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Food Review: Real Italian cuisine - in a south Dublin kitchen

Last update - Tuesday, July 1, 2014, 11:20 By Caitlin McGough

  The Italian Food and Wine Fair hosted at Ranelagh’s Pinocchio restaurant offered wine tasting, food sampling and an insight into traditional Italian cooking – all in a south Dublin kitchen.

Greeted at the door with a warm welcome and a glass of wine, my colleague and I entered the crowded yet comfortable restaurant where samples of Italian basics were available on every table. 

Bread, olive oil, wine, meats, and pastas were on display in plenty, and the passionate workers took care to explain the culture of their cuisine.

In the kitchen we found head chef Alberto Antonetti, a native of Tuscany who has spent his life cooking and travelling the world. 

What began as a discussion of his favourite dishes quickly turned into a cooking demonstration and ended with a plate of seafood linguine. 

“The best way [to cook] is the fastest way,” said Alberto as he lit the stove and grabbed a pan.

Mussels, clams and scampi went in, with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and a pinch of chili flakes. Fresh linguine, made upstairs, went into boiling water. After the shellfish opened, Alberto added calamari and white wine. 

To thicken the sauce, Alberto dipped a chunk of butter in flour and put it to the pan. When the contents turned creamy, he added the linguine and a ladle of hot fish stock to finish cooking the pasta. 

Alberto had claimed this was “a five-minute dish” and he wasn’t far off, as the meal went from pantry to plate in about eight minutes. For those of us with less culinary experience, though, it might take a bit longer!

The chef told us he started working in the kitchen by the age of seven and enrolled in cooking school by 14, so it’s no wonder he’s so handy with a pan.

 

After living all around the world, and Dublin for the last decade, Alberto said he’s keeping home close by continuing his country’s culinary traditions in his Dublin kitchen – all to the benefit of the city’s diners, too.


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