La Zucca

La Zucca Review

The simple place settings, lattice-wood walls, and mélange of languages make La Zucca (the pumpkin) feel much like a typical, somewhat sophisticated vegetarian restaurant that you could find in any European city. What makes La Zucca special is the use of fresh, local ingredients (many of which, like the particularly sweet zucca itself, aren't normally found outside northern Italy), and simply great cooking. Though the menu does have superb meat dishes such as the piccata di pollo ai caperi e limone con riso (sliced chicken with capers and lemon served with rice), more attention is paid to dishes from the garden: try the radicchio di Treviso con funghi e scaglie di Montasio (with mushrooms and shavings of Montasio cheese), the finocchi piccanti con olive (fennel in a spicy tomato-olive sauce), or the house's signature dish—the flan di zucca, a luscious, naturally sweet, pumpkin pudding topped with slivered, aged ricotta cheese.