Sophisticated Southern Italian

Thanks to Restaurant.com we discovered Il Poggio d’Italia which is tucked away inside the Pima Crossing shopping center on Shea just west of the 101. In it’s last incarnation it was Shanghai China, an overly decorated place with boring food . This time the decor suits the cuisine. Owner/chef Tom Giresi serves up sophisticated southern Italian dishes at surprisingly reasonable prices (it’s a steal if you have a Restaurant.com coupon).

This is a place with tablecloths and an excellent wine list. There’s lots of wood and stone, which is attractive but noisy. And a well-dressed Scottsdale crowd - shame on us, we were in our T-shirts and jeans. For a Thursday night, the restaurant was hopping. We were immediately served a pleasingly plated dish with sliced baguette, butter, and some caponata. The eggplant spread was less assertively tomatoey than usual and had pine nuts and raisins - delicious. We perused the menu and were surprised to find dishes like tripe and pig skin bracciole. So many things caught our attention that we decided to graze. Happily, our friend Pat was along, so we were able to order a larger than usual selection.

Pat chose the stuffed mushrooms, 5 for $4 or 10 for $8. The sausage/breadcrumb/cheese stuffing was tasty, and the mushrooms properly cooked. We couldn’t resist trying the pig skin bracciole ($6). It’s stuffing was, again, excellent, and the pig skin was succulent - maybe too succulent. I enjoyed my first piece, but couldn’t bring myself to have another, it was that rich. The marinara sauce spooned on top was light and flavorful, and also went well atop our order of polenta ($6). The polenta had been cooked and allowed to cool so that it could be cut into bars and sauteed, yielding a nice crust. Our “individual” order of broccoli rabe ($4 - as opposed to the family size for $12) was enough for the three of us to share. It was toothsome, with a nice lemon/garlic flavor. I’m pleased to say that none of our dishes were over-salted. Perhaps the thing that pleased Ken and me the most was that anchovies were available, at no extra charge, for our Caesar salad, and they gave us lots! The dressing was a little on the light side for my taste, but pleasant.

I regret that I can’t tell you about the entrees, but they sounded good, and there seems to be enough variety to please everybody. There were 3 soups, and 9 pastas which ranged in price from $14 to $21). Steaks and lamb ($20 - $25), lots of chicken dishes, a veal parmigiana ($18), shrimp scampi ($20) and salmon ($17) are waiting for your approval. The only offerings that struck me as mundane were the desserts: cheesecake,  

ice cream, tartuffo and the ubiquitous cannoli and tiramisu.

Guess how much we paid, including tip, using our coupon - $26 !!!!

il Poggio D’ Italia

8752 E. Shea Blvd.  Scottsdale     480-948-7100

Open for lunch and dinner (call for hours)

no website that I could find