From the number of eateries around town, it’s clear than our favourite food is Italian. But as good as many of them are, only a few go much beyond the pizza and pasta clichés.
Then, over recent years Hobart has seen the cucina casalinga – home cooking – food of the Tutti a Tavola ladies from Tuscany in their special lunches at Cola Valley Vineyard and, at last year’s Savour Tasmania, the rather mundane food by Marco Canora from New York.
But by far the most exciting Italian dinner I’ve enjoyed recently was the special Sicilian dinner Friday week ago at the Italian Pantry.The Pantry has been doing casual breakfasts and lunches for over a year and on Friday nights the warehouse becomes a dinner-time trattoria. The Sicilian dinner was the first of a series of Italian regional-themed events John Sera and Matt Rao plan to present through the year and chef Marido Maciocco’s dishes on the night were as good as the best, and much better than most of the meals I’ve had in Sicily itself.
Sicily has been settled, invaded, conquered, sacked, raped, governed and mis-governed by everyone from the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans to the Byzantines, Saracens, Arabs, Normans, French and Spanish and you can read its history in the island’s food, today the most vivid and varied of any region in Italy.
For the dinner, Maciocco and Rao chose to compose a menu featuring regional specialties from around the island – olives from Agrigento with Sicilian wild oregano and fennel, Messina’s seared swordfish, scallopini a marsala from Palermo, spaghetti a bottarga from the tuna-fishing port of Trapani and caponata, cassata, gelati and canola from just about everywhere.
The night’s wine list offered nine wines from indigenous Sicilian grapes by the glass and bottle running from a wonderfully golden and refreshing Grillo Parlante 2010 Fondo Antico through two Nero d”Avolas to Malvasia delle Lipari, Marsala and a rich, dessert Zibibbo Liquoroso supplemented by an extensive selection of Italian digestive and apertivi, beers and limoncellos.
Maciocco’s CV includes long sous chef experience at such iconic Italian establishments in Melbourne as Marchetti’s Latin and The Society and the flavour, creamy texture and light crumbing of his arancini and crochette/croquets could serve as object lessons for many other chefs around town who are featuring these increasingly popular items on their menus.
He says he’s not trying to replicate the Latin’s or The Society’s style here. “We’re not pretending to be a restaurant. We’re a trattoria – and we want to keep things casual and informal, serving good, honest, home-style cooking. But, with the great variety of Italian products here on the Pantry shelves, I’m like a kid in a lolly shop and it’s easy to be inspired”.
Well, his Sicilian menu was both inspired and inspiring and, on the two occasions I’ve eaten the regular and very popular Friday night dinners, they’ve been just as good.
