Giulia Pasta Table Tasting Menu

This is the 12th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

The Pasta Table at Giulia serves many functions.

By day, this long white oak (reclaimed wood!) table serves as a work bench for chef Michael Pagliarini and his staff, who spend countless hours making all the pastas in-house. Sheets are manually rolled out to make ravioli. A heavy duty pasta extruder made in Italy pumps out perfect strands of bucatini. Mini orecciette (ear-shaped pasta) are hand shaped individually.

Once evening rolls around, the pasta table transforms into a unique space where parties of 8-12 people can enjoy a special tasting menu from Chef Pagliarini. There's only one table, so book early, because this one's quite popular.

We reserved the table for dinner on Marathon Monday. It was a special occasion because Bryan's sister and her friend were flying out to Boston just to run in this famous race for which they had worked so hard to qualify. Bryan's parents were also flying out to Boston (all the way from California!) just to see their daughter run. His sister told us she wanted to celebrate afterwards with a really nice pasta dinner.

We immediately knew that Giulia would be the perfect option.

On the day of the race, we were lucky to find a prime spot on Boylston Street just minutes before Bryan's sister and her friend ran on by. Despite the fact that we yelled like crazy (heh, everyone is yelling), they did not hear us and ran right by! Later they said it was because the finish line was so close and they were determined to stay strong until the end.

They definitely looked very strong!

At least Bryan was able to snap a couple great photos with his nifty 70-200 zoom lens {affiliate link!}.

It was a cold and rainy day - definitely tough for the runners who had to wear rain ponchos for most of the run! Bryan's sister made excellent time without training much - she ran it in 3 hours and 43 minutes! I can only hope to run half that fast!

That night for dinner, our party of nine settled down at the Pasta Table at Giulia's for a well-deserved (at least for the gals who ran 26.2 miles!) multi-course dinner at Giulia.

The meal started out several different appetizers, served family style at the center of the table. We began with Crostini del Giorno (the "crostini of the day"), which consisted of tiny toasts topped with yellow fin tuna, herbs, and a thinly sliced kumquat.

Next, we enjoyed mini-skewers of Duck Heart Spiedini with pickled pearl onion, apple and rhubarb agrodolce. "Agro" means sour and "dolce" means sweet. Agrodolce is a sweet and sour sauce typically made from vinegar and sugar reduced down into a concentrated sauce. The overall tartness from the components balanced out the meaty duck heart nicely.

These Warm Semolina Cakes are a signature item and one of my favorites. Made with browned butter and topped with house cured lardo and nutmeg, these decadent cakes are luxuriously soft and rich with flavor.

The Crudi Misti, a relatively new offering, consisted of raw market seafood tossed with Sicilian olive oil, lemon, cucumber and ginger. That day, the five different seafood we tried were Tasmanian sea trout, yellowfin tuna, Casco Bay scallops, yellowtail (hamachi), and sea urchin (uni).

Our last appetizer was a single Oyster on the Half Shell topped with a mignonette of finely chopped cucumber, shallots, kumquat,  and cracked black pepper.

After enjoying four appetizers, we moved onto a few pasta courses. These were all individual servings (not family style). Our first course was the Lobster and Parsnip Tortelli, which was absolutely phenomenal. Each mini circular tortelli was filled with a lobster and parsnip cream filling. The tortellini were then tossed in a flavorful sauce of that screamed spring, full of morel mushrooms and asparagus tossed with lemon and mint.

It was so successful that the team decided to put it on the menu. The last time I checked (just a week or two ago), it was still on the menu, so head on over soon if you want to try this delicious pasta.

Our next pasta course was a Porcini Tagliatelle tossed with spinach and Parmigiano. The texture of the homemade pasta was fantastic and the sauce was very good.

Our final pasta dish was a whole grain Casarecce (twisted tubular pasta) made with local grains that were freshly ground just a few days before. This chewy pasta was served with prosciutto cotta, spring peas, pea greens, and grana style cheeses.

Our next course was a classic Italian fish, Grilled Branzino served with tiny clams with oyster crema, peas, romaine and quinoa. The fish was perfectly grilled with a lovely crispy skin. I loved the fresh spring ingredients.

Our final main course was a Roasted Grass-fed Berkshire Pork Loin, served family-style on a huge plate. Each piece of pork sat on top of a polenta cake and came topped with pepperonata (a salsa made with red and yellow bell peppers).

The pork was another one of the stars of the night. The meat was incredibly tender and juicy, cooked a perfect medium rare. The grass-fed Berkshire pork was inherently flavorful, and the dish worked really well with the soft polenta cakes and the pepperonata.

People were really, really full at this point (just look at how many courses we've had already), so we were thankful that dessert was served family-style. We sampled several, which was really fun.

Madagascar Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with poached quince and vin cotto.

Almond Torta with warm apple compote, fresh cut apples, almond praline, and fresh whipped cream.

Chocolate Terrine with pistachio and hazelnut gelato.

General Thoughts
The Pasta Table at Giulia is really, really special. It's cozy to be tucked away in the back of the restaurant. You are seated right next to the kitchen, where it's fun to sometimes see what they're making. It was also relaxing to just sit back, catch up with family and friends, and enjoy really good food and wine.

The service was excellent and the wine pairings were generous and really, really well done. In fact, my wine-enthusiast friend expressed genuine surprise at how sophisticated and elegant the wine pairings were. I hadn't ordered the wine pairing, but after tasting one of the latter glasses (heh, stealing a bit from Bryan), I fell in love with that wine and ordered a whole glass for myself.

Most importantly, the food was really, really good. The tasting consists of some menu items and some off-menu special items that are reserved for the tasting. It changes constantly, so you never get the same meal twice.

I think the Pasta Table is an excellent venue for celebratory dinners, reunions, and just fun times with a larger group of friends. I am thrilled we were able to book the table for such a momentous event, and it was so special to enjoy such a memorable dinner with Bryan's entire family as well as some new friends that we made.

Cheers!