AQUA Forte is an authentic Italian restaurant set to open in May 2019 in Galle Fort. Our head-chef Roberto shared his favorite dishes from home!
If you missed part I of “Family Secrets & Traditional Italian Recipes”, read it on here.
Italian homemade fresh pasta is simply delicious. Combine eggs, flour, salt and a drop of oil and magic will take place. The dough is ready for my creation which is traditional or creative. Working with various shapes, and types of filling, we can create hundred types of pasta. Tortellini, ravioli, pansotti, girasoli, agnolotti are just few of them. But not only stuffed pasta! We also make fresh tagliatelle, tagliolini, trofie, caserecce, and so on. The limit is just the creativity.
This takes me back to my parents’ origins, back to Napoli in Italy and its amazing food tradition. Sfogliatella is a crunchy layered shell with a smooth fill of ricotta cheese, semolina, candied citrus fruits and sugar. Its shape resembles the sea, which is the soul of Napoli. It will be impossible to visit Napoli and not taste this delicacy.
A cold cuts platter that’s usually served as an appetizer. Italian cold cuts are most often made from pork, horse, donkey, duck, goat and different types of venison are used too, based on the Italian region they are made from. My ultimate favourite is mortadella or bologna; thinly cut and served with auricchio cheese with warm fresh bread. It’s simple and delicious.
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One of the most classical Roman dishes. A perfect combination of ‘Guanciale” (cured pork cheek) cubes, Romano cheese and black pepper. This is one of the three traditional pasta dishes from Rome, including Carbonara and Amatriciana all based on similar ingredients. It’s simply mouth-watering! We use four ingredients to create a dish that will capture your senses.
Umbrina fish is commonly found in the Mediterranean Sea and can be prepared in several ways. Over here, we decided to cook it in the oven with some herbs, salt and black pepper. To add a fresh touch to the dish we prepared some panzanella (fresh tomato sauce, bread cubes, black olives and capers) and covered it with pan-fried zucchini slices.
Italian-style meat balls. This is one of the dishes that bring me back to my childhood when the entire family would gather together to prepare food on a Sunday morning. It’s impossible to define a recipe since each one has his own. My sister and I used to shape them and compete on who has the highest number of meatballs. We would usually deep-fry them and add them to tomato sauce, but almost half of them never reached that sauce stage!
Do you want to know more about authentic Italian cuisine, best wine pairings and secret offers at AQUA Forte? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and stay up to-date!