I cannot believe I have lived in Boston for so long and NOT been to Coppa before this week! I’m embarrassed. It has been on my list of restaurants to try forever and I finally got there this past Monday with my roommate.

Coppa is an Italian small plate restaurant owned by Chef Ken Oringer and Chef Jamie Bissonnette (also both chefs/owners for Toro – another outstanding Boston restaurant) that is located in the South End. With an ever-changing menu expect to find a selection of house-made charcuterie, cheese from Formaggio Kitchen, antipasi, wood-fired pizzas, and hand made pastas.

I had purchased a Gilt City deal for Coppa a few weeks ago so it was perfect timing to make a reservation. While I knew Coppa was going to be outstanding I like deals like this because it is a good chance to try a new restaurant and explore their menu. This deal included: Two stuzzichini, one antipasti, one small housemade pasta, one pizza and two glasses of Chef selected wine. 

Every single thing we tried was out of this world, I cannot believe how much depth and flavor was packed into each bite that we tasted! Even the bread and olive oil was the absolute freshest and best quality. Make sure to save yourself a piece to sop up the sauces from your dishes later in the meal.

I opted for white wine while my roommate chose red. I tasted both and would have been happy with either. The white was light and crisp and the red was deep and flavorful, both accompanied all of the dishes beautifully.

These oysters.

I have never had oysters like this before. They had the perfect mix of acid and spice. I could eat thousands of these.

Our second stuzzichini was the arancini, a traditional fried risotto ball stuffed with fontina cheese. I have had many arancini dishes in my life but these were just perfect. They had the right amount of crunch on the outside while the risotto was still soft and the cheese was warm and melty. The sauce that they sat atop was heavenly, it reminded me of a romesco sauce I made in a cooking class once and I couldn’t stop myself from scooping up the extra from the bottom of the bowl.

I had drooled over the menu the night before (you know you would too) and knew I wanted to try the Burrata e Zucca as our antipasti. Local burrata, persimmon, pickled pumpkin, radicchio, pistachio sounded like an out of this world combination, which it was! Not only was this dish nice, light and flavorful but it was beautiful to look at. All of the different tastes and textures work together perfectly.

Ah the pasta course.

Being a pasta fanatic I was very excited for this course. While every option on the menu sounded right up my alley we chose the Rigatoni wtih pork ragu, cabbage, sage and Parmesan.  The diners around us were eating this dish and as soon as we saw it we knew we had to try it.

The pork for this dish is locally sourced from Brambly Farms in Norfolk, MA and the pasta is hand made in-house. There is nothing like fresh pasta. This dish is perfect and that’s all I have to say!

By this point in the meal we were so full but who turns down a pizza that looks like this? Tomato, pork sausage, ricotta, roasted onion and fennel pollen and the addition of a fried egg.

Now that is pizza perfection.

Ricotta on pizza is one of my favorite toppings and the ricotta at Coppa is so creamy. It balances out the spice from the sausage and pairs really well with the rest of the ingredients. This pizza does not normally come with an fried egg but it was a delicious addition.

I cannot wait to get back to Coppa and try more of their menu and will definitely be doing so in the very near future!

If you want to check out Coppa for yourself you can find it here – good news, they take reservations:

Coppa Enoteca

253 Shawmut Ave, Boston, MA 02118

617.391.0902