lifestyle
THE FOOD
By: CRISTINA DUCKWORTH
We began with an Aperol spritz and the main dishes we sampled included the ‘Linguine with River Ex mussels and shallots with cider and cream’ and ‘Bucatini puttanesca with sous-vide pork loin and tender stem broccoli’. Both were hearty, delicious fresh pasta dishes with their Italian and Bristolian influences. It left us wanting more…
IMAGES SOURCE: CRISTINA DUCKWORTH
What are some of your favourite dishes that Ben has made?
Ben is making tortellini stuffed with bolognaise at the moment out there, which is naughty, I’ve been trying to dip my fork in it and they keep telling me off… My favourite dish that he’s made though… Do you know what, he does a really simple pappardelle with n’duja, which melts into the pasta, it’s got pomodoro and mascarpone as well so it’s a creamy, spicy, tomato sauce pasta. Super simple, true style, and that’s it. Parmesan on top, little bit of basil, done! That’s always one of my favourites, love mopping up the sauce. Then he also does a really good vongole [spaghetti alle vongole] but then he throws a bit of cream in there so it’s a bit naughtier, a bit of cider as well, West Country cider you know! Lovely big flavours of the mussels, but you also get that naughty cider kind of sweet flavour to it as well, it’s nice.
Do you make up/invent any drinks yourself?
Yeah sometimes, we were making a Viennetta style espresso martini, with a little bit of mint in it and a little bit of chocolate and it’s a nice little drink to finish on. I guess the most popular drinks are the simple Aperol spritzes, which you’ve had today, refreshing, great way to start.
I’ve heard you’re opening a new ravioli restaurant, tell me about that!
So Joe (Ben’s younger brother), used to be head chef of Bellita over the road from us, a high end Spanish style tapas bar so Joe will be doing fresh stuffed pastas so different tortellinis, raviolis, and so on and so on… And there he’ll be focusing on finer, more delicate food whereas here the flavours are quite big, there’s a lot of pasta going on, this new restaurant will be a little more focused on delicate cooking, finer ingredients and Joe’s small plate style. We’re going to offer half plates of pasta, bigger portions of pasta, so people can share. (Well, that’s the idea we’d like people to share the pasta).