The London restaurants putting pasta back in the spotlight

From cockle linguine to posh penne, the Italian staple is back, says Susannah Butter 
Grate expectations: lay the parmesan on thick at Forza Win in Peckham

It's all about twirling at Forza Win’s Peckham restaurant. Tonight is Awesome Sauce, where a bowl of pasta and a glass of booze is £10. The Italian carb classic is a staple here because it’s not time to say pasta la vista yet.

It’s up to you whether you cut it or whip it round the fork with one deft wrist flick. The menu changes, with cockle vongole planned for spring and Forza Win says pasta is “a delicious, quick and nutritious vehicle for the sauces”.

London is full of pasta masters. On Air Street, Pasta Sereni is dedicated to the stuff. In Shoreditch, at Burro el Salvia, you can watch it being made by hand. The Barbican’s new restaurant, Osteria, is pasta-focused and the founders of Trullo in Islington are about to open a pasta restaurant in Borough Market called Padella.

At Sienna Miller’s haunt, 100 Wardour Street, veal ragu pappardelle is a bestseller, as are dense tubes of casarrece — filling fare for vegetarians.

Designer Caz Hildebrand believes in the aesthetics of it and, with Jacob Kennedy of Bocca Di Lupo, has written Geometry of Pasta, about matching the sauce to the shape of the base.

Pasta and style are natural partners at Charles Finch’s restaurant in his menswear boutique Chucs — if you are cold and hungry try wild boar ragu and for a light snack there is gluten-free pasta. Padella is about making food democratic. Founders Tim Siadatan and Jordan Frieda (son of hairstylist John and singer Lulu) say: “The beauty of pasta is that it doesn’t have to be expensive to be luxurious.” Dishes will start at £7 and we can look forward to tagliarini with shrimps.

Pasta is not confined to the table. At Broadway Market there are queues for the ravioli at La Tua Pasta, and Jez the Bowler has been bringing pasta to the streets with his pop-up. He does Balafel — that’s chickpea, spinach and ricotta balls with posh penne.

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In Kensington you can make your own at Pizzicotto, which is doing a fresh pasta masterclass on March 8 with Borough Market’s Bianca e Mora and Slow Food UK. Pizzicotto’s founders believe that gluten intolerance can be exacerbated by the way flour is made on an industrial scale so it uses unprocessed materials from Italy. Pizzicotto believes in Federico Fellini’s philosophy: “Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”

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