The littler pig dish, at the restaurant named for little pig.
The best-known menu item at Maialino — the Roman-style restaurant whose name means "piglet" or "suckling pig" in Italian — is a crisp-skinned roast of pork loin, belly, ribs, and shoulder, rubbed with rosemary and fennel, meant to serve three diners (or, at a gluttonous minimum, two). Coppa croccante al maialino, the crispy suckling pig terrine shown above in cutaway view, evinces the same culinary devotion on a considerably smaller scale. And from very high up on the hog — in effect, it's a fried head cheese. The photo also gives a look at lentils and greens but only a glancing view of the expertly poached egg. Split it over the terrine, if you care to paint the lily.
Also shown, from a pair of restaurant-week three-course lunches ($24.07 each): spuma di carciofo, artichoke mousse on toasted filone; pesce spada affumicato, smoked swordfish with a red onion and caper berry salad; paccheri all'Amatriciana, ring-shaped pasta in a spicy tomato-based sauce with guanciale; torta di olio d'oliva, olive oil cake with vanilla bean mascarpone; and torta della nonna, a pine-nut-topped lemon caramel tart.
Maialino
2 Lexington Ave. (at Gramercy Park North)
212-777-2410
www.MaialinoNYC.com
