Dinner at Ciao Bello - Wining and Dining in Houston

My husband and I had dinner last weekend at Ciao Bello. Jeremy Parzen turned us on to this restaurant back in 2012 and it quickly became a favorite of ours. We had started to get into a rut over the past year always ordering the same things. We did this last month during restaurant week when our favorites like the pastiera di mare, a creamy marscapone souffle with shrimp and crabmeat made the lineup.

On this evening, we did things a bit different than usual. Instead of bubbles and the crisp green tomatoes with crabmeat and/or the above mentioned souffle, we ordered a bottle of the 2012 La Magia Rosso di Montalcino and decided to start with the polpette, a baseball-sized meatball that arrived to the table looking better than as pictured, my husband was swiping bread through it as it hit the table before I could retrieve my camera. He was genuinely that excited to see it arrive.

For our next course, we split the primavera salad. This baby arugula salad has roasted grapes, Tomino cheese and Texas pecans. This was the first time I've ordered this and I liked it, it is a nice combination of peppery, creamy and sweet flavors with a little light crunchy texture. The grilled Texas peach salad is my usual choice if I am having it alone (pictured at right) and if we are splitting we always get the burrata caprese salad but it was good to know I've got even more options there.

For my main course, I had the tagliarini al pomodoro since we had started with the meatball appetizer. This is a fresh, light pasta dish with San Marzano tomatoes, basil and olive oil. My husband got a different pasta dish, the tortellini modenese. The perfect size meal to allow room for dessert, usually the carrot cake or lemon pie, which is never missed at our dinners here.

We enjoyed everything that we had and the wine was perfect with all of it as well. Every experience that we have had at Ciao Bello has been exceptional and our pasta night was no exception, if you haven't been yet, it is not to be missed.

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