Open Audio Article Player Elevated farm-to-table cuisine
BY LAURA TICHY
laura.tichy-smith@floridaweekly.com

Cielo Restaurant’s Oishii Shrimp Livornese. -LAURA TICHY / FLORIDA WEEKLY

The Dish: Elevated farm-to-table cuisine

The Place: Cielo Restaurant, 1244 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel; 239-472-5555; www.cielo-sanibel.com

The Details:

Cielo Restaurant’s 6-month-aged Manchego cheese. -LAURA TICHY / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Many restaurants on Lee County’s barrier islands tend towards beachy atmosphere and fare. However, Cielo Restaurant on Sanibel provides a sophisticated linen tablecloth atmosphere where you can dress to the nines to wine and dine on elevated farm-to-table cuisine. The restaurant features not only a culinary institute-trained executive chef overseeing the kitchen but also a certified mixologist helming the bar, so consider starting your meal with a cleverly crafted cocktail or a glass of carefully curated wine.

To go with that drink, consider the six-month-aged Manchego cheese appetizer ($16). The mellow cheese is softened by a light frying that turns its panko crumb crust golden and provides a nice crunchy contrast to the cheese. The three generously sized cheese triangles nest upon a cranberry-orange chutney and are sprinkled with arugula fried until crisp. With the fruitiness of the chutney and mild richness of the cheese, it’s almost like having dessert for your appetizer.

If you have ever wondered what actual, freshly made pasta tastes like, try the Oishii Shrimp Livornese ($44). The house-made spaghetti in this entrée is very substantial and has an amazing texture. It’s topped with a half-dozen large Oishii brand shrimp, which are farm-raised under sustainable, environmentally controlled conditions for the highest quality. Then the kitchen presents the dish in the style of the Tuscan port city of Livorno, whose cuisine features a lighter sauce of a white wine garlic broth with fresh tomatoes, capers and olives. It’s a hearty dinner, with the savory flavors from the salty capers and olives accentuating the shrimp, and the lighter sauce letting the fresh flavor of the quality ingredients shine through.

All the items on Cielo’s dessert menu sound so amazing that it’s hard to choose. The layered chocolate “tiramisu” ($14) lets you indulge in a mash-up of several favorite desserts at once. Chocolate mousse gets sandwiched between two thin slices of coffee liqueur chocolate sponge cake that’s seated in a puddle of espresso chocolate sauce. Then it’s topped with a generous swirl of whipped mascarpone cream, dusted with extra brute cocoa powder, and crowned with a chocolate truffle. To catch all the flavors at once, scoop down through the layers and swirl in the puddle of bittersweet sauce. The truffle is a pure ganache ball rolled in cocoa and like another dessert on top of your dessert. Need I say this is a creamy, rich experience with which to finish your visit to Cielo?

Cielo Restaurant’s chocolate tiramisu. -LAURA TICHY / FLORIDA WEEKLY