Little Italy – Summer Sagra:: Salads and Paninis Festival

Little Italy was on my list for a long time and when got on invite for a foodie meet-up, I could not refuse. Little Italy needs no introduction, started as La Pizzera in Pune with traditional pizzas and limited pastas. And now sky is the limit. Their ideology is,“our customers must always get quality service with a smile, in a clean and pleasant environment.”

Quickly after parking went to search the foodie table and yea..here they were. It is always a pleasure to meet like-minded people. Aniruddha was kind enough to introduce us to each one. Few familiar faces and few new to me; it was a nice time to get along with all. With huge expectations and day dreaming about Pizza, Pastas, Nachos, Garlic bread went there in the evening.

To my surprise, we were there to taste Summer Sagra — Salads and Panini Festival. Six Salads (Rs.390 each) are on the menu. One by one they were served on our table and after sometime we got bored of having almost same taste. We wanted to have something for palate cleanser and thus ordered varieties of Paninis.

Following were the Salads served...

Insalata Rughetta (Rucola in sweet balsamic vinaigrette)
Insalata Verdi (Roated Italian veggies with iceberg in herb vinaigrette)
Insalata Modena (Pears poached in beetroot brine, tossed with rucola in Parmesan dressing)
Insalata Peruzzi (Veggies tossed with mozarella and bulgar in vinaigrette)
Insalata Apulia (Baby potatoes tossed in yoghurt dill dressing)
Insalata Vercelli (Tossed Brown Rice in spring onion pesto with eggplant and cherry tomatoes)

My preference was Insalata Verdi for the freshness and crunch and Insalata Modena just for its poached pear. Perruzi was also quite refreshing with fresh mozarella and the flavours of veggies were standing out.

Paninis served to us were...

Capresia
Campania
Arrosto
Roesti

I loved all of them as they all had distinctive fillings and taste. Capresia was crisp and nice panini with buffalo mozarella, tomatoes, basil pesto and garlic sauce for some zing.

Campania was one of the best with unusual filling of fresh apple and cheddar cheese. They were making a great combination.

Arrosto is for eggplant lovers with zucchini, roasted bell peppers, parmesan and basil pesto.

Roesti was also one of my favourite with crispy potato roesti, veggies and island dressing.

Lastly, Blueberry Cheese and Chocolate Bomb made its way and woosh..it was vanished in few minutes! Could not keep our hands off from Chocolate Bomb from which chocolate lava was oozing out. Totally sinful!

Overall, a nice experience to be there and meet new people. Got to learn many things with a great company.