Richmond’s Pasta Adagio a paragon of Italian

CARMINE Costantini has transformed his acclaimed degustation diner Osteria La Passione into the more casual Pasta Adagio (slow pasta), which opened mid Jan.

Pasta Adagio lets the food do all the talking. Picture: TIM CARRAFA

What would you be happy to overlook in a restaurant for an ultimate dish, the trade-offs you’d live with for the paragon pasta? What is the price you’d pay for perfection?

Would you, for instance, turn a blind eye to the photocopied “Full House” A4 stuck to the door, while thinking it was lucky you booked. Would you forgive dry, dense focaccia plonked on the table without ceremony, or indeed, olive oil? Pay little heed to service that, save one waitress valiantly holding the room together, had barely grasped the basics, let alone the menu. Forget about that menu sheathed in plastic, the doilies under dessert and the daggy
deli fridge cabinet?

For me, all these things are almost forgotten after one twirled forkful of tagliatelle that is the life-changing stuff the people who talk of life-changing dishes hold up as case in point.

The stand-out dish ... egg tagliatelle with ragu.

After six years Carmine Costantini has transformed his acclaimed degustation diner Osteria La Passione into the more casual Pasta Adagio (slow pasta), which opened mid Jan.

And judging by the, yes, full house this midweek night the loosened formula has found a firm following of those now happy to come for a bottle of pinot grigo and a bowl of pasta, instead of the no-choice multi-course settle-in-for-the-night of the predecessor.

UNDERSTANDING NATURAL WINE

Though those who had and felt the Passione over the past six years here up the unprepossessing end of Bridge Rd would see many of Carmine’s hits still plied to excellent effect in the simple room that’s added some wood and a bar counter and lost the tablecloths.

You can still order the affettati – cold cuts – house made and served with crunchy fried dough pillows (gnoccho fritto) as per the tradition of Carmine’s bit of Italy, Modena. Deep ruby slices of bresaola share a plate with mild, meaty salami, herb-flecked fatty rounds of pancetta and whispy, delicate slivers of culatello, the prized king of prosciutto ($25).

The baccala mantecato at Pasta Adagio

Also to start, an ancient Modenese dish rarely seen here: calzagatti fritti. Carmine takes cheesy polenta that’s studded with borlotti beans cooked in garlic and tomato, cut into fat fingers then fries them crisp. On top of three of these tanned crunchy/steaming soft blocks, hunks of torn fresh squacqerone, a tangy soft cow’s milk cheese I’d like to imagine is zipped over to Richmond on the back of a Vespa from That’s Amore cheese in Thomastown ($15). A brilliant few bites.

FOOTSCRAY FOOD: TEN OF THE BEST

And while Carmine sticks to the fairly traditional regional Emilia Romagna path he knows well, he’s not averse to plundering goods from further afield. Such as a lovely Venetian baccala mantecato, the milk-poached salt cod whipped bright and light, served with an ink-stained crostini and caper-crowned radicchio salad, the sharp, salt and sea all playing in harmony ($16).

Or even – controversially – the addition of saltbush to his Florentine crepes, grinding dried leaves into a powder that seasons two crepe cylinders standing to attention. Though the whole leaves on top did little for me, the light saltiness of the dried powder added a grounding note to crepes almost magically light, and simply sublime. Filled with a mixture of house made ricotta – half goat, half cow – mixed with blanched chard and baked in the oven until golden-crusted, these gluten-free beauties raise crepe expectations forever more ($26).

Pasta Adagio chef/owner Carmine Costantini.

Lovely light orecchiette, the “little ears” handmade like all pasta here, are tossed through a classic anchovy and broccoli combo that, while a little wet, was full of flavour and satisfyingly silky ($25).

Along with the bottles lining the wall, there’s a cellar filled with them, including a covetable museum of Sassicaia going back to the late ’90s, though, if you’re the type to drop four figures on a bottle you’d probably want to open it yourself – I wouldn’t trust anyone but Carmine to wield a corkscrew with skill.

CHEF’S GUIDE TO ELSTERNWICK

For us mere mortals, there’s a nice, tight selection of mainly Italians by the glass, a red-favouring list by the bottle , and a fancy Coravin opens up a little of that premium cellar for the curious to try.

A tiramisu to end, served in a glass straight from the fridge is fine, if on the weight-watchers side of small for $15.

But then there’s that slippery, supple egg tagliatelle served with “Carmine’s ragu”. Taught to him a quarter century ago and continually perfected since then, that sauce of beef, veal and pork, braised for hours with celery, onion, carrot, tomato paste and loosened with broth, is, quite simply, the most profound pasta I’ve tasted, with more layered depth than Dante ($29). Cue angels, trumpets, a shaft of light from the heavens.

With a bowl of this, all is forgiven. A small price for perfection.

[e-mail]

Pasta Adagio

486 Bridge Rd, Richmond

Ph: 9428 2558

pastaadagio.com.au

Open: Tues-Sat from 6.30pm

Go to dish: Carmine’s ragu

Rating: 14/20