Elabronico

Dishes mentioned

• Polpette
• Acciughe alla Povera

  I was torn between the acciughe alla povera and the fried cod, so they brought me both. The acciughe alla povera are spectacular — they may be called 'poor' but they're not poor at all: besides anchovies, there's stracciatella, marinated onions, a sauce that looks like tartar sauce, and another focaccia. The anchovies are excellent quality, the marinated onion, the soft focaccia, the sauce that enriches everything, and then the stracciatella that balances the acidity of the vinegar from the onions. This dish is insane — simple and delicious.

• La Sudiciona

  I ordered the pasta allo scoglio with tomato sauce and a smear of cuttlefish ink to dirty the plate — that's why it's called 'la sudiciona'. This is a dive into the sea. The pasta is perfectly al dente, almost undercooked as I like it. And the portions — look at them! A plate of pasta made to perfection.

• Spaghetto con la Francesina

  I'm eating a spaghetti with francesina. Francesina is boiled meat that's been re-cooked — a leftover recipe. When there was leftover boiled meat, they'd re-cook it with tomato and onion. It makes a wonderful sauce that we're using to dress artisanal spaghetti. This is atomic too. The pasta is cooked very al dente. The flavour is a mix between a tomato sauce and a Neapolitan genovese. The meat shreds like pulled beef. The onion makes everything very sweet — truly an explosive mix.

• Cacciucco

  This cacciucco has a preponderance of cephalopods — squid, cuttlefish, octopus. It's true that it's not a soup, it's nice and thick, with stale bread inside that creates the creaminess of the dish. This is the wonder of cacciucco — the bread is already incorporated.