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Category Archives: News

Summer (as soon as it arrives) = Wonderful Dry Rose!

For the next installment in our Artisan Wine Project we selected a wonderful Rose from Halter Ranch. Located on the west side of Paso Robles, in California’s Central Coast, the soil from this historic, 900-acre ranch provides ideal conditions for cultivating superior wine grapes and making world-class wines.  The property dates to the 1880s, when it was part of a 3,000-acre ranch owned by Paso Robles pioneer Edwin Smith. The Halter Ranch vineyards are planted with many different grape varieties – both Bordeaux and Rhone-style, plus Zinfandel, Tannat and Tempranillo. The vines are planted on steep, south-facing slopes reaching 1800 feet in elevation and boasting soils rich in limestone, a feature of many of the world’s finest vineyards. This dry rose is a blend of classic Southern Rhône varietals (43% Grenache, 42% Syrah and 15% Mourvèdre) and has flavors and aromas of red cherry and raspberry. As summer arrives, enjoy Halter Ranch in your neighborhood Pasta P for a limited time only!

 

Join us in Pleasant Hill this Wednesday for our next wine dinner with LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards…

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2011 in News, Pleasant Hill, Wine

 

The rain has finally stopped! It’s time for Spring! Enjoy our new Seasonal Specials menu!

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our Early Spring Seasonal Special Menu! The new menu showcases in-season, fresh and local ingredients such as cauliflower and Dungeness Crab. We’re also featuring artisan meats from Bay Area favorites Zoe’s Meats and Fra’Mani.  Enjoy our hearty soup made with heirloom Scarlet Runner Beans on those rainy spring days and evenings. Our “second course” entrees include a wonderful roasted cauliflower risotto and a linguine with fresh Dungeness Crab. For the meat lovers, we have rich braised short ribs served over fettuccine.  Try the ribs with a glass or bottle of “un4seen”, our current Artisan Wine. And finally for the “everything goes better with bacon” crowd, we’re pleased to offer a Zoe’s meats bacon sundae with vanilla gelato!  That’s right a bacon sundae!  Try it and you’ll be back!

For the next several weeks, you can find this menu along with a fixed course tasting menu throughout our restaurants in Northern and Southern California.  If you’re feeling adventurous, our Pleasant Hill and San Jose (The Alameda) locations are offering a different seasonal special menu, with items that we are “testing” for future use. If you want to get in on the “testing” or try a different seasonal dish, please visit those locations to see what the Pasta Pomodoro Culinary Team is working on.  We hope you enjoy the new dishes as much as we do and look forward to your feedback!

 

Goodbye Pinot Noir, Hello Malbec!

The next installment in our Artisan Wine Project is to introduce our guests to an unorthodox wine blend based on the malbec varietal. Originating in France, the malbec grape is a thin-skinned grape and needs more sun and heat than either cabernet sauvignon or merlot to mature. It ripens mid-season and can bring very deep color, ample tannin, and a particular plum-like flavor component to add complexity to red wine blends. Bottomline, we love malbec and have been drinking it for years, but for a lot of wine drinkers it’s often considered too tannic for their palates. This is where veteran wine maker and Robert Mondavi veteran, David Akiyoshi comes in.  In “un4seen”, David has created a mablec blend that incorporates zinfandel, merlot and petit verdot. The blend is the best of all worlds and we fell in love with it during our first tasting. So, enjoy “un4seen” in your neighborhood Pasta P for a limited time only until our next Artisan Wine arrives!

 
 

Drinking wine can help plant trees? Yet another reason to consume the good stuff!

Every Wednesday at Pasta Pomodoro all bottled wines on our menu are 50 percent off!  Our carafe wines are always a bargain, but during “Wine Wednesday” you can find an even sweeter deal. Venture out to try our delightfully aged Chianti Riserva, or the amazingly rich “Old Vine” Zinfandel or the ripe and supple Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.”

 

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Brunch is now served!

We are excited to announce that our restaurants in Noe Valley, Novato, Pleasant Hill and Santana Row are now serving our famous Italian-styled brunch! Join us every Saturday or Sunday from 10-2 to enjoy our interpretation of classic brunch dishes… Based on guest feedback, more restaurants will follow soon! Enjoy!

 

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We believe in celebrating traditions at Pasta Pomodoro… Our annual Holiday Gift Card Promotion is one of our favorites!

We have a lot of loyal guests who dine at their neighborhood Pasta Pomodoro on a regular basis… We remember your name, your favorite dish and the perfect wine to compliment the meal… Our annual Holiday Gift Card promotion is something that we’ve been offering for several years…  This promotion is one of the many ways we say “thank you” to those loyal customers who have been patrons of our restaurants for the past 16 years… Enjoy!

 
 

Wine Discovery @ Pasta Pomodoro continues… Cima Collina from Monterey County is our next Artisan Wine…

The next stop in our wine discovery program is MONTEREY COUNTY, known for its extended growing season, cool maritime climate and unique soils. In our ongoing search to find unique wines that meet our high standards of taste and value, we’re pleased to present two hard-to-find Monterey County wines from talented winemaker Annette Hoff at CIMA COLLINA.

CIMA COLLINA – is a boutique winery focused on creating food-friendly wines that are bright and balanced. Annette’s Chardonnay will be a refreshing surprise for long-time California Chardonnay lovers, while her Pinot Noir is classically reminiscent of the Burgundians that balance luscious dark fruit and earthiness in every glass.

 

Summer is over… Well, it actually never arrived… So, let’s celebrate Fall’s arrival with our new Seasonal Specials!

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our Fall Seasonal Special Menu. The new menu showcases in-season, fresh local ingredients such as organic butternut squash from Riverdog Farms.  In addition to Riverdog, we’re also featuring leading local California farmers and food purveyors such as Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Marin French Farms, Zoe’s Meats and Niman Ranch.  Our specials reinforce our philosophy that as a locally owned restaurant group, we are investing in ingredients that are grown or produced in California, as often as possible. Our Culinary team appreciates that our guests delight in sampling fresh new modern Italian dishes in addition to indulging in the Pasta Pomodoro favorites!

For the next several weeks, you can find this menu along with a fixed course tasting menu throughout our restaurants in Northern and Southern California.  If you’re feeling adventurous, our Pleasant Hill and Camden Park – San Jose locations are offering a different seasonal special menu, with items that we are “testing” for future use. If you want to get in on the “testing” or try a different seasonal dish, please visit those locations to see what the Pasta Pomodoro Culinary Team is working on.  We hope you enjoy the new dishes as much as we do and look forward to your feedback!

 

Our new dessert menu is here…

After many sweet spoonfuls and countless plate scrapings with our Culinary team and Confectioners (it was exhausting but somebody had to do it), we’re pleased to announce our new dessert menu!

Here are some of the highlights of the new menu offerings:

Let’s revisit our archives and honor tradition. Our new Tiramisu with additional delicious chocolate shavings will be a nostalgic experience for some of our long-time, loyal customers.  Nevertheless, we’re sure that all of our guests will welcome this homage to our humble beginnings. The mascarpone zabaione, now includes marsala wine, which harkens back to the traditional tiramisu recipes of Italy.

We’re also excited to offer a seasonal dessert that can be found on our Seasonal Specials Menu.  Ask your server for more information!

Finally, pull-up a chair and roll-up your sleeves to savor our new and improved whole-milk Ricotta Cheesecake, with amaretti cookie crust and pinoli (“pine nuts”). As a complement, we now include a topping of our scrumptious marinated berries that are also found on our creamy Panna Cotta.

Don’t fret, our tried and true favorites like the Panna Cotta and Dolce Cioccolato are always available along with our artisan sorbetto and gelatos, and non-committal Mini Tiramisu and Affogato.

Yum, yum!

 
 
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