Easter Sunday celebrations include all sorts of traditional dishes, from pizza rustica to roasted lamb to Colomba. Of course, there are some non-traditional ideas floating around as well, and we’ve found one in the lobster and truffle arancini “Easter eggs” being served as a special at Corvina Seafood & Grill in Boca Raton, Florida, this weekend.
Executive chef Jeff Tunks created the playful special as a way to celebrate the holiday, nestling arancini in a bird’s nest made from Kataifi dough to emulate an Easter basket. He says that while he usually stays true to arancini’s roots as a Sicilian street food and a way to use leftover rice, he’s “gilded the lily a bit,” with the lobster and truffle stuffing.
Tunks says that to make the dish, he mixes risotto, lobster, truffle, and truffle oil into the batter, then shapes the arancini into ovals to emulate eggs. Meanwhile, he uses a can to create the nest, sculpting the phyllo-like dough and spraying it with butter. To finish, he places the rich “Easter eggs” atop handmilled San Marzano tomatoes and parmesan, adding microgreens and dollops of fresh basil pesto to complete the nest-like feel.
A long-time Washington, DC chef who ran the kitchen at now-closed Notte Luna Italian Ristorante, among others, Tunks moved to Boca Raton to open Corvina in late 2021. He created a menu that’s meant to showcase South Florida’s bountiful seafood, establishing relationships with fishing boats that bring local swordfish, grouper, tilefish, and more into his kitchen. While the menu has nods to Italian with its arancinia as well as seafood pasta dishes, Tunks notes that there are a wide range of influences, spanning Latin American and Asia, from ceviche to sushi.
Tunks adds that he hopes to fill a niche in South Florida, offering the freshest seafood to discerning diners. “People come to Florida and expect seafood, and we have access to great local fish,” he says.
