports from the other dinners all over the net). But their asymmetric shape really was a tactile and visual pleasure. I hadn't considered this much before, but really, why are water glasses often so boring?

The dinner

Amuse bouche I

 Potato crackers with Dijon mustard mayonnaise on the right, and a parmesan tartellette filled with ricotta and bottarga chips. Before we even selected our menu, this delightful appetizer put us into the right mood! Not just the taste and flavours, nor the crispy texture, but including the presentation on a plate of Apricot wood from their family's farmland.

Amuse bouche II

 A homemade sourdough focaccia. This was, perhaps, one of my favorite courses. I realize that it was only an appetizer; but this certainly was the best focaccia I ever ate, getting the texture just right, being perfectly fresh, and benefiting from the ripeness of sun-blessed tomato chunks, with a full flavor profile you just can almost never get in Germany. It might be perfectly ordinary in Puglia, but this really got me - I've often suspected that the fruits and vegetables you can buy here would be thrown out as inedible by the humblest grocer in the Mediterranean. (And the focaccia I had at the airport just before flying home? Let us not dwell on that woeful comparison!)

Breads and Oil

In some of my other posts you might have noticed that I have a thing for bread. The lighter sourdough breads (made by the restaurant) were a blend of Mediterranean semola flour from South Italy, and the darker one a blend of rye, oat, barley, rice, and wheat, with a few coarser grains. The crumb had an well-structured texture, and the sourdough gave this a full bodied flavour with a faint sourdough note. The crust was delicate, and richly toasted.
The - of course - extra virgin olive oil deserves special mention again, since it, too, comes from the farm of the family and is produced exclusively in small quantity for the restaurant. The farm's olive grove contains only about 130 trees - so this is truly an exclusive oil. As typical for the region, it is less sharp and burning, and instead fruity-grassy.

 Grouper "crudaiola"

The crudaiola, I was informed, is normally a pasta salad. However, here we see how Stefano, the chef and owner, refreshed this dish: steamed grouper in a sauce of rocket, served with marinated green (or, well, yellow) tomatoes, and Primo Sale pecorino cheese.
Again, the tomatoes. I am getting truly jealous. Marinated sweet and sour, they helped lend body to the dish, their acidity enhancing and completing the flavours of the rocket sauce and salad and grouper both; especially the later normally bringing less umami to the palate than tomatoes. The fish was steamed close to perfection (I think I noticed one or two slightly overdone edges - perhaps due to the exposure to said acidic environment?), and just subtly wonderful, an excellent canvas for the other components of the dish.
This was another contender for one of our favorite courses, but as always, it is hard to pick a single winner!

  Grilled Octopus, cabbage, barbecue sauce

Octopus is a tricky food of the sea - it's muscle structure does not lend itself to the melting tenderness of a great filet steak, as anyone who had the misfortune of being exposed to poorly prepared grilled calamari can attest.
However, the Quintessenza does not poorly prepare their dishes! I can't remember tendrils that were this tender - between soft wax a surimi-like texture, accentuated by the sucker "dots" that were distinctly firmer. The slightly smoky barbecue flavor invokes the countryside - in Puglia, the sea is always close, but so are the olive groves and sparse mountain regions with their farmyard fires - and worked exceedingly well with the meaty tendrils, almost reminding me of a Korean BBQ. The cabbage wrapping is a fine touch, bringing colors and yet more aromas to the dish.
Before this plate, I had - I admit it - almost given up on octopus. But this was amazing. If you can get expertly done, fresh octopus, you too might want to give it another chance.

  Signature dish: Ricotta Tortelli, Gallipoli red shrimps, bisque and Moscato di Trani

Domenico explained that this has become Quintessenza's popular signature dish since 2014, capturing so much of the essence and intentions of the restaurant and region both that it even is served with special cutlery engraved with their logo. The combination of a fresh cheese with crustacean is so common in the area of Puglia - and so rare elsewhere - that it absolutely had to be part of the menu.
Here, we have red shrimps from Gallipolli, so fresh that they are served raw, even. The bisque is infused with Moscato di Trani, a late harvest of Moscato Reale grape - one of the oldest noble grapes cultivated since the fifteenth century and a pride of the city, from a local-born wine maker (Franco Di Filippo). The tortellini, finally, are filled with a fresh ricotta.
The raw shrimp - and I will come out as a unschooled brute here, but I had never had raw shrimp before, always cooked, this just is not usually available in most of Europe - just melted on the tongue, a very different texture from the usual, and its flavor was significantly more subtle and lighter. The richness of the ricotta-filled pasta and the caramel and date notes of the sauce - it is easy to see why this has become an iconic combination.

 Risotto "Acquerello" with oysters

Made with an exclusive rice ("Acquerello" Carnaroli Superfino, from Rondolino in Vercelli), this Marinara mixes several flavours - the plate holds parsley sauce, anchovies sauce, squid ink, dryed mussles, and that chord of the fresh sea breeze that only oysters (in this case: not-quite-regional, but famed Gillardeau from  Marennes-Oléron in France) can bring, and sprinkled with a confitted lemon zest.
The texture of the rice was, as expected, just so al dente, the sauces creamy and velvety, and while the course as a whole was well rounded and ticked all the checks, the different components made each bite a wild, juicy adventure.

Cod fish with onion juice and steamed broad beans

Beautifully presented, this dish was perhaps the most minimal of all. The cod and beans balanced each other's texture, and the onion juice added in roasted umami; and the onion itself yet another consistency.

Pre-dessert: apricot sphere

And, already, the first dessert, as our meal slowly wound down. A single bite of an apricot sphere served on salted cocoa.  And, yet again, the ripe, full-bodied, fully aromatic fruits available in Italy are just an unfair advantage for the chefs to be able to work with!
The apricot was lingering and vibrant (sweet and fruity), and the salty, deep cocoa completed the harmony. I could eat a whole basket of these and not tire.

Apulian Farmer's Breakfast

The main dessert is based on the tradition of farmers and shepherds breakfasting on bread and cheese (and indeed, our own agritourismo served us fresh sheep ricotta every morning). The base of roasted wheat crumble lays the foundation, a silky ricotta cheese ice cream drizzled with their olive oil (olive oil and sweets: a brilliant combination to add a deep background), garnished with sauces of vanilla and strawberry.
And yes, this was as creamy-velvety-crunchy as it reads. For my palate, the sauces were perhaps mildly too sweet; further meals have reinforced the suspicion that this may be a regional preference. Where, perhaps, a German chef again would have been lucky to have such strawberries in the first place, they feel the need to add something extra? For me, a sauce of slightly more tart strawberries might have balanced the profile better.

Macarons and Madeleine

And, alas, the true last bites to accompany the coffee: Madeleines filled with vanilla and lemon custard, and the Macarons stuffed with 72% Valrhona.
They work perfectly with the espresso, of course. And French chocolatiers are renown and famed (I might be enjoying a nibble of Michel Cluizel's 85% grand cru just now as I type); yet, Italy has their own to be extremely proud of: Amedei, Domori, or Venchi. Perhaps something to explore in the future?

Espresso

This was perhaps the biggest surprise. Not that I disagree with the choice - as the Nobelhart & Schmutzig crew will also happily explain to you, a real espresso machine requires a lot of care and attention that's hard to justify in a restaurant with few tables. At home, I am not ashamed to admit it, I use the same - if I want to enjoy a special blend, my burr grinder and the French press or a cold brew serve wonderfully. And if it's an Espresso I crave, the Kazaar consistently delivers. (Yes, for a few years I also geeked out on achieving the God shot each morning; let's not get into that argument here.) I felt validated to see the same choices made in a starred restaurant in Italy of all places!
If it's good enough for them, it's certainly good enough for me. And it also meant that the choice of a decaffeinated espresso was readily available.

The service

Always courteous and friendly, and the frequency of the courses was just right too. It deserves special mention that Domenico was so kind as to help me out by email, because I had misplaced my notes about the first dish, and explained the background of the dishes so I did not end up needing to ask for spelling corrections of my notes during the meal. (The menu does not have all the descriptions.)

Summary

The Quintessenza served us the most fine iconic meal of our trip. Each course was expertly prepared, sourced from the highest quality ingredients and demonstrating the richness of flavors and styles in the region. The casual integration of seafood into nearly everything; the abundance of ripe fruits and vegetables; this was very impressive.
And it inspires me to seek out more Italian cuisine in my life - too often, Italian cuisine in Germany is reduced to a few standards and too narrow, just as it happens with Indian cuisine. Alas, it was not a very challenging meal, since it was all just too delicious and appealing! (The one dish that might have been for me, Torcinello, was not available due to missing ingredients on the day.)
I'd love to say I will be back soon; alas, this is slightly outside of my usual paths. However, should I ever be back in Puglia, I shall visit them again, and so should you!