L'Alchimista

L'Alchimista is surely one of the best Restaurants in Umbria. I have been there now 4 times and I was never disappointed. What I like is that there kitchen is not banal. Yes in a way traditional, but not "salsicce con ciccoria ripassata".  At my last visit I had "Piccione", Pigeon,  "Polenta di Roveja" and roasted mushrooms.

Pigeons in Umbrian Restaurants you get also char coaled.  Italian common taste is,  that Pigeons have to be "well done", this often means cooked to dryness as these birds are very lean. Their best part, the breasts, in this way are destroyed to a black matter and nothing from their juicyness left.  An example of this I had the day before in another Restaurant of Montefalco.  The Alchimista resolves the problem by deboning an desecting the animalm leaving the breasts apart.  From the minced meat of the other parts the produce:  a patè from the liver, a little sausage from the minced meat and a generous filling to stuff the leg.  The leg and the sausage is cooked as it should be, whereas the breast is nearly raw, wonderful!

The Polenta was not really a Polenta, but a cream of Roveja. Roveja are a very old type of peas.  The cream was covered with pieces of mushrooms in tomatosauce.  I was so interested in these mushrooms ("funghi sanguinosi")  that  I ordered also a side dish with it. Also very good and a wise use, this means little use of salt.  52 € is not little money but worth the quality.

...the wines