Ciao: New Month, Old Traditions — October at the Table
butternut squash risotto
At Sale Pepe, every new month begins with a question: what does the season ask of us now? October’s answer comes in the form of porcini mushrooms, butternut squash, and a playful nod to Rome’s most essential pasta. Our new menu brings these flavors together — a butternut squash risotto, a pizza topped with roasted zucca, pappardelle tangled with porcini, and cacio e pepe reimagined as golden, crisp arancini.
In Italy, October has always been a month of harvest. Families head into the forests to forage porcini, carrying home baskets of mushrooms that will perfume kitchens all season long. Squash ripens in the fields, ready to be folded into risotti or tucked into the sweet filling of tortelli di zucca. These dishes are born of place, of rhythm, of tradition. They remind us that the turning of a calendar is not just a date — it is an invitation to return to what has always sustained us.
And there is nothing flashy about these flavors. A risotto requires patience, a pizza restraint. Arancini are cucina povera at its best, transforming what is leftover into something irresistible. Porcini may be precious, but the preparation is not; it is simply garlic, olive oil, the right pasta, and the hand that knows when to turn the heat.
That is the essence of New Month, New Menu for us: not invention for its own sake, but finding new expression in what is already known. October reminds us that when we begin with what the season gives, the table will never lack. At Sale Pepe, we honor those old traditions even as we make them our own, trusting that the simplest notes, played with care, will always linger longest.
We are excited to share these flavors of autumn with our kama’aina, regulars, annual visitors and first timers this month- for them to taste and tell us what speaks to them the most. Which dish feels like October to you — the earthy porcini, the golden risotto, the playful arancini, or the sweet warmth of zucca? Come, taste, share, and make these traditions your own at our table- or your own.
