Piattini Ristorante and Wine Bar

The Chef and Gelato Maestro, Gino Cammarata (Nadia Ghattas/Epoch Times)

Having heard and been curious about the Sicilian eatery Piattini, my friend and I ventured from Manhattan to this unpretentious, yet one of the best Sicilian restaurants, in New York.

Anyone who knows a bit of Sicily’s history marvels at the variety of culinary influences that shaped its cuisine, due to its many conquerors over the centuries and to its rich soil and climate.

The first settlers came from Spain and Portugal. Later, conquerors came from Italy, Turkey, Greece, and from the Arabian Peninsula. The Phoenicians introduced the alphabet to Sicily. The Arabs, who occupied Sicily for 200 years, planted orchards of lemons, oranges, dates, peaches, and apricots. The Arabs also grew sugarcane and eggplant.

Piattini sits at the corner of Fourth Avenue, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Executive chef, known as the gelato master Gino Cammarata, owned the ice cream shop Oro Verde and the Syracosa Restaurant.

As I sat across from Cammarata, he recalled a time from his childhood when he worked at his uncle’s eatery, the place where he learned to cook, and how to make gelato. He remembers how small he was and how hard it was for him to scoop the gelato with the long oar-shaped wooden paddle. His uncle’s restaurant was his introduction to cooking traditional Sicilian style, such as the classic pasta forno, prepared with sheets of flat pasta.

Cammarata came to America at age 15 and was fascinated by the bakeries. His father was a baker. Cammarata’s dream was to open a restaurant. He told me of his disappointment to find Italian food reduced to Americanized versions of the real thing. His dream became a reality when he opened Syracosa on Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street, which became a big hit. His philosophy was and still is that food has to be different, and what he serves at his eatery should be authentic Sicilian cuisine, but light and healthy. Rock stars frequented the eatery, and so it was referred to as the Ritz Club, located in an area once referred to as the Switzerland of New York. 

Piattini means small plates. Camaratta’s secret to his delicious dishes is the minute additions of rare ingredients where fresh, clean flavors and food components take center stage, such as free-range and grass-fed meats and fresh seafood. His talent for combining the foods typical of that region is brilliant. No matter how much you eat at Piattini, you will feel light and satiated, not heavy.

For such high quality, the price is right, while the service is brisk and friendly. One gets a sense of comfort, a sense of being at home, eating unforgettable comfort food.

We had an endless array of the best Sicilian dishes I have ever tasted. Every dish was well-balanced and harmonious. The taste still lingers, and my mouth waters as I write this. I strongly recommend that you endeavor to go to this restaurant.

We started with the traditional Sicilliana ($7) salad layered with red oranges and fennel, topped with a mixture of thinly sliced green olives, scallions, and spicy ginger, which has been grown in Italy since the days of Marco Polo, dressed with olive oil and mint leaves, which provided a refined, refreshing, and delicate flavor. You can actually feel the texture and hear the fennel crunch as you bite.

We had one off-the-menu item: grilled baby octopus served with fried baby artichokes. This was both exotic and hypnotic. It came with capers from Partelleria, one of Sicily’s islands, sprinkled with very fine toasted bread crumbs and herbs, known as poor man’s parmigan, chopped cherry tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil that caused a roller coaster of flavors and textures: the crunchy bread crumbs, the smooth, chewy octopus, the crispy, sweet, and nutty flavored fleshy artichoke.

Another of Sicily’s most favored dishes, Bocatini con Sarde ($13), tickled our taste buds further. It was prepared with wild fennel, fennel seeds, cauliflower, fresh sardines and toasted pignole (pine) nuts with white raisins from a specific area of Sicily. It came served with artisan pasta that takes 20 minutes to cook and needs to be nursed from the moment you put the pasta into the hot water until you drain it. The delicate and refined flavors of the liquorish anise and the sweet white raisins were redolent on the tongue. Every bite was divine: the crunchiness of the tiny breadcrumbs, the rich flavor of the hand-deboned sardines with the al dente pasta.

For meat lovers, try the Skirt Steak ($21) served with chimi churri sauce. The meat was tender. The sauce was made with fresh herbs, chili pepper, and dried fresh hot peppers with another Sicilian accompaniment: cauliflower. It was just perfect.

Simple things that people take to, over and over again, are the most difficult to produce. I was so antsy with anticipation for the chef’s legendary gelato that my friend and I indulged in it. The sinful Eggnog topped with home made grissino, a blend of anise, salt, and other fresh herbs and the Pistacchio di Sicilia with its superb nutty flavor were incredible.

A joyous end to this wonderful meal!

Dinner only seven days a week. Temporarily cash only.

9824 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11209

718-759-0009