Ciccetti: the Italian gastro-fad
Has Italian tapas' time come?
Italian food is probably the cuisine that serves the most disparity in London. The big giants like Pizza Express, ASK and Zizzi lure the indifferent diners with their attractive 2-for-1 deals, but what say you to pasta that is freshly made on the day and pesto that is so brilliant, even Berlusconi might be distracted from his loins for a brief moment.
Say hello to Polpo, Polpetto, Bocca di Lupo and soon (more precisely on March 14), Spuntino. For all it’s worth, I may just be throwing Italian nonsense at you, but these spell out the growing line of restaurants that are catering to the booming fashion for ciccetti, meaning Italian tapas.
Gone are the days where you sit with your fork twirling through stodgy spaghetti and yearn the moment you can be finished with the bland tomato sauce that reminds you of the Tesco value 'Spag Bol' you thought was already a distant memory.
Resembling a more authentic Italian experience, the concept of ciccetti allows for ordering of more dishes, and a whole lot of sharing. Boy would Joey Tribbiani disapprove.
The concept of ciccetti allows for ordering of more dishes, and a whole lot of sharing. Boy would Joey Tribbiani disapprove
When faced with a menu like that at Bocca di Lupo, the meal is what you make it. Fancy a shaved radish, celeriac and pecorino salad with pomegranates and truffle oil? Yes please. A dish of fried prawns, baby squid, blood orange and white polenta? A large portion would do me fine. That’s the beauty of it all. You can opt for a larger portion when something really takes your fancy, or a small if you’ve never heard what polenta is but you’re willing to take the first step in this beautiful relationship.
If you’re one to eat, dream and breathe pasta, the papardelle at Bocca di Lupo is quite simply heaven on earth. Rarely can you find fresh pasta as silky as this, that is, unless you take the advice of Charles Betts and hop aboard a plane to the land of the Pope. The option of taking a small-sized dish also means that pasta doesn’t have to formulate the main dish of your evening.
Every dish is labelled with its region, and the dishes on the menu constantly rotate depending on what is seasonal, as I found out when I visited in January. The blood oranges that are now making an appearance in the atrium of Whole Foods, were just arriving from Italy. Carbon footprint, whatever.
With a fourteen-strong dessert menu, everybody who plans to visit Bocca should leave stomach space for the brioche ‘sandwich’ of pistachio, chestnut & hazlenut gelati - the ice-cream burger as I like to call it. The gelato may not rate as highly as that of Amorino in my opinion, but hey, it’s an ice-cream burger!
Bocca di Lupo 12 Archer St, London W1D 7BB. www.boccadilupo.com
