I also enjoyed some mortadella cut thick, grilled and embellished with mostarda di Cremona spiked with Dijon and coarse-grained mustards. That mortadella and all of Il Gallo Giallo’s salumi (except for prosciutto di Parma, from Parma) come from Salumeria Biellese in the City, certified by Slow Food and in existence since 1925. Salumi such as finocchiona or sopressata can be ordered individually or in groups of three or five.
Gallo’s cheeses are imported or made at local establishments from local milk, the ricotta made in-house. They too can be ordered singly or as assortments. The ciabatta bread for sandwiches is house-made, too – as is the pasta, when not coming fresh from La Bella Pasta in Kingston or, when dried, artisanally die-cut and imported. Summer veggies came from local farms nearby, with salads like a summery carpaccio of zucchini with lemon oil, basil and mint. Locally foraged chanterelles have been on the menu, cooked in creative ways, but the run is up. Siegfried and McClintock are busy updating the menu for fall, spotlighting the seasonal with roasted root vegetables and such.
Kick flaming saganaki up a few notches and you have caciocavallo cheese from Casa del Caciocavallo in Plattekill, baked in a cast-iron skillet and flambéed with grappa. Inspired bruschette include one topped with fegatini (chicken livers) and Marsala onions, or Gorgonzola dolce with fig jam and toasted spiced walnuts. A house specialty is the popular porchetta: a pork loin seasoned with herbs and a dust of fennel and celery seed, slow-roasted and wrapped in crisped pork belly, available as a sandwich or an entrée with stewed white beans and braised mixed greens.
There are Grandma’s meatballs. There’s baked shrimp with stewed white beans and preserved lemon. There are marinated herbed olives, marinated mushrooms, frittatas and deviled eggs in pancetta cups. There are sandwiches like prosciutto with robiola and tomato or bresaola with fontina and arugula, or grilled vegetables with fresh mozzarella and pesto aioli. Burgers come on ciabatta with fries or á la low-carb with a salad standing in for the bread and fries, and there’s a four-cheese-stuffed Portobello burger. A signature dish (as in gallo giallo) is cockscomb-shaped pasta baked with four melty cheeses in a cast-iron skillet.
Sweets include affogato freddo, a hazelnut ice cream drowned in Manhattan Special espresso soda, a Nutella/banana panini with vanilla ice cream and more, like a coming fall fruit crisp.
Chef McClintock pays personal homage to food and wine with tattoos celebrating both pork and wine (a Laguiole corkscrew), and he is currently undergoing training as a sommelier. He is one to watch, clearly excited about what he does and open to a whole realm of possibilities in the kitchen. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for fall, and am very interested in seeing how the menu evolves as they go along. And I love the name “yellow rooster”: not sure where that comes from, but Siegfried admits that there really is a yellow rooster, so stop in and ask why.
Il Gallo Giallo is located at 36 Main Street in the Village of New Paltz. Current hours are Tuesday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 11 p.m. Contact the wine bar at (845) 255-3636, at [email protected] or via the Facebook page. Read more about local cuisine and learn about new restaurants on Ulster Publishing’s www.dinehudsonvalley.com.
