Let’s get one thing straight: Cotto knows pasta. And it knows it well.
It makes sense. Stirling Restaurant Group’s newest spot in Morristown is led by Chef Jordan Petriello, who hails from pasta powerhouses, including NYC’s Rezdôra and the now-closed Marlboro staple Il Nido.
But, as much as I love pasta, it was going to take more than noodles for Cotto to stand out. Competition is high—there are dozens of modern Italian restaurants in New Jersey. How would Cotto eclipse the rest?
I was lucky enough to dine on the first day of the new summer menu—a good opportunity to satiate my seemingly eternal craving for bright stone fruit, summer squash, spicy sauces, and cheese.
Aside from the obvious must-orders like the “pull-apart” focaccia, a clam bite offers a different approach to a bread course. I’ll be honest: I don’t know what I expected when I ordered “charred clams,” but it wasn’t this. And that’s okay. Sweet clam meat sits atop a wedge of fresh schiacciata—a Tuscan-style flatbread with a remarkably crisp golden shell and a fluffy, airy interior. A cherry pepper aioli and flakes of fragrant Sicilian oregano bring a coastal flair to the dish, which is easily enjoyed in one to two bites. It was a fun, unexpected plate. Exactly what I look for when starting things off.
Another amuse-style appetizer, the crispy potato-leek croquettes are as good as you’d expect. A golden-brown breading hides a gooey interior that bursts with leek flavor. It’s as texturally appealing as it is delicious. And as someone who thinks leeks are perhaps the most underrated allium that exists, there was never going to be a world where they weren’t on my table.
Then the dish of the summer hits. The dish I can’t get out of my head. A salad of sorts, layers of thin cucumber shingles hide fresh white peaches beneath them—which are punched out with flora-shaped molds, leaving tiny flowers of sweet peach flesh. With it: real flowers. Chamomile, specifically, and all of its floral, honied aroma. At the bottom of the plate, a cold brodo made from chamomile and white peach.
This was a knockout. Texturally alluring, complex, bright—it’s a dish that piques your interest as soon as it hits the table. And continues to do so as you make your way through, each bite revealing a quality that you didn’t notice before.
Yes, we can talk about the pasta. This is Cotto at its sharpest.
Petriello’s philosophy revolves around hand-rolled and extruded pastas, with accompaniments that play on tradition without being tethered to it. The Amatriciana is a prime example of this.
My favorite pasta, classic Amatriciana, comes from Lazio and is made simply with tomato, black pepper or chili, salty guanciale, and sharp Pecorino Romano cheese—sometimes onion, depending on who you ask. Typically, it’s paired with bucatini, spaghetti, or rigatoni. Cotto throws you a curveball by adding squid.
The result is a salty, punchy, vibrant ragu made from a combination of guanciale and chopped squid. It’s neither too seafood-forward nor too funky. Instead, it lives in this middle ground between a dish I know and love and something I’ve never had before. Linguine is the pasta of choice, and it fits it well.
A tad more on the side of tradition is one of Petriello’s specialties: fresh-rolled garganelli with a rich, Modena-style pork ragu. Pork is cooked down with stock, aromatics, and cured meats like mortadella. What you’re left with is an intense, stick-to-your-ribs sauce that is unapologetically pork-forward.
It’s unassuming. It arrives at the table as a mixture of tan and brown. There’s no flair. No mountain of grated cheese. No truffle. But what is there is masterful technique—the ability to turn simple ingredients into something spectacular. The restraint to avoid unnecessary gimmicks that would just get in the way. That, to me, deserves praise.
In the moment, my exact words were “that’s fucking insane,” which I repeated 10 or so times before the plate was scraped clean.
That insanity continues. One bowl is filled with rigatoni, sauced with glossy braised brisket, tomato, chili, and a swirl of contrasting pesto. Another is vibrant green, studded with coins of toothsome zucchini and Provolone del Monaco—an obvious nod to Sorrento’s Spaghetti alla Nerano. Delicate morsels of tortellini come stuffed with white asparagus and tangy Caprino cheese, finished with an emulsion of brown butter and white asparagus.
In addition to pasta, Cotto offers several meat and fish entrees. Maybe you opt for the chicken, which comes in a neat roulade—the crisp skin encasing moist, seasoned meat. Underneath it is a bed of fregola in a spicy tomato sauce.
Or, perhaps the halibut catches your attention. It’s seared hard, boasting a deep golden-brown crust, and a clear consommé made from English peas and fennel is poured around the perimeter of the dish. Tender baby turnips and peas swim in the broth. It’s another example of Petriello’s technique on full display. It’s light and fresh. The fish is simply seasoned, and the produce is allowed to really shine.
For dessert, Cotto pairs herbaceous fennel mousse and jammy strawberries with a decadent olive oil cake. The berries are cooked down into a compote—spooned over the cake, its juices dripping down to the bottom of the plate. And for fennel freaks (I’m coining that) like myself, the mousse is the perfect accompaniment, bringing complexity to an otherwise common dessert at Italian restaurants in the summertime. It’s that extra panache that really sends it home.
I came to Cotto wondering how it would set itself apart from the pack of contemporary Italian restaurants this state has in abundance. I left with my answer: restraint, technique, quality ingredients, and the confidence to allow a dish like the garganelli to shine as it truly is.
It’s not a competition, and Cotto isn’t trying to be the loudest in the room. It doesn’t need to. Somewhere between the peach salad and the pasta, I stopped comparing it to the others. But if I must—it’s one of the best openings this year.
Morristown found its new flagship restaurant.
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
