Alma Nove and a Wahlberg Hangover

posted on June 13, 2011 by Bianca Garcia

Let’s just say I have a Wahlberg hangover.

Last week my friends and I were blown away by the food at Alma Nove in Hingham. And this past weekend I time-travelled back to my teens as we saw NKOTBSB (that’s New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys for you people not in the know) in concert at Fenway Park. Hello, Mark Wahlberg, nice of you to introduce the boy bands. And hellloooooo Donnie.

Those Wahlberg brothers did good.

For Alma Nove, the credit goes to Executive Chef Paul Wahlberg. In all honestly, when we decided to go to Hingham restaurant, I wasn’t expecting much. I thought we were in for a nice Italian meal, and maybe a Wahlberg sighting. But our dinner was filled with mouth-watering, impeccably prepared dishes, each and every one generating oohs and aahs from me and my dining companions.

plus we had a beautiful waterfront view of the sunset over the Hingham shipyard

we were also able to hang out near the fire pit

The menu is simple, broken down into the traditional Italian courses of antipasti (appetizers), insalata (salads), primi (pasta), secondi (main entrees), and contorni (sides). There were so many appealing dishes that my friends and I decided to just order several items to share.

There were four of us, and we chose one appetizer each:

grlled calamari salad with arugula and oven dried tomato

braised pork meatballs with creamy polenta

wild boar confit with strozzapreti, guanciale, and dried plums

and a roasted eggplant caprese with burrata cheese

I could’ve eaten that whole plate of the eggplant caprese and called it a happy night; it was so tasty! The drizzle of the savory pesto sauce really complemented the roasted eggplant, and the burrata was so soft and creamy inside. Now that I have easy access to plump tomatoes and cheese from the farmers markets, I think I will be recreating this dish all summer.