WINTER SEASON (LUNCH)
Our Pasta Programme
Every season, we shine a spotlight on a series of traditional pasta shapes fabricated using traditional methods and their culinary anthropology—from the moments in history that led to them, to the regional influences that shape them from past to present.
Ease into Winter with Raschiatelli, a scraped pasta that we serve alla Potentina – in a rich sauce of veal and pork, garnished with fried dried sweet peppers and a renowned Lucanian hard cheese.
Marvel at the depth achievable with fried eggplant and tomatoes with a Catania flagship, Rigatoni Lisci con Sugo alla Norma. Admire the skill and focus it takes to knead, roll, and braid rings of Lorighittas.
We also mark the return of our Tortellini in Brodo, a favourite from our opening menu that is making the rounds again just in time for the December rain.
Experience Italy’s nuanced regional diversity through the lens of the seasons, one strand, parcel, or shape at a time.
Cappellacci di Zucca Ferraresi con Burro e Salvia
Origins: Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna (North)
Egg pasta filled with winter squash, Parmigiano Reggiano D.O.P. and nutmeg, dressed in a butter and sage emulsion
Literally translated as “the pumpkin hats of Ferrara”, these pasta parcels are shaped like the straw hats typically worn by peasants during the Renaissance – when the first documented recipe of this dish emerged. Made using soft wheat flour and eggs for a tender texture, the dough for the cappellacci is kneaded and rolled traditionally with a mattarello into a translucent-thin layer. Each cappellaccio is stuffed with a velvety mix of pumpkin (or winter squash) and Parmigiano Reggiano, and traditionally seasoned with nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. While pumpkin might have been considered a peasant food in the 16th Century, the spices made this a dish reserved for banquets and special occasions. Today, the only spice that remains in the traditional recipe is nutmeg. Our version is as close to tradition as you can get, including the part where it is dressed with a sage-butter emulsion – the essential condiment for any pasta involving the squash family.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca con Tonno
Origins: Ischia, Naples, Campania (South)
Bronze extruded long pasta with a red sauce of tomato passata, olives, capers, parsley, anchovies and fresh tuna
The origins of spaghetti are murky, with sources placing the first record of dried pasta in the 5th Century Talmud, and the long, thin forms we are familiar with today originating in 12th Century Sicily, with pasta having been introduced to Europe by way of Arab conquest. Similarly, the original pantry pasta, alla puttanesca, sees some debate about its beginnings. While some stories draw a link from its name to the Italian word for a lady of the night—“puttana”—a more widely corroborated story credits sugo alla puttanesca to one architect/nightclub owner Sandro Petti. Faced with a dearth of kitchen ingredients one night, Petti threw the dish together after being asked to “make any kind of garbage” or “facci una puttanata qualsiasi” by a hungry patron. Our version uses spaghetti extruded from a traditional bronze die, creating that prized porosity to better hold our sauce, made with the classic triple flavour-punch of olives, capers, and anchovies with homemade tomato passata. Fresh tuna is tossed in at the last moment as a finishing, which adds some heft to the dish.
Umbricelli alla Norcina
Origins: Norcia, Perugia, Umbria (Central)
Handmade long ropes of eggless pasta with crumbled pork sausage, Pecorino Romano D.O.P. Crosta Nera, black winter truffles
Etymologically speaking, Umbricelli either gets its name from ‘umbrico’ or ‘earthworm’ in the Perugian dialect, or its region of origin. Its former moniker comes from its shape of fat, hand-rolled strands made with a dough constructed from just wheat flour and water. While simple, this pasta has been recognised by Italy’s Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies as a Prodotto Agroalimentare Tradizionale (PAT) or a “traditional agri-food product” due to its historical and rural beginnings. We offer a sauce of commensurate heartiness for this rustic pasta: alla Norcina, or in the style of Norcia’s famous pork butchers – who are renowned for their delicious charcuterie. Crumbled pork sausage forms the meaty base for this sauce, which is then enriched with white wine, ricotta, Pecorino and freshly milled black pepper. This soul-and-belly warming sauce is lifted and completed with black winter trufffles.
Orecchiette al sugo d’agnello
Origins: Bari, Puglia (South)
Ear-shaped short pasta in a braised lamb shank sugo
Formed one at a time by hand and a butter knife, each Orecchietta sports a pronounced dome shape with a rough exterior to catch and complement our braised lamb shank sugo simmered with crushed tomatoes, anchovies, white wine and Pecorino Romano DOP. In Bari’s Old Quarter, the last bastion of Orecchiette makers that line the ‘Strada Delle Orecchiette’ producing Orecchiette the traditional way, are the custodians of this beautiful shape. The highly skilled movements approximating mechanical precision and speed is a sight to behold and the iconic cultural identity of Bari and largely, of Puglia.
Rigatoni Lisci con Sugo alla Norma
Origins: Catania, Sicilia (Islands)
Bronze extruded short pasta with a Sicilian eggplant-tomato sauce, basil and ricotta salata (100g)
Is a rigatoni without ridges still a rigatoni? In eastern Sicily, the rigatone lisce proves its own identity, made by extruding pasta dough from a bronze die. Unlike its industrially made cousins with ridges that help sauces cling to its tubular body, this voluptuous iteration holds sauces just as well, thanks to its porosity. Catanian folklore lends inspiration to this dish — one involving an opera house named Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, and the other, an artist’s lunch by a Lady Marietta which he claimed was absolutely “norma”, or marvelous in Catanese. Whichever the story, this rustic summertime plate is the flagship dish of Catania.
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