Briciole ristorante gastronomia (London): great new Italian

 (Added October 2012: some more recent comments are here)
This is what you could be doing on a lazy week-end morning: read your papers while nibbling some fine mortadella just sliced off the Berkel (or go the whole hog and stuff a nice rosetta with it).
 

Those who read us regularly know how much we care about Italian cuisine, and how frightened we are by the horrors and even more by the mediocrity (more insidious because less obvious) of so many so-called Italian restaurants in London. Well, we'd like to welcome a lovely new place that we suspect will make many food lovers and wine lovers happy.

Briciole is five minutes walk from the Edgeware road tube station, in Homer street, in the space previously occupied by the Honey Pot pub. The people behind the enterprise are Maurizio Morelli and Umberto Tosi, respectively Chef patron and manager (in the photo) at Latium.

The concept here is very different from that of Latium: a gastronomy/cappuccino area in the front, a rustic, warm, spacious, bright restaurant area at the back. The food is simple Italian trattoria style: straightforwardly cooked dishes, in which great produce and care in execution combine to deliver the authentic pleasure of Italian cusine.

For the bread, they imported not the bread but a specialist breadmaker (a human, we mean) from Italy, and the results are apparent. His focaccia is light as air and superb, all breads in fact have great lightness and springiness, and flavour. On a first visit he was still struggling with the different temperature, water, and humidity conditions so that the most sensititive type of bread, the 'rosette', still did not come out with the typical 'void' inside. On a seond visit, it looked like he'd sorted it out!

We tried many dishes, maybe TOO many...of which here's a selection.

Vitello tonnato. 

We know that some Brits find this disgusting but if you tolerate it, be advised this is a very fine example, the veal melting in the mouth, the sauce copious, creamy and intense but not overwhelming, the capers adding that extra dimension, a fine demonstration of that balance which is, in spite of what some people believe, the hallmark of Italian cuisine. (£5)

Tagliatelle with artichokes . 



Tagliatelle, like most pasta, is made at Latium and cooked similarly here. Since at Latium you eat one of the best pastas in London...and here it costs £8, draw your own conclusion...

Salsiccia with sprouting broccoli . 



A true Italian salsiccia (£8), aromatised with fennel, hearty and gentle, dangerous because we could eat too much of it. Notice the cooking and the browning and compare, please, with the sorry, careless version at Sardo . See why even simple dishes can differ in execution?

Polpette (meatballs) al sugo di pizzaiola . 



Accompanied by generous and excellent tomato sauce, we are not sure exactly what mix they put it in, certainly some pork and some cheese. Wonderful.(£5). On another visit we tried the same polpette in a splendid chicken broth. But as we like our veggies, more sprouting broccoli "ripassati" (i.e. sauteed in the pan with chilli and garlic - yes, the rosetta is empty as it should be!)

 

To conclude, Tiramisu and Cannolo

 also were as they should be and would pass grandma's test with flying colours.

We also tried a goat prosciutto which was both lean and melting in the mouth, and some beignets with chantilly cream, and a ricotta tortino, and... we just could not stop, it's that type of place - on diet for a week after that meal.


The service is sweet, and the prices kind, very kind: both primi and mains between £5 and £8, desserts just over £3, espresso £1.60.

A special mention is deserved by the wines. The wine prices, ohmygod, are simply eye-popping so low they are, completely out of line with London markups. If you like wine and Italian wine in particular, just go, really, as the list (still under construction) is very interesting and you'll find bottles you've probably never seen before, in a price range from £15 to over £150, if you really want your Sassicaia (and if there's a place where you don't feel ripped off having a Sassicaia, this is it). 

 For us this experience was almost moving, as we found true Italian flavours combined with the professionalism of an experienced team who's worked in the UK for decades, the end result being (sad to say, but true) that we ate and felt better than in 90% of Italian trattorie.  Go try it for yourselves, if you don't like it, wine is on us!

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Dinner at Latium

Ever dependable Maurizo Morelli delighted us with a fine Autumnal treat a couple of weeks ago at Latium. What is more Autumnal than white truffles?





They are simply irresistible, every time they were brought to a table the whole room would be infused with their aroma and we were sniffing like crazed bears. That the tagliolini are made masterfully (light, elastic), boiled exactly to that evanescent critical point, and that the condiment is judged to perfection makes this dish a heavenly experience.


The other primo piatto was a scallop raviolo with courgettes and clams





a whiff of of the sea (splendid clams) in the trademark light pasta that made an excellent counterpoint to the earthy flavours of the other dish.


This Pan fried fillet of red mullet, white onion sauce, sautéed green cauliflower with Taggiasche olives and sun dried tomatoes dressing was so joyous and sunny that it made our picture red...(we'll never learn)





You can see from the picture how accurately the skin has been made crispy. This dish was airy and light, full of intense Mediterranean flavours, in its genre a small masterpiece.


This





you've already seen here...


We finished with a ravishing pair of cannoli
 


To be precise: Sicilian cannoli filled with ricotta, candied fruit and chocolate, orange sauce. The crust is crunchy to the right point, the ricotta filling sweet, luscious and indulgent, the sweet and sour notes from the sauce are almost painfully intense.


And this  Domori dark chocolate mousse, poached pear in red wine, Marsala sabayon and white chocolate sauce





 was a feast: very clean, intense, bitter chocolate mellowed by the sweet sabayon and white chocolate sauce, with the moistily delicious poached pears.


The cost of all this is seventy pounds (plus the truffle supplement).


Now, what to say? For such first quality produce, cooked at this standard, this is breathtaking value. For example, you'd spend ninetytwo (plus an even bigger truffle supplement) at the celebrated and Michelin starred Zafferano. Yet we think that Needham (the Zafferano chef) for how serious a professional he is, just cannot compete with Maurizio in terms of understanding and mastering of Italian flavours. Not to mention that in the disappointing visit we reported, now a long time ago, we found a large bone in a fish, and this is a documented objective major mistake and not a matter of taste, a piece of sloppiness which we've never encountered in the dozens of times we've been at Latium. Yet the bloggers, inspectors and critics of this world seem to be blinded by atmosphere, location and glamour to what is actually in the plate. As far as we are concerned, we have no desire to be 'processed' by the Zafferanos of this world and to feel like cash cows, we'll happily leave that kind of place to others and we'll equally happily continue to be delighted by modest, talented, under-recognised Maurizio for many years to come!


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Thank god there was this

On our dreadful night at Brunello there was a comforting thought, that in a couple of nights we would be in for uncomparably better. Let us be specific.

From the Oxford English Dictionary (online):

genius:

….

4. Natural ability or capacity; quality of mind; the special endowments which fit a man for his peculiar work. (Now only with mixture of sense 5.)

…

5. (Only in sing.) Native intellectual power of an exalted type, such as is attributed to those who are esteemed greatest in any department of art, speculation, or practice; instinctive and extraordinary capacity for imaginative creation, original thought, invention, or discovery. Often contrasted with talent.

In sense 4 the word had come to be applied with especial frequency to the kind of intellectual power manifested by poets and artists

… The difference between genius and talent has been formulated very variously by different writers, but there is general agreement in regarding the former as the higher of the two, as ‘creative’ and ‘original’, and as achieving its results by instinctive perception and spontaneous activity, rather than by processes which admit of being distinctly analyzed.

So, what is genius? Below is a possible answer:

Lamb strips with on ‘puntarelle’ with anchovies dressing and hazelnut. Simplicity and sophistication. Puntarelle (the green veggies on which the lamb strips are resting) in anchovy dressing are a classic of Roman and Latial cuisine. The tender strips of lamb with anchovies are not: do their intense tastes clash? Of course not, with a helping hand from the hazelnuts. While anchovies are often seen in rich French/English lamb casseroles and stews, their use here is all Mediteranean lightness and freshness. Pure genius. And no prizes for guessing where we ate it.

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Latium

The day: 14^th January 2008, Dinner.
The place: 21, Berners Street, London W1 (020-73239123)
The venue: Latium
The food: Fine Italian Dining
The drinks: Italian based list, wide price range starting from below £20 up to the hundreds, also by the glass.

(For a more recent meal, see here)

Well…if you read this blog regularly you know already how we feel about Latium and the cuisine of his chef/patron Maurizio Morelli. If not…be aware from the outset that for us it’s simply the best Italian cuisine in London: yet unrewarded by Michelin stars (though they will come, no doubt) but well-noted in the best and most competent Italian guide which covers some restaurants abroad (by this guy), and by legions of discerning customers, which makes it advisable to book in time (at least twice we found it fully booked on a Monday night!). After our review from our visit almost exactly one year ago we want to update you – we need to update you: there are changes, big changes. And there is progress.

Starting from the interior:

Beside some new benches in the smart L-shaped front room, the big news is a chef’s table in a separate room near the kitchen (in the photo you can spot in the distance the window on that room, and beyond, the kitchen, all viewed from near the restaurant’s entrance).

A closer view is here:

Many tables are round, as we like, and all are comfortable and well-spaced. On the right of the first photo, another novelty: a bar area where coffees are prepared. Mmh…you know what? Thinking of it, in the more than 50 times we’ve visited this place we’ve never had a coffee: the single item on which we cannot pass a judgment! If you have sampled it let us know what it is like.

And in the front room an almost entirely new team since our first review: Baldino has left, Alex has been joined by the new manager Umberto Tosi, and most of the rest of the young team is also new. Will Signor Umberto lead the team as aptly as it was led before? Sorry, you’ve got to wait: you know that we always talk about the (all-important) service only in the end…Here, while you wait have these lovely canapes with the compliments of the kitchen:

These haven’t changed, so we quote ourselves: they are a refined mini-take on the traditional ‘rosticceria’ fare: mini-arancini (deep fried rice balls), mini calzone (bread dough stuffed with mozzarella and parma ham) and mini pizzetta rustica, imagine a cross between puff pastry and bread dough, splashed with tomato sauce, rolled, cut up and cooked – and of course gorgeous olives.

There are remarkable news on the food front too (what did you expect?) – but for that, again, you have to be patient until the desserts to find out…more on this story later…

The menu pricing is just as it was last year (good!): £24.50 for two courses or £28.50 for three. None of those as ubiquitous as odious supplements that make a mockery of fixed price menus: whether you have wild seabass or fillet of beef or pork belly that’s what you pay. And the shorter lunch set menu is incredible for this quality of food and service (oops, we are giving the game away on the service): £15.50 for two courses and £19.50 for three. The signature dish is still there: the multicoloured four fish ravioli we photographed and reviewed here and here which epitomises Morelli’s passion for filled pasta. The rest of the list has starters such as fois gras terrine with toasted morello cherry bread, or salad of veal tongue with tuna sauce and baby leeks in vinegar; primi such as rigatoni with baby octopus, black olives and broccoli (try them, they are terrific); secondi such as pan-fried fillet of wild sea bass, candied lemon, fennel and red pepper sauce; and an entire ravioli menu, both as starters and main course, and indeed more…more on this story later...

The bread arrives:

Sardinian cartamusica, spinach and pecorino bread, walnut and raisins bread, sun dried tomato rolls and olive rolls. Serious stuff, a basket quite unique in London.

We begin with this:

This is not on the menu (come on guys, we’ve been here more than 50 times, we told you!). It is artichokes in a clear hen broth with quail eggs and prawns. Divine. With some pepper, the intense sweetness of the prawns is exalted, and a creamy explosion of flavour on your palate is triggered by the eggs. The (Sardinian we believe) artichokes are delicious and fit the prawns and eggs combination very well. Light, elegant and rich at the same time, this is already a show-stopper.

For primi we go for:

- Ravioli filled with Taleggio cheese, Swiss chard and walnuts, and marjoram.

- Tagliolini with crab meat and aubergine sauce

The ravioli make our job easy: when a dish is so beautiful to look at, and it is as delicious as it is beautiful, little more has to be said. We shall only remark that the walnut flavour makes a heavenly marriage with the chard, and that the butter condiment is flavoursome but judiciously light.

And now the tagliolini, in their velvety and luscious condiment, with the pungent aubergine expressing itself with personality. The pasta is perfect, and the sweet crab is well integrated in the sauce. The tomatoes add both a visual and a flavour finish, and an extremely high quality olive oil suffuses the ensemble. An example of a dish which is refined and at the same time appeals to your most basic gluttonous instincts: you want to just tuck in and stuff yourself, but you also want to pause and relish the flavour.

For secondi we choose:

- Poached fillet of beef with spinach, pickled carrots, toasted hazelnuts, in tomato broth

- Roast fillet of monkfish wrapped with lard, pumpkin sauce, savoy cabbage, girolles mushrooms and red wine reduction.

The fillet of beef will remind any Italian of a deconstructed ‘pizzaiola’ (beef/veal with tomato sauce, very popular in Italian homes). But there’s quite a difference here: touches such as the acidic pickled carrots and the toasted hazelnuts, the monstrously good broth (Morelli’s stocks are great), the perfect cooking of the beef (sous-vide we think), make of this amazing kaleidoscope of flavours a ravishingly beautiful modern dish of deconstructed tradition. Indeed for Man this is the best among many fine dishes, and he is forever and beyond reason imploring Morelli not to take it off the menu…

Talking about beautiful dishes, look at how the monkfish is resting on a brilliant palette of colours. Flavourwise, there is a dominant theme of sweetness, primarily from the smooth pumpkin sauce which gains structure from the wine reduction (this is a good example of how to create a 'classical sauce effect' while keeping the dish light avoiding heavy use of dairy fats). The mushroom flavour is very concentrated and holds its own assertively. The fish is cooked well, the bite through the lard into the moist meat extremely pleasurable.

And finally, the dessert:

- Three colour ravioli

Yes, here is the big novelty, a new signature dish: the passion for ravioli has finally made into dessert territory! From left to right: apple ravioli with pine kernels, raisins, cinnamon and vanilla sauce; chocolate ravioli filled with ricotta, candied fruit, pistachio, served with orange sauce; mint ravioli with pineapple in coconut sauce. Well, what to say, just read the ingredients and salivate…this is a triumph and this dish will make a mark. Just note that the apple ravioli are a delightfully deconstructed ‘strudel’, the chocolate ravioli play incredibly intensely with the orange sauce, and the final coconut sauce concludes this tour the force with a caress on your palate.

After this complex piece of work, we wanted to show you also:

- Yogurt mousse with wild berries.

This mousse is one of our long-time favourites when we feel we are eating too much (that is, always) and yet we need a dessert, and illustrates the fact that even for very basic, very simple dishes it matters a lot who prepares them, an ordinary chef or a serious chef. None of the excess acidity you might fear from the yogurt: just a perfect blend of flavours in a very light yet tasty dessert.

With the usual 0.75 bottle of water and a bottle of wine that disgracefully we forgot to make a note of and whose memory has been washed down by many more litres of the noble liquid since, but which cost about £25 (that we remember), the bill came to a supremely reasonable £96.20. We never want them because we are so full, but they are delicious and they are brought to your table as a final complimentary item:

We have tried them in the past, and if you still have space in your stomachs, they are well worth it (if you only have space for one, the lusciously decadent white chocolate truffle in cinnamon coating will linger in your memory).

The service at Latium is one of the best we know of. A team that operates unhurriedly the busy dining room like clockwork, with fresh directness but also with elegance and a touch of formality, and who act -as should always be the case- in close cooperation with the kitchen, and with an intimate knowledge of the dishes. All coordinated with towering assurance and friendliness by the charming Signor Umberto, and of course by the equally friendly and energetic Signor Alex, who continues from the old team. Chef Morelli’s cuisine rests on very sound classical foundations, yet, as you have seen, there is so much inventiveness and originality. These combine to produce a profoundly personal cuisine, not similar to any other, with dishes that strike for their ‘solidity’ going hand in hand with a supreme lightness. And for their great visual beauty (take another look). Add to this the restaurant’s new look (with few more trimmings still to come), Latium is definitely on the up. This is fine, beautiful dining - at killer prices. Maurizio Morelli is an outstanding young chef you’ll hear much more about in the future.

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Latium

The day: 10^th January 2007, Dinner (and many other times…).
The place: 21, Berners Street, London W1T 3LP (020-73239123)
The venue: Latium
The food: Fine Italian Dining
The drinks: Extensive list, Italian based, wide price range starting from well below £20 up to the hundreds, also by the glass

Let us come clean: this is our favourite restaurant in the UK. Since we came here the first time about a year ago we have never been disappointed once (and we come every week when we are in London), neither by the kitchen nor by the service. This is where we come to relax and be pampered after a hard day at work. So relaxed that - when we do not brave the weather to ride our scooter – we risk missing the last train home!

The name is meant to remind us of the provenance of Chef patron Maurizio Morelli, from Latina (a city in the Lazio region). The cuisine reflects inspiration from plenty of other Italian regions (as in most Italian establishments in London) but there are some rare dishes and ingredients that you hardly find anywhere outside Rome and surroundings. Examples are ‘carciofi alla giudia’ (artichokes fried in a special way that even in Rome you only find in the ‘Jewish ghetto’ area – it’s really called that way) and puntarelle.

The outside is very discrete, and stands opposite the Philip Stark’s designed Sanderson hotel, so you won’t miss it.

The new menu was not yet available at the time of our visit, but we were given a sneak preview, so here it is:

It is nicely straight: 24.50 for two courses or 28.50 for three, and no supplement for anything, be it beef fillet or scallops (unlike almost everywhere else)!

Plus, they have just launched a shorter lunch set menu, unbeatable for this quality at 15.50 for two courses and 19.50 for three.

For the first week it offered dishes like Chickpeas soup with rosemary, Stracci di pasta with aubergines, tomato and ricotta and roast fillet of pork with Borlotti beans and black cabbage (desserts and cheeses from the main menu).

The dining room is L shaped with well spaced tables, many of them round (which we prefer), and the decor is modern-sober. In the evenings there is a more intimate lighting, as opposed to the bright lunchtime setting. Since it was busy as usual we did not want to bother the other diners taking pictures of the interior – you’ll have to check it out yourselves

A few minutes after being seated, you are brought an enticing tray of canapés, a refined mini-take on the traditional rosticceria fare: mini-arancini (deep fried rice balls), mini calzone (bread dough stuffed with mozzarella and Parma ham) and mini pizzetta rustica, imagine a cross between puff pastry and bread dough, splashed with tomato sauce, rolled, cut up and cooked – and of course gorgeous olives:

We ordered squid ink rigatoncini with cod, cauliflower and saffron, and the unmissable signature dish, the 4 fish ravioli. While we waited, the bread arrived: cartamusica, spinach and pecorino bread, walnut and raisins bread, sun dried tomato rolls and olive rolls. This is a very respectable bread basket! It would come with extra virgin olive oil for dipping, but we skip it to pretend we are reducing our calories intake.

But not only bread: before the primi, a welcome from the kitchen, off menu: a beautiful salmon tartare topped with diced oranges, rocket, lemon peel, extra virgin olive oil and basil. This dish summarises well Morelli’s style. Colour and composition are obviously very important, but taste does not play second fiddle. An elegant and simple dish, but also very satisfying and ‘consistent’ in the mouth. The taste of the salmon was strong enough to bear the sweet from the orange, in turn balanced by the bitter of the lemon peel and the rocket.

Now the primi. All pasta on offer is fresh, with no exception. In particular, our rigatoncini. Here again look at the colour (beyond the inadequacy of our pictures, if you can). They come in an aromatic guazzetto (generally made with oil, water and herbs: see e.g. the second picture here), and for us the most satisfying aspect of this dish is the play with the different textures of the pasta, vegetable and fish. The portion is substantial, which does not harm

The ravioli are sublime. They come in the following order: squid ink raviolo filled with monkfish with a hint of courgettees; spinach raviolo filled with brill and a hint of carrots; saffron raviolo filled with salmon and a hint of spring onions; and finally tomato raviolo filled with tuna and a hint of peppers. All dressed with butter (not as yellow as in the picture), diced tomatoes and seabass roe. The thin black dashes you see on the plate are also squid ink. This could seem a dish with too much going on: in fact, it is beautifully coherent, with a progression of intensity of flavours, and combinations of pasta, fish and herbs that match each other delightfully.

Filled pasta in general is a chef’s specialty. Indeed there is a whole “a passion fro ravioli” menu that could make up the whole meal

For secondi we chose monkfish on a bed of savoy cabbage with girolles, pumpkin puree and red wine reduction; and the special of the day, grilled squid with artichokes, spinach and shaved bottarga.

The monkfish dish is a striking palette of earthy colour which maintains the promise on the palate. It is a rich, almost decadent, velvety combination. The squid was as fresh as they come, supremely tender. The mint from the artichokes “alla romana” lent to the dish a nice refreshing character, finished off by the bottarga.

Finally, the desserts: baba’ with hazelnut cream and pineapple lime parfait.

It is obvious from the parfait how the passion for ravioli continues well into dessert territory… the outside of each parcel is a very thin layer of pineapple, filled with lime ice cream. The dominant note is a pleasant acidity, which takes on a sweetish overtone from the balsamic vinegar. This can work a bit like a sorbet, but much more interesting. The baba’ is a well executed classic (it is difficult to do, but you can try it at home, if somebody can translate this for you)– here is a luscious version with whipped cream and hazelnut sauce.

We told you that we come often, so we cannot pass in silence on one of our favourite desserts (which we skipped this time), look:

Imagine, ricotta mousse with candied artichokes, is this not the simplicity of genius?

Finally, petit fours, made up of a selection of different flavoured chocolate truffles, cantuccini, baci di dama and mini macaroons:

Good and in generous quantity!

We washed this down with a bottle of red Curtefranca la Montina 2004, at £22.50 and a 0.75litre bottle of water at £3. An additional glass of Vermentino di Gallura Arkena 2004 came on credit The total bill including 12.5% discretionary service came to £92.81.

Can you tell how good we felt? As you can see, this time Man and Woman agreed on everything, no mean feat.

The front staff is amiable and efficient; it is a true asset of Latium. Sadly, the ‘legendary’ manager Giovanni Baldino has just left, taking with him some very capable waiting staff, to open a new establishment (more on that story later…). However we are confident that the stalwart assistant manager Alex and the new staff will keep up the good work.

And what about the kitchen? What strikes us is that Maurizio Morelli, for his delicate hand and soft touch, succeeds in retaining ‘full body’ and strong structure in his creations. If he had not been a chef, he would clearly have been a painter: good for us he is a chef! His is a food of colour, emotion and creativity.

Can somebody please explain why he has not got a Michelin star yet?

Signed: Maurizio Morelli Fan Club

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