I'm not sure why, but for once I don't feel like doing the whole critical deconstruction and analysis thing with the food we had.
Maybe it's because the evening was more about catching up with friends than about the dining experience (although the dining experience was great).
Maybe it's because Tutto Bene is more about simple food with excellent ingredients than about mind blowing technique and innovation. Simon Humble allegedly left Scusami because he wasn't happy with the level of fuss and bother in the menu, and set up directly opposite them to show that an Italian restaurant based on good food cooked simply and well could work too. And the care in the ingredients is evident - home baked bread, good sea salt on the table, a specially sourced and blended house evoo, and balsamic made from a mother must almost 100 years old.
Maybe it's because we've been there often enough over the years that it's not a new experience for me to analyse, but rather a repeat experience to be simply enjoyed. The restaurant has only been there five years, but it seems much longer because we've been there plenty of times.
Anyway, no critical dissection today, just food. Yum yum!
Blanched asparagus, boiled egg, shaved parmesan with truffle oil and truffle dressing (ground truffle mixed with olive paste I think). Clean flavours from the asparagus and egg and a good oomph of richness from the oil & paste.
Gnocchi alla Romana. Semolina gnocchi, baked with bocconcini on a tomato and basil sauce. And a healthy dollop of olive oil.
Vitello tonnato - poached veal fillet sliced thin with a mayonnaise that has been blended with cooked (normally canned) tuna, garnished with capers and a healthy dose of olive oil. It's creamy and tangy and salty (this was extra salty, there may have been some anchovies as well in the mayonnaise) all at once. I'm a complete sucker for this dish and will have it almost every time (it's almost as hard to pass up as brains!). Which is a shame because there's a whole section of assagini on the menu - small tastes of speck and radiccio bread dumplings, smoked mozzarella stuffed eggplant, baked scallops, almond crumbed quail - that we have never explored. Hmmm, perhaps we should go back.
Fish of the day was barramundi, pan-fried without any fuss and served with some reduced balsamic and a green salad with grapes. SMT pronounced it succulent.
Risotto of asparagus with black truffle paste and Parmagianno Reggiano. There are so many bad risottos out there that I practically never bother having them - it's not an easy dish to do to order in a restaurant, and I'm sure some skullduggery is going on behind the scenes, but the risotto here is just right, all the time. Of course.
Risotto of peas and pancetta with saffron (in passing, I appear to be having some mild type-lexia this afternoon - I've typed (and corrected) "ristoot" about ten times so far).
Risotto of porcini mushrooms with white truffle oil. "Slick and earthy".
Risotto el Presidente - the famous 1912 master must balsamic and three year old parmagiano.
There was cheese too - it was good cheese, but I didn't note the actual varieties. The cheese isn't on the printed menu as the components change regularly - another good sign.
There's a very good wine list which we totally ignored, just going for a few bottles of the house bubbly (NV French pinot chardonnay $43) and house chardonnay (Mornington Peninsula $40).
And they do have pasta, now that I look carefully at the menu. There's one home made fricelli and oxtail ragu among the entrees. But I'm not going to go back and change the teaser paragraph now.
Good food, well and simply done, lovely Southgate views on a warm spring evening, catching up with friends and maybe one glass more than was truly necessary of bubbly. I love this town.
Cheers,
Ecumer
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