What I love most about food, wine and drinks in general is their ability to make you happy. I love sharing the table with people I don't know, making friends, exchanging ideas, glances, emotions. A successful dinner is the prelude to any great story. When Elio Richini, maitre de Cielo Osteria in Franciacortainvited me to this evening in collaboration with Trismoka I only knew that it was a coffee dinner, nothing else. I never thought I would discover one of Franciacorta restaurants most interesting ever! As you can guess from this little introduction, I ate very well and can't wait to come back, also to share a glass of wine with the holder, Alessandro Monizzaa man not only with an extraordinary wine and food culture, but also of exquisite pleasantness. So, if you are looking for where to eat in Franciacorta after a day spent between theOutlet Franciacorta and the Franciacorta wineI'd say you found the perfect place. Besides, what could be nicer than dining while watching the sunset over the Lake Iseo?
Franciacorta restaurants: Trismoka coffee at Osteria Cielo
Creating a coffee-based dinner from entrée to dessert is not at all easy, both because coffee tends, with its roastiness, to prevail over the other flavours, and because there is a risk of a flattening of taste, with courses that tend to be 'monochromatic'. Instead, it was a truly perfect dinner and also with combinations that exceeded all expectations.
TrisMoka, the evening's partner, is a coffee roasting company in Brescia that focuses on training, and they are already off to a good start with me. I believe in food and wine culture as the key to agro-industrial progress that is sustainable for the planet and good for us who inhabit it. That's why I was happy to listen to the explanations and I can say that I also learnt a lot. So already for this thank you for the invitation!
The surprise entrée was a fillet of beef cooked at a low temperature with a hand-whipped mayonnaise prepared with burnt coffee pounded in a mortar, over which I poured a Kilimanjaro single-origin coffee extracted with the siphon. The idea was very good as this method of extraction gives a very delicate coffee, with light fruity notes that fade into a warm hint of cocoa. The mayonnaise was definitely the dominant flavour of the dish, but it was so pleasant that I would have eaten a whole jar of it without realising... and it is already on the podium of Franciacorta restaurants for me!
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As an appetiser, an only apparently simple dish: a fine veal cooked in glucose and coffee Panama Trismoka with bread sponge and coffee Gourmet Trismoka. I say only apparently simple because balancing a veal with coffee requires great skill as veal has very delicate pink meat. The idea was certainly made possible by the use of glucose, which, in addition to balancing the coffee, made a reaction with the meat protein and softened it even more. The hints of chocolate and caramel and the texture of the meat matched the wine perfectly. The coffee bread sponges were addictive.
Franciacorta restaurants: Osteria Cielo finally has a proper wine selection!
The real surprise, however, was the wine: I - except in a few, very rare and very select cases - am not a Lugana lover. Accomplice to an evolution in taste that has affected the new generations of the wine world, lately there is a tendency to produce a flattened Lugana with scents more reminiscent of those of transalpine Riesling than of traditional Lugana. With such an extraordinary grape variety suited to long ageing in the bottle, I instead prefer that characteristic plumpness and intense aromas - developed thanks to the passage in wood - that I have found precisely in this Lugana DOC "Gardè" 2019 of the Zamichele di Pozzolengo (BS) farm).
My tasting. It is a brilliant and consistent straw yellow. The nose is very intense, elegant and pleasant with notes of white chocolate, vanilla and apricot yoghurt. On the palate it is consistent, smooth, very savoury, structured and fat with a slightly warming brown sugar finish. Very long on the finish and very good indeed.
The first course was superb: 33 yolk wholemeal flour maltagliati with Trismoka tasting coffee with liver pâté and fried artichoke flower, a wonderful Slow Food Presidium that I did not know and was happy to have discovered. The Trismoka tasting coffee is a delicate 80% Arabica and 20% Robusta blend with a hint of chocolate.
Franciacorta restaurants... at Osteria Cielo you will find precious Slow Food Presidia!
As for wine, I would live on Nebbiolo, which is by far my favourite grape variety (on this subject I recommend reading this article dedicated to Nebbiolo from Alto Piemonte, less famous than that of the Langhe, but with crazy appellations such as Coste della Sesia DOC). The pairing with the Nebbiolo Langhe DOC 2019 "Perbacco" from the Vietti winery From a didactic point of view, it is not perfect because the abundance of polyphenols in this variety intensifies both the bitter tendency of the livers and that of the artichoke. However, this is only didactic, as I also wrote in my book, the right combination is the one you like and I like bitter so I enjoyed it.
My tasting. It is an intense semi-transparent ruby red, consistent. The nose is very intense with intriguing notes of chocolate, ink and coffee. The palate has plenty of structure, acidity and beautiful tannin. Long finish and great ageing potential.
The second course was an orgasm of the senses, a valorisation of the secondary cuts of beef: the fifth quarter, i.e. the liver and tongue, were cooked at low temperature with a macerate of honey and beer with Kilimangiaro Trismoka coffee. Vegetables, especially cabbage, were an excellent accompaniment. Here the combination was absolute perfection: beer with beer, and a really good beer that is brewed by theBerta and Camillucci agribirrificio. After publishing the post on Instagram, I discovered that it is distributed by Pellegrini SpAnamely my dear Emanuele and Pietro Pellegrini (who recently had a birthday, so I also wish him a happy birthday here on my wine blog! Here you can read about a 'Montisolan jaunt' that Emanuele and I took for Champagne Day...). Since I liked this O.I. beer so much, I won't write about my tasting because I'm planning a combination brewery + Cammillucci Franciacorta winery... who knows if Alessandro will accompany me!
Franciacorta restaurants: there are also local craft beers at Osteria Cielo!
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The dessert looks like a cheesecake, in reality it is a tiramisu in a modern key (which however is very reminiscent of cheesecake, very good!). We concluded with a coffee extracted with a paper filter and served in a cognac glass. Very delicate, also to be tried fresh in summer as an alternative at the end of the meal. Trismoka made me want to take one of their courses to learn all the secrets of alternative coffee extractions!
A wonderful experience, thank you all so much for letting me touch Heaven with my taste buds.
Cheers 🍷
Chiara
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