Sorella Italian Restaruant

Sorella Italian Restaurant, Bakersfield:

 www.sorellaitalianrestaurant.com

Betty and I needed some comfort food on Saturday night after getting Lia’s room ready for her to move back in to.  Sorella has been a favorite of ours for many years.  This is the same Italian restaurant that Pat Mendes declared one of her 2 best meals of the year.  I just don’t remember what year.  Maybe it was 2008 or 2009.  Like Patty, Betty ordered the lasagna.  It’s multiple layers of noodles and ricotta and we know from experience that additional meat sauce is needed.  So Betty asked for heavy sauce.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

At Sorellas I bring my own wine and pay a very reasonable corkage fee.  Saturday night, I really splurged and broke out a Le Cuvier 2001 Old Vine Zinfandel -  Martinelli vineyards.   This 2001 vintage wine was bottled in 2004 after 3 years of neutral barrel aging.  Betty and I both agree that it is one of our favorite wines of all time.   With 17.2% alcohol, it’s hardly noticeable after it cuts through the rich boysenberry flavors.  The heavy berry fruit is well balanced by the high alcohol content.  The 2001 Martinelli Zin may  available at Le Cuvier as a library wine in the future.  Last time it was available it cost $85.  I’m sure it will be $110 as it has had 7 years to age in the bottle.   I decanted the wine at home because it takes at least an hour to unwind and relax to fully develop the bouquet and tone down the alcohol for a velvety mouth feel.

Many of the dinners at Sorella run between $14 and $21 and are complete with the freshest salad I’ve ever had.  The steaks and seafood entrees are higher in the $20’s.  The salads include tomato, cucumber and fresh iceberg lettuce.  They are heavy on the dressing, so you might want it on the side.  But I love the blue cheese dressing.  The bread is always sliced thick and is soft and chewy.  I ask for balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese.  The olive oil is already on the table. 

I usually order the manicotti which is 2 large tubes filled with ricotta cheese and come with either marinara or alfredo sauce.  I order both and when they mix together its heaven.  However, this night I ordered the penne pasta special with chicken, artichokes, olives in cream sauce.  And it included 4 raviolis with marinara sauce.  Sorellas is very good about making anything you want.  So keeping in mind the huge zinfandel I brought, I asked for the sauce to be tomato cream sauce.    It’s rich and creamy and very comforting.  By the way, they have a similar dish on the lunch menu for $9.95.  The portion is smaller, but it comes with a salad.  The lunch portion is a great value. 

Betty’s lasagna was delicious as usual.  And when we took half of it home, we asked for more meat sauce to go with it which they happily agree to.  Did I say how great the wine was with dinner?  We saved some wine for the dessert, but it didn’t go well with the bananas foster.  We should have order coffee with dessert.  The bananas Foster is sliced banana sautéed with brown sugar and butter.  The gooey mixture is poured over a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Betty and I split the bananas foster so the dish was in the middle of the table between us.  We had a slight problem with the caramel goo and ice cream dripping on the table.  No, I did not lick the table cloth to get the last drop.  I used my spoon.

Sorellas is a great choice for fine Italian dinning.  I am definitely planning my next meal there, so it gets a the highest rating.  Next time I may have the penne pasta with tomato cream sauce and sausage instead of chicken – more flavor.