My brother and I both live on the Upper East Side, and we’ve prided ourselves in trying every decent restaurant in the three block vicinity.  Our favorite thus far has been a pizza place called San Matteo on 90th and 2nd… the pizza is absolutely unreal and tastes like something you’d get in Italy (having studied abroad in Florence, I know a thing or two about good pizza).  Anyways, the same owner also has a place a couple doors down from San Matteo called Il Salumaio – when I attempted to order gnocchi at San Matteo, the waiter kindly pointed me in Il Salumaio’s direction and told me to go there instead.  Challenge accepted.

Il Salumaio is a small hole-in-the-wall wine bar directly across from the apartment I’d lived in for 15 months.  I never thought much of it until my run in with the San Matteo waiter, which I am very grateful for now.  Off the bat, I was impressed with the menu, while it wasn’t extensive, it did offer all the right things for me at the time… especially when it came to gnocchi.  I order the Gnocchi alla Sorrentina.  Here’s the scoop….

• Unlike the ricotta gnocchi I order at Uva, this gnocchi had a potato base, SO I wasn’t necessarily expecting it to “melt” in my mouth so to speak.  For me, it was a very good consistency for a potato gnocchi.  A little background here – I grew up eating potato based gnocchi and my standards are very, very high.  While it was not as good as Grandpa’s, I respected this gnocchi.
• I was very impressed with the sauce.  In my experience, restaurants have trouble getting the sauce right… Il Salumaio had no trouble.  I LOVED this sauce.
• What was special about this dish was it was prepared like any other potato gnocchi dish, then topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmigano reggiano, BUT here’s the twist, it was then put in the oven in an iron skillet and baked to perfection.  The cheese was perfectly melted and the top was toasted and browned JUST enough.  Great execution by Il Salumaio.
• Last thing I’d add is there was a lot of cheese, but not too much.  The mozzarella draped the pasta, yes, but it was not overbearing.  The parmigano reggiano topped the mozzarella perfectly.
• My Rating: THAT SAUCE! I’d get this again.

I’d end this post by saying I really enjoyed the gnocchi at Il Salumaio.  With that said, if I had a gun to my head and needed to choose between the gnoochi at Il Salumaio or the pizza at San Matteo, admittedly, I’d go with the pizza… it’s just that good.

Il Salumaio address: 1731 2nd Ave

Website: ilsalumaiony.com

San Matteo address: 1739 2nd Ave

Website: sanmatteopanuozzo.com