This Italian restaurant in Lexington serves up family recipes from Tuscany

A lot of restaurants claim to have authentic Tuscan fare.

But at Sapori Italian Restaurant in Lexington, co-owner Karen van Heerden has tested and perfected her recipes in the most authentic of places: Tuscany.

An Italian word meaning “flavors” or “tastes,” Sapori opened in Lexington in August. Since that time, van Heerden has been serving up dishes such as Mediterranean risotto – creamy risotto with lumb crab meat, fresh parsley and lemon served with grilled scallops, shrimp and finished with a lemon butter sauce –and fresh tuna carpaccio – made with sun-dried tomatoes, fresh mango, cucumber and avocado with a sweet lime dressing and basil-infused olive oil.

But it’s Sapori’s Tuscan lasagna that may top the charts as the customer favorite.

“The Tuscan lasagna is made according to the family recipe from my daughter’s grandmother from Florence, Italy,” van Heerden said. “It’s different than American dishes, with layers of handmade pasta sheets, homemade beef ragù sauce slow cooked in red wine with our secret spices. And we use béchamel sauce and mozzarella cheese so it is very creamy – there’s no red tomato sauce.”

Other popular dishes include the sauteed pears served on a bed of fresh baby arugula, topped with slices of fresh prosciutto di parma and fresh buffalo mozzarella finished with aged fig balsamic glaze; caprese salad with grape vine tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, fresh basil and whipped basil cream finished with aged fig balsamic glaze; and homemade tiramisu, made with fresh mascarpone cheese, espresso coffee, Savoiardi Italian cookies and dark chocolate bits.

“I think people like the food because, first of all, we use the best products we can find to cook with – from our meats to our fish and fresh veggies,” van Heerden said. “We also use a lot of imported goods from Italy, looking for brands we would normally use in Italy. We always cook the food fresh when it is ordered. We never precook anything like our meats, etc. That truly changes the quality of the end product.”

How did Sapori get its start?

After 22 years in Florence, Italy, where she managed two cooking schools, van Heerden, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, moved to Lexington seven years ago. Three years later, van Heerden began making jewelry and opened Esihle Designs jewelry boutique and art gallery at 121 E. Main St., Lexington.

Four years later, after her Italian-born daughter and her Italian son-in-law (part of a family of restaurateurs in Italy) moved to Lexington, van Heerden got the notion to consider a new venture – one that used her skills garnered managing two Italian cooking schools and a culinary tours travel company in Italy.

“I have always had a great passion for food and wine,” van Heerden said. “We decided to open our own Italian restaurant, Sapori, as a family to have the opportunity to share with the people of Lexington all the tastes and passions of Tuscany.”

What does Sapori look like?

Sapori’s quaint dining space is elegant and inviting and creates an atmosphere van Heerden hopes allows customers to imagine they are dining in an Italian restaurant tucked in the hills of Tuscany.

Tile floors are topped with area rugs to create separate dining spaces, while a dessert counter in back lures customers to the sweets with handwritten descriptions on small pedestal chalk boards.

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "This Italian restaurant in Lexington serves up family recipes from Tuscany."