Everyone's got a favourite pasta origin story. And if you don't, you should. (Impress your friends! Be charming at dinner parties!) So there's a version of the story of puttanesca that goes a little like this: the busy prostitutes of Naples, so exhausted from the day's labours, would dash home to cook a quick salty sauce of anchovies, garlic, olives, chilli and tomato between clients. Here's hoping they brushed their teeth.

At Alessandro Pavoni's waterside kiosk he's been known to serve his busiate puttanesca - a twisty corkscrew-looking pasta shape - so al dente it's almost in rigor. It's heavily sauced and only on the menu occasionally but that's OK - we'll take that salty minx any way we can get it.

Same goes for the orecchiette. That pasta shape that looks extraordinarily like an outie belly button is tossed with mussels (only five in a $22 pasta dish, one of which refuses to open - boo) finished with a generous shaving of bottarga. Despite the musky seafood billing it's incredibly bright thanks to a whole lot of lemon zest.      

And that's another thing to love about this blue-chip seaside tratt - where luxury yachts with names such as BlackJack, Just Cruisin' and, uh, Mildred are pulled up within spitting distance of the restaurant - the exchange program between neighbouring chefs Pavoni and Giovanni Pilu. Pavoni recently started taking sourdough seriously (it's seriously good, too), and swapped it for Pilu's bottarga - that luxurious Sardinian sun-dried mullet roe.

The vibe's kinda "holiday on the Cinque Terre", only with (relatively) fewer Lamborghinis and Ferraris. There's about the same amount of gold jewellery, deep tan and Ralph Lauren, though.

That really fresh burrata doesn't discriminate when it busts out of its thin mozzarella skin in a gush of rich cream. Here it's lightly accessorised with a little basil oil, basil leaves and baby roast beets.

Other non-pasta things range from meh (the chicken, marinated and sous vide then finished on charcoal is OK but we could live without it), to yeah (a big king prawn is simply split and grilled and covered in hot spicy butter). But there's no getting away from that chubby doughnut filled with hot Nutella. Madon.   

The other big draw here is that they're BYO right now, pending their liquor licence (apparently the fuzz are concerned about the odd yachty having a few too many chardonnays and stepping off the pier).

For everyone else, there's always an espresso (surprisingly good) or a sparkling water. We'd suggest they turf the tinny radio in favour of better sound equipment, or better yet nothing at all - the atmosphere is such that it's more pleasurable to be surrounded by the buzz from diners, the breeze and the water lapping against the jetty.      

THE LOW-DOWN
Pro tip Ice down some wine (rosato e pinot grigio = perfetto) to make a real long lunch of it
Try this The grilled prawns bathed in spicy butter are finger-scorchingly good
Like this? Check out Pilu at Freshwater for long lunching good times, Moore Road, Freshwater, (02) 9938 3331.