Gluten free restaurant Il Trifoglio

It’s good, it’s homemade, it’s gluten free, it’s Il Trifoglio!

It’s still August, still holiday time and my family and I are heading to a gluten free restaurant in Pimonte, a small town close to Sorrento and Naples; the restaurant is called Il Trifoglio.

Actually my family has been there before me, they loved the place and the food and most of all my brother Francesco noticed the fact that this restaurant is gluten free certified by AIC (The Italian celiac Association); this means that there are no cross contamination with gluten in the kitchen.

Il Trifoglio is a family-run business: Antonio with his two sisters, Lucia e Maria Romano, work closely together. The sisters cook and experiment in the kitchen while Antonio manages the restaurant and welcomes clients in when they arrive.

The place is up on a hill, very greeny and calm.

As pre-antipasti Antonio offered us the typical Italian “panzarotti” and I got mine gluten free, a first for me! The “panzarotti” are small bites of pizza dough that are fried. They are yummy, moist and the gluten free ones were fluffy and tasty. The gluten free bread is fresh and homemade too. This is very rare to find and when I do, I always take care of mentioning it. It proves how much at Il Trifoglio, they care about good gluten free food.

As antipasti, I chose marinated squid over zucchini, with “Ravece” extra virgin olive oil. It was delicious! My dad took the same but marinated with green beans and coconut flakes. He loved it too.

My main course was homemade pasta called ‘scialatielli’ with seafood and zucchini. I was amazed: making fresh, homemade gluten free pasta is quite a challenge, but Antonio’s sister Maria succeeded in making one of the best fresh pasta that I have ever eaten, Bravo!

After, it was dessert time! We tasted an incredibly good pastry made with almonds, hazelnuts and chocolate chips. It came in the shape of the famous and typical “babà”. It was served warm, with the chocolate slowly melting inside. The pastry was fluffy and moist. I loved it!

Following up Antonio’s advice, we also ate the tiramisu served inside a traditional cappuccino cup. It was the best gluten free tiramisu that I have ever eaten so far.

Before leaving Antonio told me that they started proposing gluten free foods almost three years ago: he became sensitive to this issue because of his young daughter who is celiac like myself.

Today he’s happy about the results that they have achieved in gluten free cooking.

In the evening the gluten free menu includes pizza as well. Needless to say, given my openhearted love for pizza, that one day I will go back there to taste it.

One last thing to add about Il Trifoglio: the quality of the ingredients is incredible, it is cooked beautifully, portions are abundant, the food is very good and it is one of the best quality-price ratio ever! I highly recommend it if you visit Campania, this beautiful region in the South of Italy.