If Italian food is your idea of heaven, strap on your wings and fly on over to Basil Restaurant and Pizzeria as fast as you can. Don’t think twice. This restaurant is in Sinking Spring, utterly convenient and with ample parking in a large building that probably should be renamed Little Italy. By car — not wings — it’s a mere 12 minutes from the Berkshire Mall and 14 minutes from Broadcasting Square Shopping Center.
There you’ll find a full array of 100 percent authentic, exquisitely prepared dishes from antipasto to tiramisu, with calamari, veal, pasta and everything in between — homemade by a chef who started out in Italy, working at one point in Giorgio Armani’s restaurant in Milan. He cooked his way right across the ocean and, as fate would have it, somehow ended up cooking for Robert De Niro (yes, really) in Florida. So why Sinking Spring? Well, he fell in love with a woman whose family hailed from this area. That makes Berks Countians very fortunate diners indeed.
Chef Gianluca Longo is not only passionate about food but also highly intuitive and creative, a King Midas of Italian food, turning all that he touches into a shining creation exuding luscious aromas of thyme and olive oil, garlic and cheese, and — his signature culinary partner — basil. According to Dominic Gentile, the General Manager, the restaurant opened with mostly pizza — not your everyday pizza, mind you, but pizza nonetheless — in May 2014, but within months, it blossomed into the much bigger plan he and the chef had in mind from the very beginning. They added a separate dining room with a classy-casual, cozy ambiance (and a water wall) so folks can linger over several courses, enjoying an experience that can surely only be paralleled in Chef’s home country.
Upside-Down Pizza
If pizza turns you on, get ready to fall in love with Basil’s creations. The Grandma’s Upside-Down Pizza is a must-taste. It’s literally made upside down, so that the cheese bakes into the crust before it’s topped with a sweeter-than-usual tomato sauce. It’s tomato-ey with fresh basil thrown across the top and boasts the cheesiest crust ever, browned at the edges. The sauce, reveals Dominic, is slow-simmered for two-plus hours for full, tart-sweet tomato flavor.
For an appetizer, consider starting with yummy Ricotta Balls. These are about the size of a baseball, sliced in half, and baked in a swath of pure marinara sauce. Imagine the baked-edge top which, when you cut into it, reveals the melted, creamy, warm innards of fresh-made ricotta cheese. Mini bruschetta-style toast pieces lie strategically on the edge of the plate for dipping.
Salad choices are simple: a newly tossed house salad with homemade dressings (the Balsamic Vinaigrette is m-m-m-wa), or a classic Caesar. (“With or without anchovies?” asks the waiter. How thoughtful.)
Pasta Passion
The pasta options are all enticing. Try the Lobster Ravioli if you love shellfish. Or, if gnocchi knock you over, order the Potato Gnocchi enveloped in sage butter and aged prosciutto.
There’s also a marvelous Manicotti featuring a ribbed pasta tube stuffed with sweet cheese that’s been blended with finely chopped beef and spinach; this approach “hearties up” what commonly is a fairly bland dish. Chef uses a just-barely-bitter marinara sauce which neatly “cuts” the sweet cheese mixture, opening to a cacophony of textures and flavors with each forkful.
Similarly texture-happy and full of complex flavors is the Tortelloni alla Panna, stuffed with beef, ham, and green peas and draped with Parmesan-Asiago cream sauce.
Si, Si! Seafood
Seafood lovers will find that mere words and pictures can do no justice to the moment when Misto di Mare is brought to the table. Grilled swordfish, calamari, shrimp and branzino (European sea bass), or sometimes salmon, all have equal prominence on this huge platter next to a delightfully immodest amount of Chef’s signature tagliatelle (egg pasta cut long and flat) — also grilled. The charred edges of the fish and shellfish, oil and butter, and the scent of Italian parsley and herbs wafting upwards into your open mouth all merge to transport your heart, mind and soul to a seaside villa on the Mediterranean. The dense, meaty, perfectly cooked swordfish makes this a sure favorite.
Chef also creates a Fettuccine with Swordfish, Stuffed Branzino Fillet, and Salmon Fillet with Champagne.
A traditional dish with a big following is Veal Parmigiana; this is a feast in itself, also served with ribbons of tagliatelle. The deep red sauce spreads across choice, tender slices that have been deeply breaded and fried, crunchy at the corners and topped generously with still-melting Provolone cheese. Servings are so generous, you’ll probably be leaving with a large to-go box.
Auguri! Happy one-year anniversary, Basil!
by Marian Frances Wolbers | photos by HEIDI REUTER
