Parisi’s Italian Market
My next stop and what could almost be final stop, in my quest to find good Italian food was Parisi’s Italian Market. Located in on Tennyson and 44th it is within walking distance from my house. Parisi’s seems to be the place for all things Italian. They are an Italian restaurant, deli, gelatorria and market. Walking in you quickly notice a huge case of prepared salads, antipasto, cheeses, and meats. On the opposite wall is a large display with various olive oils, dried pastas, jarred tapenades and Italian desserts. The front of the restaurant is filled with tables, the back has a wood burning oven and a takeout counter.
On my first visit I tried the Napoli Panini, which like all panini’s at Parisi is served on baguette bread and is not grill pressed. The Napoli consists of ham, capicola (capicola is similar to prosciutto except that it comes from the neck or shoulder of pig instead of the thigh or butt), provolone, spicy giardiniera (pickled vegetables in vinegar), with green leaf lettuce and tomato. The sandwich was delicious. Compared to Italian deli’s back on the east coast there was not an overwhelming amount of meat, but from a health conscious point of view that’s probably a good thing. As you can see in the picture there appears to be about three slices of each meat, and one slice of cheese. It was served on a toasted baguette, which was more than satisfactory considering we’re in Denver. Shame on other establishments for not having bread this good. I also tried the Palermo, which was the same, except instead of spicy giardiniera the sandwich had roasted red peppers on it. This sandwich also seemed to have a little more meat.
Parisi’s also has a wood buring oven for pizzas. Pizzas are available as 14″ traditional crust, or 11″ thin crust individual size. They also have “take & bake” pizza. I tried the Salsiccia & Funghi (sausage & mushroom) thin crust. It was good, damn good. The crust was thin and crisp. The mushrooms were largely sliced and fresh , which was very nice since a lot of pizza parlors use sliced jarred mushrooms for their pies. The sausage, which was in large crumbles also had a very good flavor.
I am very excited to go back and try some of their other pizzas. They even have six white pizzas, with toppings including truffle oil, smoked salmon, pesto, gorgonzola cheese, asparagus, albeit not on the same pizza. With great sandwiches and pizzas to explore I’m not sure when I’ll get around to trying their homemade pasta.
Parisi’s comes highly recommended. I’ll continue to update everyone as I sample more of their menu.
