A&E

Terra Rossa returns to anchor Red Rock Resort’s culinary lineup

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Terra Rossa will warm your stomach—and your heart.
Photo: Christopher DeVargas

If Red Rock Resort’s Italian restaurant, Terra Rossa, sounds familiar, it’s because you’re revisiting a beloved locals favorite. The original Italian eatery closed in 2016 and returned to the property at the end of last year after a couple of other Italian concepts—Clique Hospitality’s Salute and Scott Conant’s Masso Osteria—came and went there. Perhaps the Stations-run Terra Rossa is what the space needed after all, and it’s back as the rightful anchor.

Chef Dan Rossi (Rose.Rabbit.Lie., Scarpetta, D.O.C.G.) helms Terra Rossa after nearly three years as Red Rock’s assistant executive chef. Now that he’s in the driver’s seat, he’s demonstrating his penchant for family-style Italian cuisine.

The expansive menu is divided into many categories: antipasto, soups and salads, pizza, pasta fresca (made in-house) and pasta secca (imported from Italy), beef, veal, chicken and fish. Start with the vegetarian artichoke Française ($9), which gets the traditional French treatment typically saved for chicken. Tender artichoke hearts are dipped in flour and egg, fried lightly and served with blistered cherry tomatoes and lemon butter sauce. The Bianca pizza ($14) is simple but flavorful, topped with salty prosciutto, fresh arugula and buffalo mozzarella.

The menu focuses heavily on veal, offering seven iterations, including three chop variations ($69) and classics like veal marsala and scaloppini ($30), while the chicken mattone ($22) takes advantage of Terra Rossa’s Josper grill and oven: The breast and legs are butterflied, stuffed with herbs and flattened with a brick, then grilled inside the charcoal oven to achieve a blackened outer crust, while the meat remains juicy on the inside.

If pasta’s what you crave, the cacio e pepe ($15) is as classically Roman as it gets: al dente spaghetti tossed with Pecorino Romano and peppercorn, then hit with a splash of cream and olive oil for a velvety, rich bite that only gets better. Save room, because cappuccino and cannoli is the proper way to punctuate a truly Italian meal.

TERRA ROSSA Red Rock Resort, 702-797-7777. Sunday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 5-11 p.m.

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