Carluccio's // Food Review

CARLUCCIO’S

THE GEN: From about 2005-2013 (last week – I had to Wiki it), I used to think that Gino D’Acampo wasn’t really Italian. He seemed TOO Italian, right? Too satin-shirty, too teeth-glint shiny. Italians, despite their Stallion-painted status, are robust, sensory, in touch with the earth - and its fruits - men. Men like Antonio Carluccio, restaurateur and one-half of the endearing ‘Two Greedy Italians’ with buddy Gennaro. It was this authenticity I wanted to see when I went to the Norwich branch of Carluccio’s 57-strong chain of restaurants, and what I wanted to taste in every morsel.

ATMOSPHERE: Deli counters, dry stores of artisan carbs, neat border of exquisite tarts and gift-wrapped delicacies make getting to the restaurant part of Carluccio’s Norwich bolthole a feat in itself. It took all of my willpower not to buy 4 meringues from their deli section and hightail it home. But the restaurant was bright, busy, and inviting…

TO START: Mozzarella Dell’Isola // Calamari Fritti Mozzarella Dell’Isola is Italy in a mouthful. Salty parma ham, creamy melting mozzarella, juicy peppers and earthy rocket. I doubt the dish was much more of an assembly job, but like the Aristotelian logic dictates, and clearly Carluccio’s law abides, some things are greater than the sum of their parts. Deep fried squid and garlic mayo – child’s play, is it? Having made a spazzy hash of making it myself the night before, Carluccio’s were the redeemers. Simple, but it’s deep-fried guilty goodness.  

THE MAIN EVENT: Penne Giardiniera // Brasato di Manzo I’m good to you. Me and the other half base our menu choices purely on the breadth of specifications you folk may have for your own meal choices – one pasta, one veggie, one meaty, one creamy, combined in two dishes that would show the range in the menu. You can thank us later. The Brasato is a slow cooked beef stew, benefitting from the tang of floating olives and soaked up by the plump grilled polenta. Foodie confession: I’d never tried polenta before; maybe I’m not down with the gruel kids, but it never appealed. I’m happy to say as long as you got your stew gravy / cornmeal ratio right, it was hearty and good. Not just superfluous and wanky like bloody quinoa. Then the pasta dish, the Giardinieri; I could have written a page on it alone – it was one of the nicest pasta dishes I’ve ever had. Grated courgette, fried spinach balls, a gleaming vat full of garlicky butter. Like the starter, it mocked you with its simplicity, but delivered that authenticity I was searching for.