“In Italy, a sagra is a festival marking a special season, like a harvest,” explains chef-owner Gabe Pellegrini, sitting beside his wife Sarwat - he who grew up in an Italian family in Houston and she who grew up in an Indian family in Dallas. Anything that mentions words like “festival” and “harvest” must surely, especially in Italy (or India!), have some great food attached. At the restaurant called Sagra the couple opened five years ago in Austin, there’s a whole lot of great food attached.
Sagra is located on the outskirts of Austin’s busy downtown, in a quiet residential section near the state Capitol surrounded by offices for the group most likely to benefit - attorneys. Looking back, the Pellegrinis were lucky to snag the century-old house when they did. Odds are, it would have become another law office. And we need one of those much less than we need great Italian food and wine.
It was New York City (places like Brooklyn and Long Island are mentioned) where Gabe Pellegrini was born, and also where he much later (after Texas) enjoyed sucess - owning and operating three restaurants there. Still, when he met Sarwat, it felt like time to bring the wood-oven pizza home. Possibly unable to negotiate a truce between Houston and Dallas, the Pellegrinis opted for Austin. And the pizza scene has been much improved ever since.
One interesting touch: Sagra goes with the notion (and it’s true) that real Italian bruschetta isn’t a specific recipe involving tomato, basil and olive oil but only grilled rustic bread with… whatever on top. On the evening I was there, the kitchen took this to mean ice-cold tomato gelato and crumbled candied hazelnuts. Apparently, the world is now safe for what I’d call “dessert bruscetta.”
Many of the standard Little Italy pasta dishes turn up at Sagra, but there are some less familiar (meaning less red-sauced) selections as well. One is known in Italian as Paglia e Feino and translated as either “Hay and Straw” or “Straw and Hay.” It’s Italian, after all. Either way, it’s a nifty rendition of two colors of fettuccine, with plenty of different tastes and textures to go around.
Scallops seem omnipresent in all kinds of restaurants these days; presumably that has something to do with people liking them. Here’s a resolutely Italian take on the delicately sweet shellfish - after it’s been perfectly pan-seared, of course. The combination of tastes and textures includes a spin on mashed potatoes at the bottom (made with sunchokes instead of potatoes), plus some of the Chinese-style black rice now being cultivated in Italy, plus a smattering of radicchio.
One of the things that’s most “Austin” about Sagra is the place’s near-reverence for all things grown locally, enjoyed seasonally - and, if possible, just rushed in from the Pellegrini’s greenhouse or the yard. A significant portion of things used in the cooking are grown and/or harvested by the couple in one of those settings. And all of that makes entrees here, like this lamb osso buco with sweet potato hash, all the more magnificent.
You might be tempted to think of thinly layered pastries as French things, unless you think of them as Viennese things. And that’s unless you think of them as Greek things. Or North African things. Well, all those cultures, along with several others, have tinkered with Italy over the centuries. And that probably explains why the sfoliatelle served at Sagra are so amazing. I’m ready to stage a seasonal festival to celebrate the annual sfoliatelle harvest right now.
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