LE SESFLO

16 Route de Florrisant
1206 Geneva
+41 22 789 6 65
www.restaurantescapade.ch/sesflo

Contemporary setting, young cheerful but competent staff, offering good Mediterranean-inspired food, including an impressive number of original pasta dishes and risottos. Excellent Italian wines, and ever-changing extra-virgin olive oils from Italy, Spain, Greece, set on the table for your tasting. Family-owned, same owners as Restaurant Escapade. Daily special for CHF18. Reservation recommended. Terrace.

Sapori restaurant offer: tasting menu, CHF89, not including wine, April 22-May 6, 2009

The Richemond hotel’s young but highly talented chef Pietro Amato will be hosting chefs from different regions of Italy over the next few months in the Sapori Ristorante. He kicked off  the first series yesterday with none other than Italy’s top chef, Fulvio Pierangelini, chef and owner of the famous Gambero Rosso in San Vincenzo near Livorno in Tuscany.

Pierangelini designed the menu and helped Amato’s highly capable staff get all his tricks down pat.

Pierangelini’s cuisine is a perfect example of what good Italian tastes are all about: simple (or at least seemingly so), yet with a perfect balance of top-quality ingredients.

Yesterday’s menu sounded classic enough: creamed white beans, king prawns and extra virgin olive oil; pappa al pomodoro, a traditional Tuscan soup made of dry bread and tomatoes and flavored with basil and olive oil; thinly sliced Florentine T-bone, perfectly seized so that it maintained all its natural juices; Tuscan sausage and cheese, brought in especially for the event; and Ricciarelli almond paste cookies laced with orange, an icy fruit-flavored granité, topped off with a Cantucci anise-flavored almond biscotto for “dunking” in the accompanying glass of Vin Santo dessert wine.

It’s Pierangelini’s twists of hand, like putting the basil in and taking it out at various stages in the cooking, that make it a pappa like no other.

The cheese course

This tasting menu is available for CHF89, not including wine, and this particular one is on offer from April 22 to May 6, so make your reservations now. It’s an amazing deal in a delightful setting offering top-notch, Italian-style service. Take a look at their à la carte menu under dining on Le Richemond’s site.

A wide selection of the best Italian wines, including Alessandro Mori’s Brunello di Montalcino Madonna delle Grazie 2004 and 2000, a 100 % Sangiovese wine as earthy yet elegant as its producer, Alessandro Mori, and certainly not the most expensive on the menu, but highly expressive of both the maker and the region.

Ruffino surprised us with a new wine that doesn’t even have a label yet. It is a fine blend of Italian varietal grapes and will be called by the reaction the makers had when they tasted their final creation:  Italian for “Wow”! Needless to say, it was good, and worthy of its name.

• Le Richemond
• Sapori restaurant
• Il Marroneto di Mori Alessandro
• Ruffino
• Gambero Rosso, Piazza della Vittoria, 13, 57027 San Vincenzo, Italy, Tel. (39) 05 657 01 021

The Indelicato fine food and wine shop is a Geneva institution.  Everyone in Pâquis knows Marguerite and Rosario, and the locals affectionately refer to Marguerite as “Mama”.

The attraction is not only Marguerite’s endearing personality, however. The shop offers high quality Italian fare that prompts many wealthy, loyal customers like kings and ambassadors to send their chauffeurs to pick up pasta delivered fresh from Italy twice a week, as well as top quality fruit and vegetables. When Sicilian tomatoes are in season (for instance, now), this is about the only place in Geneva you can get the non-greenhouse type. Several varieties are available for different uses – salads, cooking, etc.  When you taste these tomatoes you understand why tomatoes are classified as fruit, because they are as intense and sweet as a ripe red strawberry right off the vine. The Sicilian eggplants are also worth a try; they take on a sweet, almost confit, taste when cooked, and it is not necessary to salt them before cooking.

An ever-changing cornucopia of pasta is on offer – always between 30 and 40 varieties from regions all over Italy. If you’re out to discover something new, try the Trofie alle Castagne, made with chestnut flour, and one of the oldest and most typical pastas from the Liguria region, or the Croxetti, from the historic mountain town of Varese Ligure in the same region, which look rather like large coins with their patterned stamps, a great accompaniment to roasted meat au jus (pour a little of the jus over the pasta).

For olive oil connoisseurs, a wide range from all producing regions is to be had. Balsamic vinegars are not lacking, ranging from simpler, less expensive ones for cooking to exquisite aged ones, such as the 40-year-old Pier Luigi Sereni, tasted by the drop on a ripe red strawberry or a crostini. High-quality condiments and sauces – including a large assortment of pestos and tomato-based sauces, onion jam, Balsamic jelly, red bell pepper jam, just to name a few – make it easy to whip up a quick but delicious pasta dish, or prepare simple but tasty starters or aperitif accompaniments. The jams and confits can also be added to consommés or served with one of the fine Italian cheeses on offer, and to make original crostini and antipasti using the fine selection of ham and sausages.

The wine cellar will transport you immediately from Geneva to Italy. Its traditional Italian-style construction and perfect temperature and humidity control allow Rosario to offer a full range of Italian wine stored under optimal conditions, from affordable, good-quality wines to top-of-the-line wines cherished by collectors.

White wines, such as the Canus Friulano or Pinot Grigio, or the Villa Raiano Greco di Tufo, will provide a pleasant change from French or Swiss varietal wines when served with fish or chicken dishes. Red wines, such as Fontodi‘s rich Vigna del Sorbo, characterful thanks to its 100% Sangiovese varietal composition, or their less intense Chianti Classico, with only 85% Sangiovese and 15 % Cabernet Sauvignon, both go well with grilled meat or pesto dishes, and offer highly affordable options.

In the mid-price range, treat yourself to a Flaccianello della Pieve 2005, with endless layers of fruit and long in the mouth. If your taste buds really pine for more and your pocket allows, try the 1995 Conterno Giacomo Barolo, a classic, or Giuseppe Quintarelli‘s 1993 Amarone della Valpolicella, full of character and intense flavors, somewhat resembling a Madeira or Port yet still characterized as a dry wine, and which can stand up to strong flavors like wild boar or dark chocolate.

Indelicato
Italian gourmet food, wine and catering; delivery for large orders
12, rue des Pâquis
Tel./Fax +41 22 732 4591 E-mail rosarioindelicato@yahoo.com

Recipe of the Week:

Trofie alle Castagne pasta with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans
Serves 4 people

2 jars of Genoese pesto for 500 g of Trofie
3 potatoes, cut into thin Julienne strips
75 g of French-style green beans, ends cut off and cut in half
Fresh Parmesan cheese to taste

Boil 3 liters of water, adding salt.  Add potato strips and Trofie pasta.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Add green beans.  In a separate pan (I use a wok), heat pesto sauce on very low heat.  Cook pasta/vegetable mixture until all is al dente.  Drain.  Add mixture to warm pesto sauce.  Continue to heat on very low heat, turning gently, for 2 minutes.  Serve immediately.  Season to taste with freshly grated Parmesan.

Wine suggestion: Canus Pinot Grigio or Fontodi Vigna del Sorbo, depending on whether you prefer red or white