Ristorante William, Maranello

Grilled Seafood Platter

Hub and I have been together for many years. And never once have we celebrated Valentine's Day. He even told me when we started going out together that with his ex-girlfriend they had decided that it wasn't their thing (and what has that got to do with us?) so that's it, this is a non-event.

It was therefore quite weird that he should tell me at the beginning of the week to get T over to babysit so that we could have dinner en tete-à-tete on Friday evening (Saturday being V-Day and all). It must be the stress at work.

Anyway, he reserved us a table at William's in Maranello (Ferrari's CEO apparently dines there pretty often) and this restaurant specialises in seafood. The restaurant has big round windows to remind one of a boat and inside it is decorated simply always keeping to this theme.

They had an interesting choice of fish and other seafood dishes and everything was fresh and nicely prepared. Prosecco was served upon our arrival. We started out with Fritelle di biancheti (tiny fish fried together in batter) which was good if a little oily. Truth be told we were both imagining (and preferring) the tiny fish the way we used to eat them in Andalusia - individually battered and fried.

Prawns with Raw Artichokes

Then he had Prawns with Artichokes (said it was very good) while I had a Risotto Tuttomare (Seafood Risotto). The rice was cooked to al dente in a rich seafood broth and generously accompanied by seafood - if a little too salty for me.

Risotto Tuttomare

We both had their Imperial Grilled Seafood platter for our main course. Lobster, prawns, sea bass, scallop...Nicely grilled with a touch of olive oil and lemon juice. But I thought the lobster was a tad dry.

For dessert they were unfortunately not more imaginative than most of the other restaurants in the region. Hub had a semifreddo with orange and I had the torta barozzi with mascarpone. Both good but boring.

Torta Barozzi with Mascarpone

Well, so this Friday the 13th had been a good one. It was Friday the 14th (aka Valentine's Day) that should turn out to be a nightmare. First of all I developed a bad cold during the night (sore throat, cough, itchy lungs etc) and woke up in the morning to the kids screaming away. Their room was flooded no thanks to a burst pipe in the heater. And of course Hub wasn't around, he left like minutes earlier for work - yes, on a Saturday morning.

Furniture, mattresses, toys etc all soaked - and black. I had to dress up quickly in the cold and get into damage control mode. Dried and cleaned the floor and furniture, removed the mattresses and toys from the floor, washed the bedsheets, carpets etc. Tried getting the geometra but the guy wouldn't answer. Hub had a little more luck later on and the plumber turned up a few hours later to repair the pipes and reset the gas burner. Not a nice idea not having heating in the house in the middle of a cold winter. What a lousy morning after such a lovely evening.

Da William

Via Gioia,1
41053 Maranello

Tel : 0536 941027