One custom I like in Italy or France is the tradition of the long, drawn out Sunday lunch. Today we chose Il Sicomoro restaurant on the road to Fivizzano. The sugar packet we got with the coffee gives the location as Cormezzano—in the Zona Piscine, meaning the swimming pool zone. Yep, Il Sicomoro is a hotel and restaurant right next to the public swimming pool.
Il Sicomoro has the most entertaining English web site I’ve found. “Its way of cooking, full of tastes, will cheer you with dainty rural dishes and good home wines.” Not such a good selling point with Americans, I don’t suppose, with that smug “dainty” adjective offending our gourmand sensibilities. One’s car doesn’t get left out, either. It can take its rest in the “deprived parking lot.” And the fish? They’re holed up in the “little pond for the sporting fish.” Place your bets.
In any case, Il Sicomoro offers good food. If you think the small menu is sparse, well, it is. But everything offered is well presented—and at a reasonable cost. Lunch for two with two courses, sparkling wine, mineral water and a coffee came to 34 Euros, tax and tip included, of course.
I had the antipasto course instead of a primo. If you can’t decide what to start with in the Lunigiana, go with the antipasto. People start coming out with dishes, and when you think you’ve had them all, more come. Farro salad, beans and onions, a fried bread, all manner of sliced meats, a wedge of fritatta, an eggplant “pizza” and other things I don’t remember.
Martha had the testaroli with cheese and olive oil, a specialty of the region.
We followed with a plate of stuffed rabbit, which included roast potatoes and a scoop of eggplant parmigiano. I had the Cima Ripiene with a nice green sauce.
Then coffee. 34 Euros. Can’t beat that.
The Cima Ripiene at Il Sicomoro Ristorante in the Lunigiana