Lasagna Love

IF ANYONE SAW the way you ate that lasagna—sitting
there hunched over the aluminum tray, one arm shielding the saucy
goodness, shoveling forkful after forkful into your face between
plaintive moans of pleasure—it would’ve been necessary to kill
them out of shame.

You should’ve just been reasonable and eaten a serving or two, but
this was not reasonable lasagna. It was light and yet rich and creamy,
with paper-thin noodles acting as a balanced component of the dish
rather than tasteless barricades between layers of sauce and protein.
There was a meaty depth to each bite, something so familiar, but
something you’d not tasted before; something that remained elusive even
after you finished the entire tray. Luckily, there were no
witnesses.

Consider Taste Unique’s take-home Italian a blessing. If dishes like
the spinach cannelloni, potato pie (sformato di patate), or
pizza margherita were served in a restaurant, the restraint required
not to lick the plate or make loud, delighted noises would be
exhausting. At home, how you consume offerings like the superbly
cheesy, creamy, and slightly smoky mushroom risotto pie is your own
business.

As it stands, lunch service in the tiny 10-seat kitchen is eaten to
a soundtrack of sighs, exclamations, and sudden bursts of Italian
(along with the intermittent, loud, and grating hum of a large
freezer). To discourage any plate licking, dishes come with a generous
serving of Roman focaccia—salty, slightly crisped, and soft and
warm in the center—which is pulled from the oven at regular
intervals, filling the air with a deep, buttery scent. Currently, Taste
Unique is an un-crowded refuge, but I suspect that will soon
change.

The dishes prepared by chef Stefania Toscano are sweet simplicity.
Save for semolina, the ingredient list for her lasagnas read like the
contents of most anyone’s larder: eggs, flour, cream, crushed tomatoes,
milk, parmesan, and meat or veggies, depending on which you order.
What’s exciting is how that list is transformed into something so
delicious. The vegetarian lasagna is one of the best dishes I’ve had
all year—while each bite has a creamy fullness, the flavors of
zucchini and mushroom come through readily just below an ethereal smoke
from a fine provolone.

I’m tempted to say the food at Taste Unique is understated, but I’m
more inclined to believe that most Italian cuisine I’ve had is
overstated. The idea here is to let the ingredients be, and to use the
salt sparingly. A spinach ravioli offers pockets of fresh spinach with
delicate flavor best paired with butter and sage. A lunch special of
orecchiette (little shell pasta) draws saltiness from bits of
pancetta using a rich ricotta to tie the dish together.

Perhaps the most amazing item at this humble shop is a dessert. The
tiramisu has the quality of being both cloud-like and filling,
satisfyingly sweet but with a touch of savory, and positively stunning
with a thick dusting of cocoa. It’s unlikely you’ll leave the shop
without Toscano handing you a spoonful. Be warned, once you’ve had that
first bite, you’ll crave the dessert for days, or until you’ve bought a
tray of the stuff to take home, where you’ll eat it in the dark as you
quietly weep for joy.

Though you should experience lunch at Taste Unique (if not for the
food then for the chance to speak with the charming Chef Toscano), the
bulk of their offerings are prepared for takeout and can be purchased
refrigerated or frozen. Items change regularly based on what Toscano
finds at the farmers market. One afternoon I sampled a zucchini and
thyme cream sauce that had me shaking my head in disbelief.

Once you’ve brought your entrées home, the rest, of course,
is up to you. Which is where most of my criticism comes in. The service
there was lacking and the atmosphere was too casual. (Really, cats on
the dining room table?) On another occasion, the first attempt at a
butter and sage sauce that came out of my kitchen (to go with the
excellent spinach ravioli) was burnt and inedible. Also, I didn’t
appreciate that I had to clear my own table and wash the dishes.

But for all the faults of my own dining room and kitchen, the food
served from trays with the Taste Unique logo brings a touch of Italy
into my home. And once pulled from the oven, it’s time to close the
blinds, put on a Pavarotti record, and hope no one’s watching.