Timpano: Food to die for?

[Amy Warren, LMHC / WQ Mag Columnist]

Whenever someone shouts “I should kill you....This is so #$*! good, I should kill you!” and then kisses and hugs the chef, it makes you want to eat the food, right? Thankfully, that’s the mindset of my fellow food-loving friends. After watching Stanley Tucci’s 1996 film Big Night, one of my gourmand friends was unable to shake the thought. A mission was set in motion to find a chef to create the infamous Timpano. Chef/owner of Puccini’s, Richard De Felice agreed to fill the mission. De Felice, who thinks of himself more as chef than owner, bases his restaurant on the philosophy, “If you want something, ask for it.” For De Felice, special requests make cooking fun. Hence, a carefully selected group of eighteen food-lovers assembled for a feast at Puccini’s. The group of gourmands included chefs, wine consultants, and Iron Chef Sarasota’s originator.

What is Timpano? A dish made by De Felice’s mother and a long line of Italians, traditionally Timpano is a use for leftovers. The ingredient list is not exactly the ingredients found in the back of my refrigerator, but hey, I’m not Italian. At Puccini’s, the ingredient list was: 4 lbs of ziti, 16 hard-boiled eggs, 3 cups salami, 3 cups provolone, 20 meatballs, 12 cups thick tomato sauce, loads of Romano cheese and a homemade pastry crust. When I heard the ingredient list, I wondered if I had misunderstood the actor in the film. With the high fat and cholesterol content, perhaps the actor in the film meant to warn “This is so #$*! good, it could kill you!” But blood continued to pulse through my veins and two days later, my scales remarkably read two pounds lighter.

Chef De Felice served bruschetta with tomato, mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegarette (think Caprese on bread) and dressed greens as a prelude to the Timpano. Apparently, bruschetta is a complimentary first course to any meal at Puccini’s. Applause broke out at De Felice’s presentation of the Timpano, a perfect mound of pastry crust encapsulating all of the other rich ingredients. The heaviness of the Timpano was balanced with a light dessert of balsamic peaches topped with a chocolate truffle. One of the highlights to the evening (and any evening at Puccini’s) is the BYOB policy. As is true with many connoisseurs of food, our assembled group also had a penchant for fine wine, which was generously passed around the table throughout the evening.

Delicious though it was, I don’t think anyone left the restaurant thinking that the Timpano was so good that anyone should die for it. Yet, it was one of those rare and delightful evenings when a group of food and wine lovers communed to savor tastes unknown and mark at least one item off the bucket list. But since bucket lists make life worth living, deleting one item leaves space to add another. A subsequent visit to Puccini’s set in motion additions to the bucket list with plans for more special menu group dinners in the future. Next item on the culinary bucket list, an Italian holiday feast with seven courses of fish – long live the chef!

[Marti Nelson]

Nicely written Amy!!!! It was a special evening and we had a lot of fun trying a new food to die for.