Interview: Leyla Marchetto of Scuderia

Arthur Bovino — March 10, 2009

There’s a new Italian trattoria in the West Village, Scuderia, right across from Da Silvano. This chic, but casual, bar/restaurant is the creation of Team Scuderia: famed restaurateur, Silvano Marchetto; his daughter, Leyla; his long-time manager, Alessandro Bandini; and friend and musician, Fabrizio Sotti. In anticipation of last night’s opening, AlwaysHungry stopped in to talk with Leyla about her new place.

AHNY: How would you define Scuderia’s concept?

LM: The concept is a casual, modern day New York version of an Italian trattoria and bar. You know, it’s not the old world kind of Mom and Pop looking trattoria but it’s casual, we have some of these stools that are more enoteca style. I call them our East Village shout out because they remind me of East Village wine bars. So it’s more casual, more moderately priced, and I think we’re reaching out to some of the clientele that doesn’t actually go to Da Silvano, you know, younger people, or people who can’t afford it. So then we’re able to, in the vicinity of two hundred feet, attract customers, you know, in addition to some overlap that I’m sure we will have. Hopefully we’ll get customers for breakfast and then they’ll take their clients there for lunch or dinner. There’s some overlap, but the menu is very different.

We’re calling it casual Italian comfort food with some American twists. There’s a brioche grilled cheese that has speck and rosemary in it and there’s the Scuderia Hamburger, a luscious, yummy burger with Tuscan fries…

AHNY: Tell me more about the Hamburger della Scuderia…

LM: It is a beef brisket burger, so it’s like heavenly, the right salty juiciness from the brisket. It comes with caramelized onions that are cooked with cilantro and jalapeño. And then it has Monterrey Jack cheese, and it’s served on a toasted sesame bun. It’s really good. It’s very juicy. It’s not a little burger.

AHNY: So what would you consider Scuderia’s signature dishes?

LM: I would say, the Pizza Scuderia. It’s strong. I would recommend that as a sharing item. I mean you can have entire pizza but it’s fig jam, blue cheese and speck, so it’s kind of strong. I would recommend that for sharing. The other one that’s really good, pizza-wise, the Occhio di Bue, translates to Bull’s-eye, in Italian and it’s pizza that has mozzarella and pecorino and then there is pancetta and spinach and then an egg is cooked in the middle of it. And when you cut it…it’s everyone’s favorite.

And then Claudio Cristofoli, the chef, is from Venice, and then Fabrizio is from Padova, so there’s kind of influences from different areas of Italy. The Arancini di Riso, It’s two fried rice balls with pecorino inside, that come in this terracotta kind of thing with tomato sauce underneath it and they have a bit of the braised beef cheeks in them so there’s meat and cheese and they’re warm…I’ve probably had six rice balls in the last four days.

I would also say pasta-wise, I’m kind of partial to the beef cheek ragù. I should kind of switch to another one shouldn’t I? Oh, the squid ink noodles with the seafood is amazing. So there’s black squid ink, a teeny bit spicy, tomatoes, seafood, like there’s mussels and different types of fish…amazing…To go away from the carbs, Claudio makes this skirt steak with three different dipping sauces…The skirt steak is marinated, so soft, ahead the night before and then it comes with these three little sauces. One’s green, one’s red, and one’s yellow. You dip it in and it’s amazing and it’s so tender.

And you could get some of the sides—grilled polenta, I really like. Kind of crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

Dessert-wise I can give you one really good dessert that’s fabulous. Everyone has had a good response. Instead of tiramisu it’s called a “Tiramelosu”. And it’s a deconstructed tiramisu. So it comes on a cutting board and there are a couple of ladyfingers. There’s an espresso and there’s the zabaglione. So you dip it in and kind of do your own thing. And, it’s really, really good. And I’ve never seen that anywhere. I don’t know if it comes from somewhere in Italy or if he invented it but it’s amazing…[Also,] I would have the Pizza with Nutella and mascarpone for dessert. It’s like a mini 6-inch pizza with a thin layer of Nutella, a little bit of melted mascarpone dusted with sugar and it’s heavenly. Also, good for breakfast with coffee, cause I just had a piece.

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What’s In A Name?: Soffocone di Vincigliata

Jeff Zalaznick — February 17, 2009

Whenever I go to Dell’Anima, I know that my buddy Joe Campanale (unless he is too busy over at L’Artusi that is) will always pair the delicious homestyle Italian food with a great and interesting bottle of Italian wine. Joe really outdid himself though, when he brought a bottle of the 2006 “Soffocone di Vincigliata” to my table. I was already sold when he told me that the wine had arrived just before it became illegal to import to the US, but it was the liquor authority’s reasoning for this decision that really blew me away.

In order to truly understand this, it is important to examine two incredibly charming aspects of Italian culture:

1) Small Tuscan towns each have their own distinctive character, which is one of the things that makes them so charming. The small town of Vincigliata exemplifies this notion. Located on the outskirts of Florence, Vincigliata is situated right next to the more famous town of Fiesole. Overlooking the beautiful Florentine skyline, tourists mostly know Vincigliata for its views, and, on occasion, for making some decent wines. For locals though, Vincigliata bears a totally different meaning. For Florentines, Vincigliata is the equivalent of “make out point”. Its vineyards are a place for lovers, and the perfect place to play a little game of Nasconda la Salsiccia, known in America as, “Hide The Salami”. In Italy, men live with their mothers until the day they are married (re: the term Mamino), so you can imagine that Vincigliata plays an incredibly significant role as Florentine men come of age.

2) Another charming aspect of Italian culture is the many terms they use for what we here in America call: a “blowjob”. Pompino, or the verb form Spompinare, Trombare or Bofilo all are used frequently. But, in all languages, there is always that term that takes slang to the next level of dirty, and when it comes to a blowjob in Italian, that word is: Suffocone.

After years of watching Florentine coeds roll around in his vineyards, one of the local Vincigliata winemakers decided to make a wine that celebrated this often overlooked part of Florentine life.

Thus, behold, the 2006 Soffocone di Vincgliata ….

In the US, wine labels are not allowed to have any sort of sexual imagery on them, and so, when they finally figured out what was painted on the bottle, that was the end. The wine itself was pretty good, but that being said, I poured half of it out and took the bottle.