salsa verde – Michael Eats

Location: 100 Sorauren Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.tuttopanino.com/

In case you haven’t noticed, Toronto is in the grips of an Italian sandwich obsession. It seems like every other new restaurant these days is serving up a variety of Italian cold cut sandwiches.

Enter: Tutto Panino. They’ve got the usual assortment of cold salami and mortadella sandwiches, though their specialty — the Bolito (“beef brisket, salsa verde, chili oil”) — is a hot one.

It’s a solid sandwich. It comes crammed with a healthy amount of ultra-tender braised beef brisket, and is topped with a zippy salsa verde. You can get it mild or hot — I went with hot, and yeah, it’s got a decent kick. It’s nothing too aggressive, but it’ll give you a bit of a tingle.

The lightly crispy bun does a good job of holding up to the meaty sandwich, though I wish it were either a bit crustier, or lightly toasted. Everything here is quite soft, so some extra texture would be nice.

Similarly, the salsa verde is tasty, but I really think the sandwich needs some pickles or something a bit more acidic to cut through the richness of the beef.

Still, I didn’t love it, but am I mad that I ate this sandwich? Absolutely not. Would I eat it again? I absolutely would.

Location: 229 Geary Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.northofbrooklyn.com/

Though I’m all about the simple joys of a margherita pizza, occasionally, a more interesting assortment of toppings can be just what the doctor ordered. Case in point: the Green Out pizza at North of Brooklyn, which comes topped with “Mozzarella, Spring Cream, Spinach, Semi-Dried Tomatoes, Salsa Verde, Pecorino.” It’s about as far from the simplicity of a margherita pizza that you can get, but it’s so, so good.

“Green” is right there in the name, and yeah, the abundant spinach and herby spring cream (which is basically cream with herbs mixed in) definitely gives the pizza a verdant glow. It looks like it might be overwhelming, but it’s just right — the tender spinach balances so well with all the other ingredients.

The hearty spinach, the pops of sweetness from the tomatoes, the zinginess from the salsa verde, the gooiness of the mozzarella, and the saltiness of the pecorino is just a perfect storm of deliciousness. It’s surprisingly great.

But a pizza lives and dies by its crust, and that’s where this thing really shines. It’s super thin and crispy, but not even remotely crackery — it’s got a great balance of chewiness and crispiness, with a surprising amount of substance given how thin it is, and a great flavour. It helps that it’s perfectly cooked, with a nice even char that never overwhelms. The toppings are all extremely tasty, but it’s the superlative crust that really puts this in the pizza stratosphere.

Tag: salsa verde

Tasty Sandwiches at Tutto Panino

Top Notch Pizza at North of Brooklyn