Marinara Sauce

The classic Italian tomato sauce, Marinara, is one of most popular and one of the most abused sauces. Canned versions with sub-standard tomatoes and thick, cloying tomato paste have drenched over-cooked pasta on America’s tables for generations (my childhood kitchen table was no exception). However, in the right hands, Marinara is a thing of beauty, a rich simple sauce that showcases the quality of the tomato and a few other ingredients.

Stories claim that Neopolitan sailors (marinaio in Italian) were introduced to the tomato by Spanish sailors who brought the fruit back from the Americas (probably Mexico). Their wives may have created sauces from the tomatoes with the addition of garlic, onions, basil or oregano. Order a Marinara pizza in Naples and it will be topped with a tomato sauce, oregano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. That’s right - no cheese. Sailors going to sea from Naples carried flatbread folded with this sauce inside.

M’tucci’s Roasted Marinara uses the best tomatoes and slow roasts the ingredients for a deeper, complex flavor.

Whether you dine on one of our patios, order take out or buy this week’s M’tucci’s @ Home Prep Kitchen Kit, you can have M’tucci’s Roasted Marinara with Spaghettini and Chianina Meatballs. The Prep Kit comes with the recipe for completing your dinner for four, and includes the Mista Salad, Garlic Bread and Mocha cookies. You can order it from any location for pick up or delivery. Feed a family of 4 for $43.

As always, Chef Cory takes you through the steps of making meatballs and finishing your meal on M’tucci’s YouTube Channel. There are nearly 30 videos on our channel from tips for cooking to making Shrub cocktails. You can access the channel by clicking here.

M’tucci’s is the only place in New Mexico to offer Chianina beef. Beef from this historic Italian breed has tons of flavor and is considered healthy due to the lower fat content. We make our meatballs from the Chianina raised on a ranch in Southern New Mexico. You can read more about Chianina in a past La Gazzeta post by clicking here.

Open Patios with Monday - Friday Happy Hours

The city has allowed for fast track permitting to expand patios. We have additional covered seating M’tucci’s Italian and we are awaiting city approval for the same at M’tucci’s Twenty-Five. We are not accepting reservations at the moment, so tables are available for walk in guests. Happy Hours are popular with reduced prices, special dishes only available at Happy Hour (formerly known as Patio Hour). Hope to see you soon!

Dining with a View at M'tucci's Moderno

Cajun Spiced Fried Cheese Ravioli only at M'tucci's Twenty-Five

Expanded seating at M'tucci's Italian

Weekend Specials

M’tucci’s Italian

24 oz Hand Cut Bone-In Porterhouse - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Balsamic Reduction  $37

Pan-Seared Sand Dabs Lightly Breaded - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Cream Sauce $21

Sunday Only: Full Rack of Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, Sautéed Spinach and House BBQ Sauce for $27

M’tucci’s Moderno

6oz  Hand Cut Beef Tenderloin - Crispy Saltwater Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus and our Traditional Italian Salsa Verde Sauce $29

Pan-Seared Halibut - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Marinated Artichoke Hearts, Sautéed Arugula with Lemon Butter Caper Sauce and Prosciutto Powder $24

Grilled Northern Italian Style Spare Ribs - Garlic-Herb Sauce, Cabbage-Apple Slaw, Roasted Corn & Jalapeño. $17

Sunday Only: House Made Lasagna with Herbed Ricotta, Five Pork Bolognese and Roasted Tomato Marinara. Single portion for $16 (it’s large) and a double portion with a salad for $30.

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Pan-Seared Ruby Trout, Grilled Escarole, Garlic Whipped Potatoes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce and Prosciutto Powder $24

M’tucci’s @ Home

Don’t forget to look for our Artisan Bread and Ravioli Meals at your local Albertsons Market. Also, we also have our Artisan Bread, Shrubs, cheese and cured meats in the deli counters at all M’tucci’s locations.

Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!

Bolognese

Italians love to argue about which region’s food is the best, especially when the same dish crosses regional borders, eggplant parmesan, spaghetti carbonara or linguine with clams. 

Within the region of Emilia-Romagna, few signature dishes cause more arguments than the local ragù: Bolognese Sauce (which really isn’t a sauce). What kind of meat - beef or pork or both? Ground meat or chopped meat? What kind of wine - red or white or vermouth? Add milk or leave it out? Fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes or tomato paste? Olive oil or lard or butter?

A few of the universally agreed upon ingredients and techniques are: no garlic, the meat shouldn’t be too lean, and the sauce should be cooked slowly over low heat. Every recipe or article I could find (and our style at M’tucci’s) says to begin with what Italians call a soffritto, a base of chopped celery, carrot and onion which is slowly sautéd.

Ingredients for Soffritto and the beginning of Five Pork Bolognese

In the wonderful book about Italian food, “Pasta, Pane, Vino: Deep Travels Through Italy’s Food Culture” by Matt Goulding, he visits a village in Emilia-Romagna to ask the grandmothers how they make ragù and the responses are as varied as possible. The ratio of beef to pork is argued about, but they all agree upon “piano piano” (slowly). As he was leaving, one of the outspoken nonne pulls him aside and says, “Forget about these arguments. Forget about the small details. Just remember that the most important ingredient for making ragù . . . is love.” One of the women overhears and quickly adds, “and pancetta!”

A ragù is essentially a slow-simmered meat sauce and can found throughout Italy made from wild boar (which we serve at M’tucci’s Italian), duck or even fish. However, the famous ragù (from the French word ragoût meaning stew) of Bologna, is a classic meat sauce that should be nearly devoid of liquid when served. Traditionally, it is served with fresh tagliatelle, but we use our house made fresh pappardelle, which is a flat pasta a bit wider than tagliatelle.

This dish has evolved over the years since WWII, when times were hard in post-war Italy and cucina povera (cooking of the poor) was a necessity. The current-day ragù of Emilia-Romanga reflects the wealth of the region, using the best and freshest ingredients. The area is one of the more affluent in Italy, so the ingredients today are quite good. 

Bolognese is made in-house a couple of times a week, with Dayan here doing the knife work.

If you happen to pass through Modena, see if you can get a reservation at Osteria Francescana, the 3-starred Michelin restaurant of the ubiquitous TV chef Massimo Bottura. At times it has been ranked as the best restaurant in the world. The tagliatelle al ragù takes almost 72 hours to make, is piled six inches high on your plate and will set you back more than $50. His take on ragù bolognese? NO tomato and no ground meat, rather slowly braising large pieces of meat that are then shredded when tender. Reportedly, it’s sublime.

However, so is the Five Pork Bolognese at M’tucci’s Moderno and at M’tucci’s Italian and the Wild Boar Ragù at Italian. We employ the same techniques as generations of Italian grandmothers, but our Bolognese does not have beef and the five different cuts of Duroc pork will have to remain our secret. 

Try a plate soon and see if you can name all five cuts. 

Wild Boar Ragù with Rigatoni

Five Pork Bolognese with Pappardelle

Wild Boar Ragù with tagliatelle in Tuscany

---

NEWS FROM M’TUCCI’S

NOTICE: All locations will be closed on Thanksgiving. Enjoy the holiday with your friends and family.

M’tucci’s @ Lava Rock Brewing Co.

Here is an excerpt from the interview done by Franz Solo at New Mexico Dark Side Brew Crew. If you love NM craft beer and you don’t follow these guys, you are totally missing out. We’re lucky to have such a resource for beer news in NM and we are honored that they included us on their blog. Read the full post by clicking here.

Let’s join the interview midstream where head brewer Ram Khalsa and Chef/Manager Fred Gallegos are bringing Franz Solo up to speed:

Ram: Yeah, and once we kind of leveled out then Fred took over. We did one beer (and food) pairing and we are planning on doing quite a bit more because it went really well. 

Solo: I mean, it makes sense when you have great food and great beer. 

Fred: Exactly, and every time I do a menu I always pair it with our beer so that everything works well together. 

Solo: Complementing each other. 

Fred: Yeah, complementing, it’s the whole basis of my menu here at M’tuccis at Lava Rock. 

Solo: So making the malts and the hops stand out with the pizza or whatever they are going with?

Fred: Yeah, with the pizza, or the eggplant parmesan, or wings.

Solo: Hey, beer goes great with wings.

Ram: We had to bring the wings back. They’re delicious, too. What, you brine them for 24 hours and then … ?

Fred: And, slow roast them for four hours. 

Solo: Outstanding. 

Solo: So any interesting things on the horizon for this coming year?

Fred: So we just got our distribution license. We are going to be moving forward with that. We are going to be having a Birra a M’tucci’s.

Ram: Yeah, an Italian lager that will be served at all of the M’tucci’s locations.

Solo: Outstanding. (As a lover of lagers these days, getting to try a proper Italian style locally whets my palate, as the only examples we can typically find here are oxidized and less than fresh imports from overseas. Suffice to say, I’m really exited about this birra.)

“After our interview I stayed to try several of Ram’s beers, ranging in style from lager to IPA, Berliner Weisse, red ale, and brett sour, and found them all quite tasty and quaffable. In particular, his lagers really hit the spot for me, and rest assured I’ll be enjoying, oh, just a few pints with some delicious food at my neighborhood brewery.

It’s quite a rarity these days to have such great food married to some really lovely beers, and that alone to me makes M’tuccis at Lava Rock rather unique. If you haven’t been in a while, I highly recommend heading back over, and if you’ve never been, it is definitely worth checking out,” wrote Franz Solo.

Photos by Franz Solo - NM Dark Side Brew Crew

---

Gift Certificates available for Holiday Gifts. A $20 Gift Certificate can buy a 64 oz. Growler and an Happy Hour Pint!

Home Delivery now available through Door Dash

HAPPY HOUR & NFL Football!

$7 Happy Hour Menu features The Burger, a 10” Margherita or Pepperoni Green Chile Pizza, Charcuterie Boards and Wings for $7, Monday - Friday 3:00 - 6:30. Pair the food with a beer for $10.50 or $11, depending on the beer. Not eating (why not?), then $1 off all pints. The NFL is up and running and you can catch your favorite team on one of our large five screens.

HAPPY HOUR EVERY MONDAY UNTIL THE END OF THE FIRST HALF OF MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!

$5 basket of Wings all day on Sunday

RETURNING BEER - 32 Bravo DIPA (8% ABV and 100 IBU) will be available this weekend. Fall Fest, a German Fest Lager is on tap now (5.8% ABV and 20 IBU).

We’re getting serious about Live Music at Lava Rock, we’ll have live music every Thursday from 6:00 - 8:00 and Fridays from 8:00 - 10:00.

November Live Music:

11/15: Cali Shaw

11/21: Oscar Butler

11/22: Rebecca Arscott

11/29: Dos Pendejos

M’tucci’s Moderno

Weekend Specials

Pasta Special: Shrimp & Lobster Spaghettini Diced Tomatoes, Asparagus, Green Onion, Basil tossed in a Lobster Cream Sauce and Lobster Butter

Suggested Pairing - Mimi St. Michelle, Chardonnay, Washington. Balanced tones of white fruits, butter and slight oak notes. Soft acidic and dry finish.

Pan Seared fish of the day: Diver Sea Scallops Jumbo, Fresh Scallops, seared to perfection buttery soft texture and clean sea flavor. Served with Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Organic Arugula, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce and Smoked Prosciutto Powder

Suggested Pairing - Whitehaven, Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand. Full flavored, medium bodied, juicy peach, tropical fruit, tart, crisp acidic with long clean finish

Cut of the Day: Hand-Cut Bone-In NY Strip
Grilled to order to perfection and served with our House Made Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus and our Traditional Italian Salsa Verde

Suggested Pairing - Zin-Phomaniacs, Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, California. Aromas of dark cherry, blackberry and spice, full bodied flavor with a kiss of vanilla and a long finish

Live Music

Tonight: Melissa Rios @ 8:00

11/21: Stanlie Kee @ 6:00

11/22: Cali Shaw @ 8:00

M’tucci’s Italian

Weekend Specials

Cut of the Day - 24oz Hand-Cut Bone-in NY Strip, Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus and a Balsamic Reduction

Ravioli - Red Chile, Goat Cheese Ravioli, Sautéed Shallots, Roasted Chicken, Red Bell Pepper, Basil Cream Sauce

Pan Seared Seafood - Mediterranean Branzino, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Grilled Artichoke, Capers, Lemon Beurre Blanc

Braise - Grilled Duroc Bone-In Pork Chop, Creamy Polenta, Braised Greens, Green Chile Cream Sauce

  November Prix Fixe Menus

11/20/19

1st Course- Parsnip Bisque, Pecan-Crispy Prosciutto-Fresh Herb Gremolata

2nd Course- Pan Seared Duroc Pork Cutlet, Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Fresh Tomato-Caper Butter Sauce

3rd Course- Pear-Cranberry Crisp, House Made Honey-Thyme Gelato

11/27/19

1st Course- Chef’s Choice Charcuterie Board

2nd Course- “All’Arrabiata Ravioli” House Made Shrimp-Scallop Stuffed Ravioli, Roasted Grape Tomatoes, Fresh Pea Sprouts

3rd Course- Sweet Potato Pie, Red Chile Whipped Cream, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

M’tucci’s Italian Café & Market

M’tucci’s Restaurants is expanding its wholesale fabrication of bread, meats and cheese. The M’tucci’s product lines will soon be found throughout Albuquerque at several locations. The M’tucci’s Shrubs line, which is now available at Jubilation Wine & Spirits, will soon be available at Total Wine & More.

Due to the expansion, M’tucci’s Italian Café and Market will be converted to wholesale operations in 2020. The space will close its retail operations November 30, 2019, but the space is available for private parties up to 25 people throughout the month of December.

“The demand for authentic Italian products has far exceeded our expectations,” explained John Haas, M’tucci’s Restaurants Managing Partner. “It’s very exciting to see an explosion in demand for our custom meats, cheeses, breads and shrubs. Expanding our manufacturing operations allows us to continue to innovate and bring more products to market.”

People interested in booking the M’tucci’s Italian Café & Market should call 505-503-7327 and ask for the Manager on Duty.

Don’t feel like cooking tonight, but you want to stay home? Pick up a M’tucci’s Pasta Kit: 1 lb. of House Made Pasta, choice of Bolognese or Carbonara Sauce, House Made Meat and an Italian Cheese for garnish.

Order your Holiday Pies Now.

Order deadline is Thursday, November 23

Choose from Classic Spiced Apple ($14), Classic Pumpkin ($14), Green Chile Apple with Piñon Nut Streusel ($16) or Pecan with Honey Bourbon Whipped Cream ($16). Deposit required at time of order. You may order from the Market, M’tucci’s Italian or M’tucci’s Moderno.

Pies must be picked up on November 25 or 27 at the M’tucci’s location where you placed your order.

Clockwise from top left: Pecan Pie with Honey Bourbon Whipped Cream, Green Chile Apple with Piñon Nut Streusel, Classic Pumpkin and Classic Spiced Apple.

M’tucci’s Catering

Book your holiday parties now. We offer off-site catering from dinner parties to wedding receptions. Reserve space for your holiday party at M’tucci’s Moderno’s private dining rooms. M’tucci’s Italian Café & Market is available for evening events in December for groups of 10-30.

Contact Ivy for your next event, large or small. We can handle it!

Click here to see our catering menu. 505.350.0019 or [email protected]

M’tucci’s Twenty-Five

Renovations are happening as we turn the former Chama River Brewing into the newest M’tucci’s. The new location will feature a large bar area, a private dining room and a relaxed dining room. We are planning a jog fair in January with an opening date sometime in February.

---

ONGOING NEWS

M’TUCCI’S AROUND TOWN

Our market items can be purchased at a couple of locations in Albuquerque. We deliver our fresh bread every Tuesday and Friday to Silver Street Market at 2nd and Silver. Choose from Sourdough, Fennel Rye, Wheat, Baguette, Ciabatta, and Raisin Rosemary Focaccia.

Drinking at Bosque in Nob Hill? You can order a M’tucci’s Charcuterie Board while there.

M’TUCCI’S TWENTY-FIVE JOB FAIR + ONLINE APPLICATIONS

Watch this space for the announcement of our January Job Fair for our new location. We are looking for highly skilled and motivated servers, kitchen workers, bartenders and managers. You can apply for a position at any of our locations online by clicking here.

SERVICE INDUSTRY NIGHT & DISCOUNTS

Area service industry workers can get a Service Industry card from us by showing proof of employment. With the card you receive 10% off your check every day and 20% off on Sundays from 6:00 - 9:00. Dine in only.

ONLINE ORDERING

Our food is available for delivery with Door Dash or for pick up. Pick up something for the weekend or on your way home from work. The links to ordering are on the Home page.

MTUCCI’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Videos about making cocktails and pasta and getting to know the M’tucci’s culture. Click here

See you next Friday - Ciao!