When asked to name a favorite sandwich, Cibo Racconto's managing partner, Mike Sheahan, immediately thinks of the porchetta—a ciabatta roll containing thin slices of pork tenderloin slow roasted in a garlic-white-wine sauce. Perhaps it’s the oven-roasted tomatoes or the provolone cheese, which are both imported from Naples, Italy, like most of the ingredients that make up Cibo Racconto’s menu. Pasta dishes teem with fresh noodles and san marzano tomatoes, including the lumache arrosto, in which a tomato cream sauce douses sliced sausage and roasted peppers.
Two of the restaurant’s partners crafted the panizza themselves while brainstorming new ways to use their existing ingredients. They hand-stretched pizza dough, lining it with imported ricotta before rolling the sides over and baking it to a crisp golden brown. Panizzas and pastas alike are served on granite-topped tables surrounded by sand-colored walls under a gilded tin ceiling, which often leans down to steal bites of unattended paninis.
