With a friend in town for the summer and staying in Venice, we headed out to Centanni, an Italian joint in that part of town. The menu wasn’t too big, but had some basic sandwiches and pasta dishes. As per usual, my eyes drifted right to their gnocchi, which came with a pesto sauce. Soon enough, my meal was served and all looked well on the surface.
But then I bit into my first gnocchi and felt it come apart on my tongue. And no, this wasn’t the delicious coming apart that pillowy gnocchi does. Rather, this was either poorly constructed pasta or overcooked. The texture was all off and it simply had no backbone.
Interestingly enough, the pesto sauce was actually quite good. It was a bit creamy and had some nice, big chunks of basil.
Yet, a good sauce was not enough to overcome some poor pasta. Fairly or not, I often judge restaurants by their gnocchi and Centanni was far away from a passing grade.
