L'Osteria La Semivuota

Dishes mentioned

• Minestrone

  This minestrone is super dense, super loaded, packed with good stuff and full of cheese. It's an excellent minestrone — a fuel like this is only made in Santa Margherita Ligure. Even the half portion is impressive.

• Riso al Salto

  Another great Milanese classic, here with a beautiful parmesan cream. The crust is so indulgent, and the rice inside stays soft. You can taste the saffron and obviously the parmesan cream.

• Ossobuco alla Milanese con Gremolada

  This ossobuco falls apart like butter. The gremolada — made of parsley and lemon — has a fragrance that makes you swoon. You can't tell where the meat ends and the sauce begins; it's an ocean of pleasure.

• Costoletta Alta

  The breading is wonderfully crunchy, it kept the juiciness, it's not greasy, it's flavorful. It's really good.

• Rosumata

  A kind of zabaglione typical of Lombardy and Piacenza — beaten eggs, sugar and wine. We dip these special biscuits called panmini in it. It's good here.

Dishes mentioned

• Minestrone

  I asked for a half portion as an appetizer because I couldn't not get it. I must say that even the half portion is respectable. Mmm, good this minestrone. A fuel like this is only made in Santa Margherita Ligure. Oh, I must tell you, aside from the scenery, I'm starting to understand that in this restaurant there is also substance, because this minestrone is scary, it's super dense, super loaded, stuffed with good stuff, full of cheese, an excellent minestrone. Minestrone is one of the most underestimated things in Italian cuisine, but when done well, it's a dream.

• Riso al Salto

  Riso al salto, another great Milanese classic. When there's leftover rice, which at our house never happens, you re-sauté it and serve it in this case with a beautiful parmesan cream, so a beautiful crust with a wonderful cream on top. How pleasurable is this crust? It's thick thick and inside the rice has remained soft, but it's not sticky. You can taste the saffron, you can taste the parmesan cream. It's a spectacle. It's incredible that in so many cultures there is the search for this rice crust. Remember in Spain the socarrat or in Middle Eastern dishes when the rice makes a crust, we like it. It's pleasurable. Here it's atomic. I would come just for the riso al salto.

• Ossobuco alla Milanese con Gremolata

  Today at lunch we had the rustin which is the ancestor of this one. The ossobuco alla Milanese with gremolata. This sauce made of parsley and lemon. There's a perfume, guys, to make you faint. I proceed immediately to the tasting. But here, gentlemen, the knife is needed less than at lunch today. And are we leaving this marrow? Eh, no, eh. Come on, some people eat too much window. Look at that stuff. It falls apart. You are forced to skip the window. There's so much sauce, so much cooking liquid that you don't understand where the meat ends and the little sauce begins, it's all an ocean of pleasure refreshed and made light by this touch of lemon and parsley. It's butter. It's butter.

• Costoletta alla Milanese

  There are those who call it cotoletta, those who call it costoletta, those who say it must be beaten very thin like an elephant's ear, those who say it must be very thick with the bone. What is certain is that it's veal meat cooked in clarified butter and the breading is made only with egg and breadcrumbs without flour. This is obviously the high cutlet. Obviously if you have an opinion, write it to us in the comments, be polite, kind, if you want to open a discussion. I'll eat now. Meanwhile, I must say that this breading is wonderfully crunchy. I'm tasting it several minutes after it arrived at the table, but it has held its juiciness. It's super crunchy, not greasy, well-worked. Very good. It's really good. I really like that it remained pink inside, that it didn't dry out too much. The Maldon salt flakes make you enjoy. It's just good. Good life.

• Rosumata con Panmeini

  But how cool is a restaurant that has rosumata on the menu: beaten eggs, sugar and wine. This kind of zabaglione typical of Lombardy, of the Piacenza area, and it doesn't seem so common to find it in typical Milanese osterias. So another point in favor of Osteria Semivuota. Inside we dip these biscuits made on purpose called panmeini. The party is over. The flavor takes me back to afternoons in the countryside with my grandmother when she made me a beaten egg a day. Nonna Emilia's variations were coffee, Nesquik, Marsala or San Marzano Borsci. This when I was 5 years old. Yes, this is the ultimate comfort food. What do I have to describe, it's zabaglione. It's not a zabione, it's not a zabaone, it's a bit different. Come and enjoy it all.