My SF Bites: Friday Lunch at Cotogna

Summer is long over but luckily I can still relive some of amazingly delicious food memories from my travels.  The trip to the West Coast started off with lunch in SF at Cotogna first thing off the plane.  After a hilly climb up Montgomery Street with my suitcase, I was so sweaty and hungry that only a delicious lunch made with fresh local ingredients will suffice to make up for my long journey all the way from New York, some 3000 miles away.

Fresh California figs with ricotta studded with black pepper made for a great starter.  The sweet ripe figs complimented the creaminess from the ricotta, only to be punctuated by the peppery arugula and black pepper.

The lobster special sounded too delicious and too beautiful to pass up.  The half crustacean was lightly grilled and served with grilled radicchio and champagne grapes.   Even though the lobster was a little less than plump, the flavors were quite unique and the grilling imparted a nice smokiness.

For our entrees, another dish from the specials of the day, tortellini with white bean puree and grilled octopus.  Dressed with a medley of seasonal vegetables and a light pan sauce, the tortellinis were light yet sastifying.

At our waiter’s strong suggestion (and urging), we chose the agnolotti dal plin to complete our meal.  The little morsels were filled with a mixture of rabbit, veal and pork and finished with a brown butter sauce.  The meaty flavors were so much bigger than their tiny packages, full of depth and richness.  They definitely lived up to the waiter’s promises.

Just because it’s lunch doesn’t mean that we will skip out on dessert.  The stone fruit tart with a flaky pastry shell was the perfect light ending to our lunch at Cotogna.  The shell shattered as we dug in, making sure to catch a little bit of that dark caramel sauce on the bottom on the plate.   A great start to my West Coast trip.

Cotogna | 490 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133 | www.cotognasf.com