Piazza di Nardi
Have you ever travelled by car through Italy on the auto strata? If you have and you have stopped at one of their “auto grills”, you may recognise the food service counters at Piazza di Nardi. The food at these Italian rest stops is surprisingly excellent and so is di Nardi’s. You may wish to order a slice of pizza, a meatball sandwich or eggplant Parmigiano. On this occasion I decided to compile lunch from the vast array of cold items.
While in Italy we sometimes would stop and purchase a baguette, some meat and cheese and fashion our own sandwiches. This can be done at Piazza di Nardi as well, but they make it simpler by having pre-maid sandwiches on hand. I chose ham and cheese on forcaccia bread. The fresh and hearty sandwich was enhanced by a cluster of grapes.
I added the fig in homage to our time in Sicily where we simply plucked them from our hosts’ tree for our breakfast.
I wanted to sample even more items that I had not enjoyed since our couple of Italian adventures so I also ordered a small seafood salad which was chock full of calamari and just the correct tartness from the vinegar marinade.
Two kinds of arancini in Sicily.
I also chose what you might consider the strangest thing: an arancini (literally an orange) which is so named for its shape but is actually a fried rice ball.
The dish may not sound appetizing but it absolutely was. Peas, meat sauce and mozzarella were stuffed inside a seasoned ball of rice (actually a cup of rice was hand-shaped and then the stuffing was placed in the cup. Then a second bowl shaped rice cup was added to the top). This all got sealed up, covered in breadcrumbs and fried. They can be eaten right out of the pan as a hot course in an Italian meal or packed away to eat as a cold snack. We ate ours on a train trip from Sicily to the Amalfi Coast.
The bonus when you lunch at Piazza di Nardi is that you can purchase other grocery items while there to plan your next meal. I picked up artichoke bruschetta and spinach gnocchi.
Piazza di Nardi is located at 1360 Taylor Ave. They serve lunch and dinner features daily and also have deli items and a catering menu. They are open daily Monday to Saturday from 9 am until 8 pm. On Sunday they are open 11 am-6 pm. Hot items are served from 11:30 am-7:30 pm.
Kath’s quote: “Italian food is all about ingredients and it’s not fussy and it’s not fancy”. -Wolfgang Puck
Love never fails.
Loved di Nardi’s and they are so good to work with. They do sn amazing job of catering in their upstairs room. We are very fond of Tom as he is always friendly and makes sure his staff also are.
Thank you so much for adding this Betty Ann.