Food Club & Special Offers
For more information about the i Ricchi Food Club please click here.
- Food Club: September 14-19
The Wheat Harvest: Hard work, good food and allegria!
Another fun week of stories from living in the countryside in Tuscany — this time around the yearly wheat threshing festivals. You worked hard together, but then were always rewarded with an amazing meal — on tables set up in the middle of the fields.
This week’s menu is the one that the Chef ate all those years ago in the fields after a long day’s work with her neighboring farmers. - Food Club: September 7-12
On the Hunt: Mushroom Madness
Foraging for mushrooms is an essential part of autumn in Tuscany. This time of year it’s all about mushrooms, hunting them, eating them and talking about them. The exhilaration of the hunt – the thrill of discovering and picking wild mushrooms in an Italian forest is something I will never forget. This week’s menu highlights homemade pasta with assorted mushrooms and other Tuscan seasonal ingredients.
- Food Club: August 31 – September 5
Leave the gun, take the cannoli!
Many Italian-Americans grow up thinking the specialties prepared by their grandmothers are authentically Italian. Though certainly rooted in recipes from the “old country,” many were changed as immigrants adapted to their new home in America and to the ingredients they could find.
“It is the memories and experiences the Italian immigrants brought with them, coupled with the products they found, that developed into today’s Italian-American cuisine,” says renowned Italian chef and author, Lidia Bastianich.
Much of mainstream America was introduced to this immigrant culture through movies like “The Godfather.” This week’s menu highlights some of the most beloved dishes made famous by the movie.
- Food Club: August 24-29
Le Marche: The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Food and entertainment are great diversions. On occasion, it is good to get lost in an old movie especially when it tells the story of man’s past struggles and creative solutions to catastrophic situations.
The Secret Life of Santa Vittoria, a delightful classic Italian-American film, is based on a true story of resolve, courage, community spirit, and…one million bottles of wine! It is set in Italy’s beautiful Le Marche region, the backdrop for this week’s authentic late August dinner.
- Food Club: August 17-22
Spas & Thermal Springs: 3,000 Years of R+R
Imagine…a glass in hand, a string quartet playing as you stroll through beautifully manicured gardens. A glass of water full of promises to enhance your wellbeing. The healing waters that gush from the Italian earth are drunk, soaked in and endlessly talked about. With a history of R+R that stretches back thousands of years, the Italians know a thing or two about unwinding in style.Many American spas today tout rigorous weight loss agendas, classes on meditation and strenuous sports activities. Spas in Italy have been popular since the time of the Etruscans and Romans when they would “take the waters” in natural hot springs. They have always been a combination of exquisite spa pampering, luxurious long soaks in thermal waters to cure what ails you, and superb organic seasonal cuisine.
Our offering this week takes inspiration form these spa menus of seasonal fruit, produce and seafood, demonstrating that food can be both flavorful and healthy.
- DC Restaurant Week
August 10-15, 2021
It’s Time to Come to the Table!
Eating together helps build understanding and strengthens the bond between us.
It can foster an exchange of ideas, break down prejudices and connect us on a most
basic human level. This is something Italians have recognized for centuries.
At the table sharing, reaching, pouring wine and eating food thoughtfully
prepared, links us to who we are and develops empathy for others.
Oh, how we’ve missed breaking bread together!Menu
CALAMARI
Fried fresh baby squid with pomarola dipping sauce
ANTIPASTO SALAD
Italian greens, aged pecorino, fennel salame, artichoke hearts, olives,
cherry tomatoes, crispy faro & red wine vinaigrette
PICI AL’AGLIONE
House-made thick spaghetti, garlic tomato sauce with whipped ricotta garnish
RISOTTO AI FUNGHI
Imported Vialone Nano rice with assorted wild mushrooms
ZUPPA DI POMODORI ARROSTITI
Oven roasted tomato soup garnished with basil mascarpone & parmesan crisp***
Mafaldine Scampi
Homemade pasta ribbons with shrimp, crustacean stock, and toasted breadcrumbs
SALSICCIE
Braised sweet & hot Tuscan fennel sausages with roasted grapes & creamy polenta
POLLO FRITTO
Tuscan deep fried chicken with crispy fried potatoes
MERLUZZO AL GREMOLATA DI ZUCCHINI E PINOLI
Pan seared cod topped with zucchini, pine nut gremolata served over cannellini beans
EGGPLANT PARMESAN
Baked summer eggplant layered with fresh mozzarella, tomato & parmesan***
CANNOLI
Hand dipped chocolate pistachio rimmed cannoli filled with ricotta cream
PANNA COTTA
Molded fresh cream with honey, toasted almonds & summer berries
TIRAMISU
Espresso infused ladyfingers, whipped mascarpone cream & chocolate
BOMBOLONI
Tuscan mini cream filled donuts with peach coulis
Sorbetto di limone e panna montata
Lemon sorbet with whipped cream and lemon crisps
$55
Dine outside on our flowering Piazza or inside with our fully vaccinated & masked staff.
Curb-side pickup also available. - PALIO DI SIENA
POWER, PASSION, PRIDE, BRIBERY – The craziest horse race in the world!
ANNUAL COMMUNAL DINNER PARTY
Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 6:00 PM
Siena, Italy is the scene of an ancient ritual – one of the most exciting horse races in the world. 10 jockeys riding bareback, 3 laps and 70 seconds to win one of Italy’s most intense rivalries. For days, the entire city takes to the streets to eat and drink at parties that last all night. This year we are moving our communal tables INSIDE, out of the heat, as we recapture the Italian sense of camaraderie, merriment and good food.
Menu
Summer Spritz cocktails & assorted crostini
“Priest Stranglers” artisanal pasta, wild boar sauce
Pork loin, lamb, chicken, fennel sausage spiedino
Fried zucchini blossoms & summer vegetables
Chicory, arugula, mint, lemon salad
Homemade peach almond tart$89 (tax & tip not included)
RESERVATIONS: Call: 202 835 0459
- Food Club: August 3-8
Ferragosto: August Staycation with Mamma
For the two weeks before and after the holiday of Ferragosto on August 15th, it seems as if all of Italy goes on vacation crowding the beaches and mountain resorts and leaving the cities virtually deserted. As with all other Italian holidays, food is the main attraction whether prepared for a festive picnic or stay-at-home summer lunch.
“Il Pranzo di Ferragosto”/”A Mid-August Lunch” is a delightful cult film that is a glimpse into the life of a middle aged bachelor living with his octogenarian mother over the long holiday weekend in Rome. Food, appetite, and the need for community are prominent themes along with an intimate peak into the complicated dynamics that exist between Italian men and their mothers.
This week’s menu highlights some of the food served in the movie as well as other dishes that could be found at a mid-August lunch whether for a vacation picnic or at home for a staycation lunch with Mamma.
- Food Club: July 27 – August 1
Sardinia: Where People Live Forever
The most interesting fact about the island of Sardinia is that it boasts the largest number of centenarians per capita than any other place on Earth. Their consumption of clean, simple “peasant food,” together with red wine rich in antioxidants and polyphenols just may be the reason for their longevity.
Our Sardinian menu highlights the mainstays of their Mediterranean diet – legumes, vegetables, olive oil, pasta, cheese and seafood. Those together with, Cannonau, a red wine made from grapes indigenous to the island could be the key to living a long and healthy life. - Food Club: July 20-25
Tutti al Mare! Tuscans at the Beach
This year, Italians finally are planning to return to their beloved beaches with the hope that tourists will follow. Though many of us are still not comfortable making the trip to Italy, at least we can reflect on vacations past while imbibing in its local flavors, enhanced by its colorful customs. Italians absolutely love beach life and are most likely the sexiest and most fashionable beachgoers in the world.
La Versilia is a very unique stretch of Tuscan Mediterranean coast backed by the Apuan Alps. It is best known for its golden beaches, nightlife, art communities, and surf-n-turf – Mare e Monti – cuisine. But to fully enjoy the Italian beach culture you need to know its unspoken rules. After all, you do not want to look like a tourist on an Italian beach!
- Food Club: July 13-18
Capri: Blue Waters and Lemon Trees
Right at the top of my ever growing post-COVID bucket list is the return to the Isle of Capri. It has always been a choice of well heeled international tourists and discriminating Italians. An iconic celebrity destination since the 40s and 50s, it is a glorious balance of idyllic scenery, spectacular coastline, designer shopping and fabulous homegrown flavors.
Its cuisine is dominated by a plethora of fresh seafood and vegetables that are at their height now, during the summer months. This week’s menu highlights some of Capri’s most well-loved dishes paired with the region’s renowned Falanghina white wine.
A Capri dinner would not be complete without a sip of its lemony nectar – limoncello – distilled right here in Washington, DC and some of the best I have ever tasted.
