Holy Cannoli and Calzones!

I spent Saturday evening (about a month ago now) listening to the NM Philharmonic Orchestra play the fantastic music of John Williams.  He created the music for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and even Far and Away just to name a few.  After our ears and hearts were full of his inspiring melodies, my husband and I needed to fill our stomachs before the growling echoed the booming timpani.  We headed over to Saggio’s where we both ordered calzones and cannoli.

These were both firsts for me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The calzones were massive!  If we had known how big they were, we would have only ordered one and split it.  The Four Meat Calzones consisted of pepperoni, Italian beef, bacon, and sausage with pesto, ricotta, and mozzarella with your choice of bread.  I chose the traditional, while the husband chose the rosemary.  There were a lot of flavors going on within my simple crust – spicy sausage and pepperoni, a soothing mozzarella, and a sweet pesto.  It was almost like a circus going from one flavor to the next, one big ring performance to the next, and yet they all combined nicely for an excellent experience.   However, for me this was only achieved by taking out all of the ricotta. I don’t like the texture of this cheese and honestly, with so many other things and tastes going on, the calzone didn’t need it.

And then for dessert!  Holy cannoli, Batman!  I know that John Williams did not write any of the themes for Batman, but after listening to the themes for super heroes all night, this is what came to mind.  The cannoli is a scavenger hunt for the tastebuds.  It is deliciously sweet, but mysterious as it is difficult to place the sweet flavors.  Cannoli is basically a really thin crispy rolled cookie that is filled with a sweet cheese.  I knew it was cheese and yet it tasted nothing like the cheese I have tasted.  I’m pretty sure that I tasted something citrus – orange, lemon, maybe zest?  There was also a hint of cinnamon and just a few chocolate chips.  I’m not sure that I named all the flavors on my scavenger hunt, but it was sure fun trying to find them.

A seemingly simple evening started with the symphony, turned into a circus, and ended with a scavenger hunt.  We had no idea our evening would turn into such an event!