Paprika: an Italian gem in the East Village

The Jeweled Hornet came by on Saturday and after a delicious bottle of Tempranillo and some Manchego cheese we decided to "leave" Spain and head to Paprika, a lovely East Village neighborhood restaurant, specializing in Northern Italian cuisine.

It's been quite some time since I've been to Paprika and I'm always curious to see if a restaurant that I've enjoyed in the past remains consistent. In this case it certainly does!

We ordered a bottle of Sangiovese and hung out for only a short time at the narrow bar before we were seated. One of the great things about Paprika is the prices. It is rare to find an entree over twenty bucks and wines by the bottle are easy on the wallet too. In addition to the well-balanced menu they also offer a wide choice of specials to make your selection that much more difficult.

The first bottle of wine was starting to kick in and I had carbs-on-the-brain so I went with one of the many intriguing pastas. Jeweled was in the frame of mind and we decided to start our meal by sharing an arugula salad with goat cheese, pears, walnuts and balsamic. This classic combination didn't disappoint and the peppery arugula was super-fresh and the goat cheese was creamy and light.

Jeweled chose the Sardinian pasta with sweet sausage, broccoli rabe and tomato for her main course. The sausage was sweet, moist and flavorful and stood up to the juicy fresh tomato sauce.

I went with one of the night's many specials; a squid ink linguine with shrimp. My dish came to the table piping hot (you can see some of the steam in the photo) and the shrimp was perfectly cooked; not too chewy, not too firm. The tomato sauce was spicy and you could certainly taste the salty sea in the freshness of the pasta.

Paprika plays it safe when it comes to its dessert menu. It offers the typical panna cotta, sorbet, and tiramisu to name a few. The Jeweled Hornet and I were too full to partake and I cannot remember how they were on previous visits so I'll leave that one for the next visit.