Brilliant Idea

This looks kinda gnarly but it was brilliant. First, I had the bright idea to order two to-go portions of Rosso's daily special while we were eating our dinner there; that way, I wouldn't have to cook the following day, either.

Because we were there on a Saturday, the special was smoked and braised beef short ribs. I don't know how they do it, but the beef was perfect, falling softly off the bone and lightly smoky, succulent and rich. When I first opened the box, I was a little bummed to see polenta as an accompaniment - I'm not a big polenta fan. It just sort of lays there. However, I thought, if anyone can make good polenta, it's probably Rosso, so I plopped a spoonful on my plate next to the meat, drizzled it all with the goozle in the bottom of the box and zapped it in the microwave, adding my own steamed green beans later.

Wow, that polenta was tasty! Chewy and cheesy, it had been infused with some kind of amazing blue cheese; it was the perfect complement to the short ribs. Rosso does it again! Brilliant.

Rosso! Rosso!

On a recent Saturday, My Beloved and I took pal Sari back up to Santa Rosa to sample Rosso again. Major, major home run!

Agreeing to share bites of everything, we started with a flatbread appetizer smeared with garlic roasted with balsamic vinegar, squeezing the dark, now-soft cloves out onto the crisp-tender flatbread and devouring it like starving wolves.

Sari ordered a pizza with egg in the middle, a drippy, unctuous, cheesy wonder of a pizza on that dreamy Rosso crust that we raved about before. My Beloved chose a sandwich of flatbread wrapped around a super-fresh filling of Dungeness Crab Louis. He didn't use the Louis dressing at all, just folded the bread around the generous crab and bit in. I tasted the Louis, however, just out of curiosity, and it was a whole different animal than the mayo-ketchup mixture that usually passes for Louis.

I have saved the best for last - my "forever-cooked" (their words) pork with mashed potatoes. If I had to choose my final meal before the blindfold, the cigarette and the firing squad, this would be it. I love slow-cooked pork in most iterations but this one rises to the level of divinity with its rich, smoky sauce and pink grapefruit sections. Yes, grapefruit! Not white grapefruit that might have fought with the almost-sweet sauce but pink that just gently cut through the richness of the dish and made it sit up and sing.

Happily full and satisfied, we drove a little further up the road to Healdsburg to stroll around the square, window shopping as we relived our wonderful Rosso lunches. Saturdays don't get much better than that.