Meal Ticket: La Cucina, Limerick

Whenever I take a trip to Dingle, which is usually once a year for the Other Voices festival in December, I make a pitstop halfway to a little Italian café off the motorway in Castletroy, Limerick.

I first became aware of La Cucina through the blog and tweets of its owner Lorraine Fanneran. “@italianfoodie will you have space for two hungry pizza lovers at around 2.30 this afternoon?” I’d tweet, somewhere around Roscrea. “@aoifeforkful of course!” would come the reply. “We’ll get the dough ready for you.”

Lorraine and her partner Bruno (the Pizza Boss and son of Italian immigrants ) opened La Cucina in a business estate in Castletroy in 2003, and have been dishing out freshly made pizzas, great ciabatta sandwiches and Italian salads ever since.

It’s a casual spot. In fact, it’s won Best Casual Dining a couple of times at the Irish Restaurant Awards. On a good day, the Limerick sun spills in through its windows into this small, buzzing space.

Their pizzas range in price from just over €10 to €13.50 and all the classics are there, from the margherita to the fiorentina. You can get a bowl of pasta amatriciana (€10.50) or a plate of bruschetta parma (€6.50).

They also launched their own range of Real Italian Foodies pasta sauces, which you can pick up at the shop or on their online store. This is a family business worth supporting. Go visit. And make sure you send them a tweet when you’re nearby.