I remember Cin Cin from their early days, serving prosecco and antipasti from a cute vintage Fiat van. I think I even went to the launch, and very nice it was too, as were their series of pop-up events. But mamma mia, did we need a permanent base for some real Italian food in Brighton. If only to allow me to actually recommend a restaurant, rather than dramatically sighing before launching into a 30 minute monologue about the importance of regional distinction and diversity across Italy whilst the person asking glazes over. Amazingly, in a city where the food scene is flourishing, Italian food has generally remained in that generic sloppy pool of tourist pleasing pizza* pasta set menus, risotto or if really pushing the boat out, a chicken Milanese (served with spaghetti - natch).

Enter Cin Cin in restaurant form. No checked tablecloths, no greyscale pictures of some random moustached zio on the wall, no oversized pepper mills and no plastic strings of garlic hanging from the sodding ceiling. Housed in a former MOT garage and tucked in a side street, as all good restaurants in Italy are, the petite interior is a modern working of a trattoria. Diners sit around a communal chipboard clad bar overlooking the open kitchen and dine on simple, honest but exquisitely executed dishes.

We were dining lightly so begrudgingly passed over some of my favourite things like lardo, culatello, and bresaola, instead opting for all of the three small plates. I have popped in before and supplemented a glass or two of prosecco with a selection of their antipasti and nibbles; it's all good and the fact that you can tailor your meal precisely to your appetite is handy.


The small plate dish of new season tomatoes was Italian cooking epitomised; simple with ingredient as hero; sweet, full flavoured tomatoes. Making up the flag colours were basil leaves and stracciatella, the rich creamy, soft buffalo cheese you get in the centre of a burrata. Drizzled with grassy extra virgin olive oil, a healthy pinch of sea salt and a few pieces of bread, this combination never gets tired.

Pheasant can be such a dry meat but perfect as a juicy, slowly cooked ragu, with added flavour from bacon and porcini mushrooms.  Serve it with a ribbon pasta like tagliatelle, fettuccine or pappardelle or alternatively with polenta. It takes a good while to cook, over 2 hours, but super easy to prepare.

I absolutely HATE hotels, so being "creative" with holiday accommodation, we've stayed in unusual choices from vintage steam railway carriages to huts on Zanzibar beach. But for our "luna di miele" I wanted something really special, so we stayed in, yes, a former ghost village. The obvious choice, I know.

Abruzzo, post-war, is formerly one of the poorest areas of Italy with whole villages being abandoned as people went in search of a better life. One of these crumbling villages was San Stefano di Sessanio. It now features a very interesting concept, the diffusion hotel, with rooms being scattered around the village in various buildings, with beautiful, rustic dilapidation surrounding them.





These buildings have been lovingly and sensitively restored, yet the essence and style (and blackened walls from centuries of soot) from that abandoned time retained, just with the addition of luxury bathrooms, hidden electricity and beautiful touches like handmade rosemary soap, hand blown modern glass lamps, ceramics from Castelli, saffron-dyed bedspreads and hand stuffed mattresses. Everything, as you may have guessed, is either an antique find or made by hand using long-forgotten methods and techniques.





The hotel features a communal cantina and Liquorificio in different buildings in the village. It also has a fantastic restaurant with only a set daily menu with no choices based on the historic Abruzzo cucina-povera ("cooking of the poor" or peasant cooking). Whereas the poor of that time would have been lucky with one plate of food, the meal offered follows the classic antipasto, soup, pasta primo, meat secondo and a dessert all with wine and liqueurs (50 euros). 50% of all the produce used in the kitchen is grown by the hotel, with a view to making it 100% self-sufficient in the near future. San Stefano di Sessano is famous for its tiny brown lentils, chickpeas and saffron, their USP being the mineral-rich mountain spring waters that naturally feed the crops, so it's a fantastic place for food.

Before we dig into the food, let's firstly have a look at the interior of the restaurant. At night it's really dark and moody with flickering amber candles. Amazing and hopelessly romantic! All of the plates are made and painted locally which was a nice touch.



The antipasto was a taster plate of little bits and pieces; a rather good zucchini omelette, a little roast potato, fresh (not the usual dried) pecorino... Gave me lots of ideas on how to spice up my antipasto at home from the usual items.



Minestra: Although not much to look at, especially with the dark lighting - hence the flash, this was an incredible dish of grano (much like farro) in red wine with lots of pecorino, some speck I believe, and a deep, intense stock. Gorgeous texture and rich flavour.



Pasta: Fettucini with ragu. Mr. Graphic Foodie commented on how al dente the pasta had been on this trip. Yup and I loved it. There was no Michelin* starred wafer-like nonsense with this plate of pasta. This was like my mum makes it. Thick, heavy and richly coated in sauce.



Secondo: These sausages were made by a local chap and we were very lucky indeed to sample them as he only delivers to the hotel every few weeks. They look like your average banger but the texture and flavour was very, very Italian as you will find them typically much denser, heavier and simply spiced. Oven roasting coarse sausages like this brings out the best in them. The roast potatoes with rosemary, swimming in glossy olive oil was the perfect accompaniment.



Italians are not famous for their desserts and in a cucina-povera, very few families would have had the luxury of a dessert. This nut tart however, was lovely and surprisingly light.

**Update** The chef on the night, Rosella Madonna, after seeing this post, has informed me via email that the nut tart was a recipe of her grandmothers, written on 23rd July 1914. Isn't that sweet?



The home-brewed liquors were brought out at the end of the meal, a common occurrence in this neck of the woods, my own family home-brew lots and just a few shots will render your legs useless. These ones luckily were rather more refined and were all the classic liquors of the region:



Genziana (the gold one): My dad swears by a shot of this after a really heavy meal to "aid" digestion. Made with the roots of a local herb.

Ratafia (the almost black one): A cherry liquor made with the fruit and leaves of the tree. A hit with the ladies - it's the local version of sherry.

Ortica (the green one): Made with stinging nettles and tastes like it too. Yerk.

The only one I didn't try (as I had to navigate the crumbling cobbles back to the room!) was the reddish one that I believe was Rosa Canina. This is made with rose hips.

So as you can see the restaurant is well worth seeking out, even if not staying at the hotel.



Breakfast is an event in itself. In yet another building, a banquet table awaits you lined with home baked crostatas, lingue di gatti, pastries, cakes, home made yoghurt, savoury pies, cured meats all served by the sweetest Italian woman you will ever meet in your life. Local honey, preserves and freshly baked bread are all laid out on your tables.







When you leave, as you hand back your 7 inch iron room key, they even give you a bottle of their olive oil. This is a real foodie paradise.

It is worth mentioning that sadly, the iconic tower in the top picture had fallen down in the recent L'Aquila earthquakes and we saw a lot of heartbreaking damage in the village and surrounding areas as well as the temporary accommodation chalets for local people whose homes have been destroyed. Abruzzo has never been like the manicured tourist areas of Italy but rugged and breathtakingly beautiful. The real deal. Although parts are now scaffolded up and restoration is in progress, the beauty of the region still shines through. The damage may still put off visitors but this area could do with as much money as possible from tourism. I say go and support it and see and taste what Italy is really about.


www.sextantio.it

(You can read more about food travel in Italy at http://inghamsitaly.co.uk/blog/2014/march/04/a-foodies-guide-to-italy/ which also includes a little article I've written about regional food across Italy.)

*Although saying that, the head chef, Niko Romito, does own the Michelin starred Ristorante Reale in nearby Rivisondoli.

This is a family favorite around here, the aroma of the sauce wafts around the house better than any home fragrance on the market. You can use veal mince or 50% veal and 50% pork (my favourite), or if you can't get hold of any veal at all, then pork will work as well.

The key to this is allowing the sauce to reduce properly which should take around an hour, leaving you with a succulent, almost sticky sauce that hugs onto the pasta.

This sauce is best served with a smooth pasta shape, traditionally farfalle (bows). You could use penne, preferably unlined, but never, ever long pasta like spaghetti.




Serves 4

I don't often do jokes around here so here goes. When is a pizza takeaway not a pizza takeaway? When it's probably the closest thing you are going to get to proper Italian cooking in Brighton. Not funny? Well the real joke is probably the PizzaPastaPizzaPasta Italian "influenced" food, depressingly found in the restaurants that take up a large chunk of Brighton's dining scene.

Pronto in Tavola has been well received as a takeaway pizzeria for a while now, but they have added a few tables as of January and Nino, chef and owner, has branched out into offering authentic, home style Italian dishes.

Nino is great. He's one of these passionate foodies that practically levitates when he talks but his ingredients, cooking, family and Calabrian roots. Apart from pizza, you'll now get some regional Italian delights that even I haven't come across like the deep-fried Crocchette di Patate in the bread basket. I would love to see Nino really focusing even more on Calabrian cuisine, because the food in that neck of the woods is truly something to celebrate.




We started with a classic antipasto washed down with a decent bottle of Prosecco. Roast peppers with oil and parsley, Boccocini mozzarella, grilled sheep cheese, pickled octopus, olives and cured meats. All served with a basket of bread cooked fresh in the pizza oven and the aforementioned potato croquettes that deserve a whole review to themselves. I could have eaten a bucket of them.



We had to try some fresh pasta which was served with a cooked to order sauce, made with green peppers. Again, simple but tasty, and the sort of pasta we'd have at home for big Sunday family dinners. The goat's cheese on to was maybe a flavour too far and a couple of shavings of Gran Padano or Pecorino would have done it for me. Still, the green pepper sauce idea I will be nicking for home.





Also, Nino is happy to cook whatever you want with notice, if you have a favourite risotto - whatever. In fact he had a couple of sea bass and rustled up Acqua Pazza ("crazy water") for us, a dish I have always wanted to try. Essentially the fish is stuffed with herbs, tomato and garlic then seasoned and partially covered in water to cook on the hob or in the oven. So it poaches in all that seasoned goodness. My sort of dish, simply executed with the ingredients hero. Nino even brought the fish to the table whole and de-boned it for us. This was served with roast potatoes with rosemary and peas cooked in herbs and wine, so Italian and so delicious. A real stellar dish this so ask him if he has any fish in if you go or phone ahead so he can get some in for you.



For desserts, which are made by Nino's wife, are very typically Italian. The cream filled zeppole (choux pastry puffs) covered with chocolate looked good but we opted for a slice of Torta di Nonna (Grandmother's cake) which is essentially a pie, consisting of pasta frolla (shortcrust), lemon custard cream and pine nuts. This made me smile as it's just like something I'd get visiting an auntie back home (who are all incredible at cakes and pastry). Great consistency, not too sweet and nothing like you have tried before, with lots of that vanilla sugar dust you see on Italian pastry. The coffee here is brilliant so if nothing else, swing by in the evening for something sweet and an espresso to polish off the night.



We didn't eat any of the pizza at this meal but definitely come down to eat it fresh out of the oven. It really shouldn't be shoved in a cardboard box and driven half way across town in a Nissan Micra. Pizza needs to be eaten, risking lip scolding, as soon as possible after it is ready.

So, down to business. This is not refined restaurant food. This is good, honest, home-style Italian food at a really reasonable price, served up with a huge heap of love.
My only concern is that I'm not sure if local people will get this place. It doesn't project the image as a tourist trattoria with the checked tablecloths and the candle in the straw covered bottle of Chianti on the table that people may be accustomed to. This is more akin to the everyday spots you actually get in Italy, the DIY plank benches fixed to the wall, tight space, tinny Italian radio dipping in and out of reception in the background, pictures of the kids on the wall, the phone going for takeaway orders and a drinks fridge full of San Pelligrino. It's the spit of my cousin's bar back in Italy.

There is so much more to this little place that meets the eye. Give it a try, see what specials are on and you'll get a dining experience like no other in the city and you'll still have change out of that £20.

Pronto in Tavola
43 Waterloo Street
Brighton

I was invited to review Pronto in Tavola.

I've really taken to serving pasta with some sort of roasted vegetable instead of a classic pasta and sauce combination lately. The soft, creamy vegetables, often with some nice crunchy edges, along with the infused olive oil used in the roasting coats the pasta perfectly. Squash with fennel seeds and chilli is a match made in heaven in my opinion and spiked with salty feta and aromatic pesto, is an Autumnal mid-week treat.