DINING AROUND With Liz Jeressi July 03, 2006

Anna’s Italian Kitchen, on Route 35 south in the Fountain Ridge Mall in Middletown, is where New Jersey meets Italy! Even the fountain outside the entrance in the courtyard leads you to the ambience inside the restaurant. When you walk into Anna’s, don’t be fooled by the small and cozy lobby. Once you’re escorted into the restaurant, the place opens up into a spacious dining area with beautiful pastel décor and white linen tablecloths. The music is a wonderful compliment to the meal you’re about to have, and a candle will be lit at your table. The servers are gracious, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get Mario, who’s got a charming accent that sends you to Europe without leaving your chair.

Bring your own wine, and while you peruse the menu, some wonderful Italian bread and Anna’s mixed olives and carrots will be brought to the table. 

Sicilian-born Anna Perri has created a menu and nightly specials that are breathtaking, so don’t fill up on bread! Anna comes here from Italy and is so well-known that she was recently called upon to provide one of her specials for an HBO celebrity premiere in Manhattan! Anna was the chef and owner for over ten years of The Original Benito One on Mulberry Street in the heart of Little Italy in New York City.

My dining companion and I sampled many items from the menu and specials for that evening. My taste buds will never be the same! I thought only my own grandmother could cook Italian, but now I feel like I have never before tasted Italian food, even though both sets of my grandparents come from Italy! Anna really has brought Italy to Monmouth County. In fact, she flies in her Bufala mozzarella and other ingredients fresh from Italy weekly!

We started off with Antipasto Rustico: thin sliced Prosciutto di Parma, sweet and hot soppersata, and Bufala mozzarella, which (coming straight from Italy) has a wonderful taste and texture unlike any you’ll find in your local grocery store. Fantastic!  We also had Carciofo Ripieno con Pepato Siciliano: fresh stuffed artichoke with Sicilian pepato cheese, spiced bread crumbs and extra virgin olive oil. This is not your ordinary stuffed artichoke. It is light and tender and you’ll want to devour every leaf. Incredible!

Before I move on to the salad, there’s the Spiedino alla Romana, which you don’t want to miss: fresh fried mozzarella (battered in egg) with butter, capers, anchovies, and white wine sauce. Perfection!

The Agro Dolce Insalate was a melding of ingredients I’d never put together on my own, but which blended like a symphony: pears, glazed pecans, rucola, endive, and chunks of smoked provolone with olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar dressing.  Perfect between appetizers and entrée. Each bite had me sighing and smiling.

Now listen up: If you like gnocchi, you MUST taste the following dish…and if you’ve never have gnocchi, you also MUST try this dish: It is Gnocchetti Deliziosi. Anna has worked her magic on this gnocchi. Now, I usually eat gnocchi with a red sauce, so I didn’t know that I could possibly Anna’s dish so much that I will never go back to red! This home made potato gnocchi is made with fontina cheese for a light cream sauce tossed with fresh pencil asparagus. The gnocchi is so tender that for a moment I thought I was eating a scallop! (Yes, I am usually a fan of pasta al dente, but this is a notable exception!) I could’ve eaten ten dishes of this. Exceptional!

Then came the Pesce. Oh my. We had sea scallops and shrimp with a sauce that Anna should bottle and sell. It’s ‘to live for’! The scallops were pan seared to perfection. We also had the fresh striped sea bass with potatoes and a side of bitter broccoli sautéed with garlic and extra virgin olive oil. If you’re a fish-lover, you will love this dish. 

I hope you save room for dessert!  All of the items on Anna’s dessert menu are home made. Good luck choosing just one! The Tirami Su’ melted in my mouth and the Cannoli Siciliani had a creamy texture more along the lines of whipped cream than that heavy filling you’re used to. The other ‘must-have’ at Anna’s is the Panna Cotta al Caramello. (This is what the HBO people requested for their celebrity soirée.) This dessert is better than any flan I’ve ever had…and I am a lover of flan. It’s not even exactly a custard, but something that rises above all that. Light and airy and creamy and simply blissful! I could’ve eaten two!