The Best Way for Exquisite Food Pairings, Italian style

When we look forward to sinking our teeth into some delicious food say, for example, a steak or mushrooms, does it occur to us to ever think about what goes best with our chosen goodies? Now just about pairing a good wine if that is your choice but what accompanies the core of the meal. Creating wonderful food is as much an art form as is using the most emotionally rewarding colours in a world-renowned painting, like a beautiful Claude Monet or sympathetic tones and textures in a stunning catwalk outfit from Chanel. We may prepare our food daily to what we ‘know’ as good partners but not all of us have been trained in the art of food. So what is good to pair with your chosen item and how on earth do you do it? Find out more in The Best Way for Exquisite Food Pairings, Italian style

Combinations of ingredients, associated with a specific culture or region are multiple with almost every type of food available in the UK, each of these cuisine are involved in food preparation in a particular style.

Usually, specific cuisines are initially influenced by the ingredients that are available locally. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on such culinary practices.

Combining various ingredients serves not just to achieve a symphony of flavours, but it is to understand the chemical compounds that create how those flavours are interconnected.

Interestingly Western cuisines we tend to use ingredient pairs that share the most common flavour compounds. Yet, by contrast, East Asian cuisines tend to avoid compound-sharing ingredients.

Classic food pairings are tried and true combinations that have stood the test of time for a reason: they work. From tomatoes and basil to chocolate and coffee, these pairings have been used for years because they share flavour molecules that complement each other.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be pushing our boundaries, and trying new combinations. Sometimes it takes an emotive restauranter to highlight ways we can challenge outdated mindsets on flavour combinations

Take, for example, the Italian cuisine, known globally, for its pastas and confectionaries. But this style of cooking is not only seasonal recipes it is also very regional. Each area will have its own food parings and its specific take on classics.

At Italian eatery Bricco e Bacco, Roberto Bergamotti says of food pairing

‘When it comes to traditional pairings, so many people put butter on their steak which is basically fat on top of fat. It’s much better to use lemon which cuts through the grease of the meat and readies the mouth for the next bite. At Bricco e Bacco we encourage our guests to try Japanese wagyu and lemon. To take a little trip from Japan to Sicily.

In my opinion, a combination of mushrooms and butter can be really boring. Instead, try mushrooms with caciocavallo fondue, a raw, aged cow’s milk cheese, rather like Parmigiano, that is often called the “King of the Sicilian Cheese”.

What about salted ham and fruits? Our version of this rather different pairing is Maialino Nero dei Nebrodi pork accompanied by honeycomb apples.

For me, one of the most beautiful and simple combinations is a mixture of sweet and sour. You can find this pairing in many of our Sicilian dishes, including our famous caponata, which features a dressing of wine vinegar and sugar.’

And as a final point

Dessert wine is not only for desserts and cheeses. In France, they serve the sweet wine Sauternes with the pate foie grais while in Sicily we pair e Maialino Nero dei Nebrodi pork with the red wine Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé. At the restaurant, we like to suggest to diners that they try our Passito di Pantelleria wine with umami and salty flavours. 

For over two decades, the name Bricco e Bacco has been feted in Palermo, the capital of the Italian island of Sicily, a city noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy.

Now the restaurant has opened a UK outpost in Fitzrovia under owner, Sicilian-born Roberto Bergamotti, Londoners and visitors alike can enjoy the same exquisite culinary journey through authentic regional Italian cuisine.

The Bricco e Bacco family have been carnezzieri (butchers) by trade since the 1930s, and their expertise continues to shine through in the variety and quality of the sustainably sourced dry-aged steaks on the menu.

This means Bricco e Bacco’s Sicilian heritage permeates every aspect of the menu. But the steak offering, delights in celebrating rich traditions and employing time-honoured cooking methods.

This means it includes not just Italian speciality cuts such as Marango, but also Finnish Sashi and Japanese Wagyu. What’s more, in a first for any restaurant in the capital, these are sizzled on searing hot Himalayan salt blocks.

Guests choose their meat which is rated by marbling, softness and flavour. The steaks then emerge from the kitchen rare, leaving guests to cook them to their liking on the salt block.

An equally pivotal part of the experience is the service. Roberto is the consummate host and is justifiably proud that every member of his opening team is still with the restaurant.

But before you get to the steak options antipasti starters include the delights:-

Sheep’s Ricotta & Cauliflower pie, marinated cucumber on a roasted bell pepper sauce

The most divine Caponata Siciliana, fried aubergine in a sweet & sour dressing

or

Breaded fresh Sicilian Tuma cheese, orange chutney & sautéed mushrooms with truffle mayo

Then of course comes the pasta course – or risotto if you prefer and includes such delights as

Spaghetti with rocket pesto, black garlic sauce & toasted aromatic breadcrumb

Ravioli anciuava e muddica atturrata, anchovies with tomato & pinenuts filling, bread sauce

Tagliatelle with slow-cooked beef ragu’

Dont think dessert will ley you down with mouthwatering dishes like

Small cannoli of Ricotta and Pistachio

Then, of course, there is the magic of a Christmas menu. The restaurant has just finalised its trio of seasonal menus which will be available from the 1st to 31st of December.

The five-course Festive Menu features a number of Bricco e Bacco favourites, including two classic Sicilian antipasti – Caponata Siciliana, fried aubergine in a sweet & sour dressing, and Panelle e Crocche, chickpea crisps & potato croquette.

The heart of the meal is the rib steaks cooked on the Himalayan salt blocks. Diners are treated to a duo of sensational meats, sourced from the utterly superb British Shorthorn and Poland’s Simmental, both characterised by their intense flavours and extreme tenderness.

For those that want to take it up a gear, there is the ultimate celebration, the five-course Wagyu Menu. This celebrated meat, often heralded as the finest beef in the world, is centre stage.

Feast on delicacies such as A5 Japanese Wagyu on Stuffed Gnocchi with Cacio-pepe & Lime Caviar, Spaghetti Wagyu-nara (Bricco e Bacco’s unique twist on the classic Carbonara) and Rib Steak of Spanish Wagyu cooked on the salt stone.

Both menus are inclusive of a savoury beef tart amuse-bouche and a glass of Tre Mat Finalizzato prosecco.

Worry not about a Vegetarian Menu theirs features standouts such as Spaghetti Rocket Pesto with Black Garlic Sauce & Aromatic Toasted Breadcrumbs and Millefeuille of Grilled Vegetables with Bell Pepper Sauce.

These fabulous dishes can be enjoyed alongside the restaurant’s impressive wine list featuring a comprehensive selection of Sicilian vintages along with wines from the Italian peninsula.

And, finally, for those seeking a more private festive dining experience, Bricco e Bacco offers two distinct areas. Situated at street level, the Private Dining Area provides a light-filled space overlooking Charlotte Street that can accommodate up to 16 guests.  Below ground level is a bar, together with an adjoining room, which can seat up to 40 guests.

Food and wine pairing is akin to unlocking the secrets of a culinary treasure chest, where each combination promises a voyage of flavours that transcend the ordinary dining experience.

Ultimately, the hypothesis over the recent years, that has received attention among some chefs and food scientists, states that ingredients sharing flavour compounds are more likely to taste well together than ingredients that do not. But is that true? What about listening to some of the regional experts and following their taste suggestions for a new experience in culinary delights?

After all the flavour of a dish owes as much to the mode of preparation as to the choice of ingredients, the chef’s brilliance in encasing them makes for the discovery of new patterns that may transcend specific dishes or ingredients.

Bricco e Bacco 11-13 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RH Book a table or find out more here at briccoebacco.co.uk. booking@briccoebacco.co.uk

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