Food File: Francesco Mazzei and new Italian gnoccheria coming to Dublin

Francesco Mazzei to cook up a storm in Dublin

Francesco Mazzei, the Italian chef patron at Sartoria in London's Mayfair, will be cooking a five-course menu from his cookbook, Mezzogiorno, at Charlotte Quay in Dublin 2 on Wednesday, November 23rd (7pm).

The event, The House of Peroni Presents: An Italian Feast, is being run by the beer company, and will include Peroni infusions served with the menu.

Calabria-born and raised, Mazzei describes his cooking style as “mamma’s cooking with chef hands”, and the menu will include antipasti of home cured duck speck with wild berries, tuna tartare, artichoke and pea salad; tortelli with burrata; liquorice-cured salt cod; roast lamb with artichokes; and a dessert of bergamot cream, bitter chocolate sorbet and Italian pastries.

Tickets, €65, can be booked online at thehouseofperoni.com.

Aldi launches pan range for Christmas

Some extra large stockings will be needed to accommodate Christmas gifts for cooks from the range of tri-ply copper pans that went on sale in Aldi’s 126 Irish stores this week (from Thursday, November 10th).

The range includes some nice big pans (30cm wok, 28cm saute and 24cm stockpot), as well as a large roasting tray and a cute copper stove-top kettle).

Apart from looking great, the copper pans with their aluminium core and stainless steel interior are said to conduct heat very efficiently. Prices are very competitive, at €44.95 for the large ones, €49.99 for the roasting tray, and €22.99 for the kettle.

Gnocc, Gnocc

There is an exciting new pop-up coming to Dawson Street next month, when A Mano, an Italian gnoccheria, opens on December 1st. The restaurant will serve the potato dumplings with a range of sauces, and will open Thursday to Saturday, from 7pm, taking over the premises of daytime cafe Tang by Yogism.

A Mano is the genius idea of Elena Pertile and Olga Molloy, who work together in financial services – Molloy as legal counsel and Pertile as head of compliance – and whose shared love of good food led them to look at opening a business together. They will be preparing the gnocchi by hand each day, with potatoes from Smithfield market.

Elena is Italian and she has developed her own recipe for the gnocchi, which she says are “featherlight”. Her brother is in the restaurant business and her sister runs a goat farm and makes cheese on the family estate in northern Italy.

They will serve the gnocchi in a variety of ways – with ragu, with blue cheese and walnuts, with red pepper and fennel seed, and a variety made from butternut squash served with chestnut and sage ragu.

The menu will also feature gnudi, a mix of ricotta and Parmesan with nutmeg and black pepper, rolled in semolina flour.

Prices will be about €12-€14, and the BYO policy will extend to wine and beer, or bring your own spirit of choice and the resident mixologist will whip you up a cocktail to go with your gnocchi. Seating will be limited to 16, and the reservations book will open at 6pm each day.