Linguine e Gamberi at Mad Pizza e Bar, Newtown
Almost everyone knows how to make a pasta dish. In fact for many of us, it is the first thing we learn to cook – it certainly was mine.
When I first moved out of home, my pasta eating frequency went from fortnightly to tri-weekly. It was cheap, filling and best of all, I could make it all by myself. I knew of nothing else that was so reliably tasty.
When it came to eating out, on the other hand, I wouldn’t give pasta half a second’s glance. I thought, why pay for something so easily made at home? But while this mindset is valid in some instances (Spagetti Neapolitan at the local pub), I’ve come to realise that at other times, it’s just not. A lot of the time, restaurant pasta has an extra-special something that home pasta never seems to have.
That brings me to Mad Pizza’s Linguine e Gamberi, which according to the menu, is their no. 1 selling pasta of all time. It’s perfectly al-dente, coated in ricotta-enriched sugo and generously endowed with sweet, tender prawns. In other words, a little fancier than Tuesday night’s Latina Fresh!
Maybe one day I’ll be able to make something as glamourous at home, but until then, I’m more than happy to hand over the $12. Yum.
Mad Pizza
The bill: Linguine e Gamberi – $12 at lunchtime ($19.90 at dinner)
The service: Table service
Also on the menu: Pizzas, salads, antipasti. At lunchtime, pizzas are $10 and salads are $12.
135 King Street
Newtown, NSW 2042
www.madinitalia.com
* There are other Mad Pizza branches at Potts Point, Darlinghurst, Bondi and Surry Hills
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A lot of fancy pasta places will either use exorbitant amounts of butter. A really cool trick (if you like that restaurant pasta taste), when your pasta is finished boiling, put a serving (or the amount you will actually eat) into a saucepan and sautee it with olive oil on medium high heat for about one minute, tossing frequently. Do this especially when you’re serving for others. It literally takes a minutes and will completely change the dynamic of your noodles from being ‘made-at-home’ to ‘classy’.
I forgot to mention, use a very generous amount of olive oil when you do this. It’s the excess that makes it all taste so rich.
Haha, I’m sure you’re right, Simbarashe but I’d prefer not to think of these things! I think I’d rather keep being blissfully unaware of what I’m eating out and continue making boring pasta at home…