How many types of pasta are there, I wonder? This time we went for ‘pici’, a type I’d never heard of before. It is long thick hand-rolled pasta apparently originating in Tuscany, and it was delicious here in this cosy little Italian restaurant called Il Solo. The place looks and feels (as well as smells and tastes) so genuinely Italian that it is sometimes hard for me to believe that it is located in the centre of Moscow. There is something about it that reminds me of my all-time favourite Italian places in Paris, London and Milan.
The one in Milan is a little Sicilian restaurant called Antica Focacceria San Francesco and it is situated in that very via Panfilo Castaldi. I got the impression that practically every dish on their menu is worth trying, but their pasta (a type called ‘busiate’) with anchovies and raisins sprinkled with breadcrumbs is probably the best I’ve had in my life, and I’ve had a few. The one in London is my dear Bar Remo, hidden in quiet Princes Street just behind the busy Oxford Circus. I remember how we discovered it on a chilly autumn evening back in 2012, absolutely by chance. I’ve spent so many memorable evenings there since then…
And the place in Paris is called Sandalia. It’s a little family-run Sardinian restaurant which I spotted in 2010 and which doesn’t seem to exist any more. We first went there at the end of a day full of walking and sightseeing, just because it was right next to our hotel in rue Lamartine. It may sound illogical but it looks like after that evening all other eating places Paris had to offer lost attraction for me. I remember pasta (particularly with home-made pesto), wine (each time Amerigo, the owner, chose us a bottle which wasn’t even on the list), and most of all the atmosphere. We seemed to be the only non-Italian guests — there were couples and there were big families. The interior was simple — white tablecloths and objects from Sardinia all around. Amerigo told us about his brother who ran a hotel on the island, and on our last evening he unexpectedly gave us complimentary pancakes with berry preserve made by his friend’s Russian wife…
17/9/2021
