Chicago: Truffle Cream Gnocchi at Siena Tavern

I discovered cooking when I was a junior in college. It was the first time I’d had my own kitchen (albeit one I shared with three friends), and my skill set widened quickly from instant ramen and mac and cheese to ramen, mac and cheese and – you guessed it – pasta.

But here’s the thing. As soon as I started making noodles that didn’t involve a flavor packet, I got really into sauce. And since I’ve never been one to stop at just one form of dairy, my favorite from-scratch sauces were always, always, always cream based.

Let’s put it this way – if Ferris Bueller can pose as the Sausage King of Chicago, I’m undoubtedly the Cream Sauce Champion of the Northern Hemisphere.

And last week, I tried a bowl of truffle-cream gnocchi that took my expertise to the next level.

Fabio Viviani (of Top Chef fame)’s 10,000 square-foot, River North eatery has been a key player in Chicago’s insane Italian dining scene this past year. The menu’s affordable – especially for the area – and portions plentiful, but the best part is undoubtedly the unreal pasta-dumpling hybrid I just mentioned.

Viviani, who’s notoriously confident about his recipe, pairs his pillowy and perfectly shaped gnocchi with fried sage (duh) and crispy pancetta (double duh), topped with enough truffle cream to make you want to roll over and surrender right then and there. There’s nothing particularly surprising about the combination, yet Siena pulls it off in a way that’d make you swear you were eating at Fabio’s kitchen table – spoiler alert: you basically are.

With a few Italian giants opening their doors before the end of the 2013, Siena has some competition rising, but even one bite of their gnocchi is enough to know they’ll be more than just fine.

Siena Tavern, 51 West Kinzie Street. For more information call 312-595-1322 or visit online.