Ristorante Pinocchio

Chef Edoardo Strabba food 'Ravioli di canguru' at his Italian Restaurant, Pinocchio's on Unley Road. Picture: Nigel Parsons Source: AdelaideNow

UMBRIA holds pleasant memories: old festival towns like Spoleto, Roman ruins, elegant sagrantino wines, really good simple food.

It is the homeland of Edoardo Strappa, the chef at the new Ristorante Pinocchio on Unley Rd. Edoardo trained at Spoleto, although his father is also a chef, working on the northern border of Umbria with Tuscany.

When you ask him about the unearthly taste and texture of his egg pasta, he says his mother taught him.

The rest of the restaurant can speak for itself, but if you want to try a really remarkable egg tagliolini, take yourself there. Edoardo makes all his own pasta, a discipline so specialised he needs his own pasta-making room where the pasta can have some peace and quiet before it is eaten.

I know this because after dining there last week I couldn't resist cross-examining Edoardo about the pasta. He says his mother taught him to make it with the addition of a small amount of polenta. It changes the texture of the pasta, but also increases the ability of the pasta to absorb the flavours of his foods.

After doing good things with simple food at Terranova at Henley Beach, Edoardo and his business partner, Marco Saibene, from northern Italy, decided to branch out. They have settled on one of the old shopfronts at the city end of Unley Rd and named it Ristorante Pinocchio. That's not so original, with at least another couple of Pinocchio eateries in Adelaide, and many more around the world, but the name does make connections to Umbria and Tuscany.

The impertinent sharp-nosed puppet comes out of the commedia dell'arte traditions of Italy and was immortalised in the 1880s by a Florence journalist Carlo Collodi.

As with Pinocchio, the restaurant has good and bad parts to its design. They should lose the Pinocchio dolls on tables and improve the decor.

But there is airiness to the room, with its high ceilings and bare wooden floors and well-spaced tables.

When it comes to the food Pinocchio is all good. Edoardo does a host of interesting things with his local ingredients. A good introduction is the Antipastino La Fraschetta which has a mix of freshness, lightness and originality.

There is some fine air-cured prosciutto, and the bits of firm cheese and dense little slices of cured sausage are superior. Then comes a tiny dish full of blanco anchovies, some pieces of mozzarella, some pickled artichoke, fresh rocket and a few rare delicacies made in the kitchen, including remarkable thin slices of zucchini somehow poached yet crunchy. To tidy it up are small slices of delicious pan-fried bread with garlic. We shared the plate among three.

The next course featured that tagliolini allo scoglio. The dish can range across the available seafood but this one was a pile of tagliolini infused with a dressing of broth and bits and pieces of squid and prawn. The pasta was surrounded by a row of mussels in their shells, a large scallop and the whole thing topped with a pale scampi.

Far simpler but just as delicious was the gnocchi al capretto with exceptional, small gnocchi and a bare sauce of the braised baby goat and tomato ragu sufficient to coat the gnocchi.

The fish of the day was a swordfish steak that was moist, beautifully garnished with orange zest and fennel seeds, and given a dramatic presentation with a salad of deep purple cabbage, although that nice as it was was more successful in appearance than flavour. The side dishes were professionally roasted potatoes and a delightful light garden salad.

Edoardo's fascination for local ingredients reaches out into the bush. There is a house made ravioli di canguro on the menu, and the specials included a spezzatino di emu after Edoardo and Marco discovered an emu sausage that impressed them.

Since arriving from Italy, Edoardo and the front of house Marco, have been challenged to find Australian wines that suit their preferences and food.

We demolished a bottle of high-quality frizzante prosecco from Valdobbiadene in northern Italy, before turning to a local, the Ashton Hills 2009 pinot noir. Either could have made an accompaniment.

We opted to share all three desserts on offer. There were no disappointments.

The Budino, a glass of soft white and dark chocolate was not much more dangerous than the soft and delicately-flavoured tira misu. The mango and yoghurt torte was light, delicious and possibly even good for you!

HOW IT RATED

RISTORANTE PINOCCHIO

The food.........15/20

The staff............7/10

The drink.............2/5

The X-factor........3/5

The value...........7/10

The total

out of 50

34

Address

50 Unley Rd, Unley;

ph 8272 9216

Food

Traditional Italian

Drink

Licensed, list still in development

Hours

Tues-Fri, noon-2.30pm

Tues-Sat, 6pm-late

Owners

Edoardo Strappa, Marco Saibene

Price Guide

Entrees $7-$18.90

Pastas $23.90-$29.90

Mains $27-$34.90

Desserts $7.90-$11.90

Snapshot

The pasta is to die for and all the food is of a high standard. This is a small, intimate Italian enoteca with warmth and friendliness, good both for families and for out-of-the-ordinary dining experiences.