All the way from Italy via Bollywood

When you think of Italian cuisine, it is an unending exploration of varied flavours, myriad dishes and a plethora of cheeses. The Italian food promotion at Prego speciality restaurant at the hotel that will end on March 11 has an elaborate menu that covers many new variants of popular dishes.

For example on the pizza menu is the Focaccia Al Formaggio Di Recco – a Genoa pizza that has two paper thin layers sandwiching delicious mix of mozzarella cheese, onion, jalapenos, a sprinkling of basil and a homemade cheese that the chef has grown up eating Stracchino, also called Crescenza. This simple pizza topped with roasted pine nuts is unputdownable and light on the tummy.

For the starters one can also try the Fritto Musto – the herb crusted seafood - prawns, calamari, fish that amply caters to the vanity as Frittos usually do; or Cima Alla Genovese that is not often found on Indian menus chicken rolled into parmesan, pistachio, mortadella, wild mushroom and asparagus, kept underweight overnight, so that it becomes dry and roulade-like and can be cut and served, ideally cold.

In Italy, the classic version uses veal. There is Chicken Supreme, fillet coated with Italian herbs and seared and served with Alfredo sauce, is good for chicken lovers, but pales in flavours when compared to the others on the menu like the ‘Cima’.

Chef Antonella tops up his food experience with some Bollywood music – he sings Hindi songs and plays on a guitar much to the delight of the diners, and if you are lucky you will get your share of food tales too. One such food story is about the restaurant in North Genoa, where he interned – Antica Osteria Del Bai located at Quarto Dei Mille – from where the legendary Garibaldi led his 1,000 men on a mission to unite Italy.

Chef’s menu is evidently high on seafood quotient. So there is an amazing confluence of seafood that smells ‘Oh so good’ and tastes like heaven, especially if you are a seafood lover. There is the Fish Ravioli made using plain dough on one side and squid ink flavoured dough on the other end, is filled with cheese of course, and also fish, prawns and porcino mushrooms. It is served with an extremely flavourful sauce made using cream, fresh tomato and chopped Scampi, tossed in brandy.

The meal reaches a crescendo as you order Tiramisu, which reiterates the concept ‘the bitter the better’ – chef’s version using Nutella and pistachio is deliciously bitter and just the right kind of sweet – just the way it should be. Among others on the ‘dolce’ is also the classic Parfait Siciliano – Sicilian Parfait perfectly done using rum, hot macademia and chocolate sauce, that ends the meal on a sweet note.

By Rajeshwari Kalyanam