RULE BRITALIA
Italy meets Britain in the tastiest of ways on the menu at Luca, the new restaurant from London’s kings of cool, The Clove Club.
Italy meets Britain in the tastiest of ways on the menu at new London restaurant Luca.
You know the Brit Pack and Britpop, and you’ve heard enough about Brexit for a lifetime, but how familiar are you with Britalian? At Luca, tucked behind a green-tiled Victorian shopfront in London’s bustling Clerkenwell, chef Isaac McHale and his partners from The Clove Club, Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith, offer “British seasonal ingredients through an Italian lens”. Or, if you will, Britalian.
The appeal of The Clove Club has always been its flexibility and conviviality.
It’s the sort of place that has shot to number 26 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants without sacrificing its party vibe, and there’s some of that same magic at play at Luca. Cocktails, a Dirty Martini made with brined green peaches, are dispensed from the marble-topped bar, along with the likes of salumi, salted gooseberries, and olives stuffed with veal sausage.
Beyond the bar, a double-height 60-seat dining room bordered by exposedbrick walls and floor-to-ceiling glass has won over Londoners with an à la carte menu that places particular emphasis on chef and co-owner Isaac McHale’s great love: pasta.“Pasta is an amazing food, a wonderful world of stories where history and location and climate and politics have changed the shapes and styles that exist across the country,” says McHale. The menu includes spaghettini with Morecambe Bay shrimp and mace butter, and ravioli in pheasant broth.
British produce in place of more familiar Italian ingredients is a theme; airdried ham from Wales instead of prosciutto, for instance. Playful dishes, too, like “unfashionable” mint choc-chip ice-cream cones.
The exciting mix of serious food and informal service that made The Clove Club such a pioneer in London’s fine-dining scene when it launched nearly four years ago is also a big part of Luca’s appeal. “It’s something I first remember experiencing when I was doing a stage at Noma about 10 years ago, just when it was starting to get attention,” says McHale. “I remember the food was amazing, but the service was revolutionary – young, hip Scandis just doing their thing, and you happened to be in the same room as them.”
And they’re not done yet. McHale says he’d like to try his hand next at creating a Chinese canteen, as well as a grill restaurant and a restaurant in Tokyo. For now, though, it’s all eyes on St John Street and those gnocchetti Sardi.
Steamed trout with seaweed butter
“I love rainbow trout. It was a supermarket favourite, so it’s unfashionable in restaurants, but I think it’s a reliable option for dinner and this recipe is all about the cooking technique,” says Isaac McHale. “The last time I cooked trout like this was 15 years ago when I worked for Mark Best when he started running
The Four In Hand bistro in Sydney’s Paddington.
It’s a great technique that’s simple and makes a brilliantly cooked piece of fish every time.”
Prep time 20 mins, cook 2 mins
Serves 4
4 (130gm each) rainbow trout fillets, skin on, pin-boned
Butter, for greasing
1 lemon
Seaweed butter
50 gm butter, softened
10 gm dried wakame, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes, drained, patted dry, finely chopped
¼ cup (about 1 small bunch) chervil, finely chopped
½ tsp finely chopped dill
½ tsp finely chopped tarragon
1 For seaweed butter, whisk butter until pale and creamy. Add wakame, herbs and a pinch of salt and whisk to combine. Refrigerate. It will keep refrigerated for a week. Bring to room temperature before using.
2 Preheat oven to 190C. Place fish fillets skin-side up on a lightly buttered oven tray, and roast for 2 minutes, then check that top of skin is warm to touch and peel off skin in one go. Squeeze lemon over fish and season with a pinch of salt, then lift onto serving plates and put 1 tsp wakame butter on top of each fillet. Serve with steamed broccoli or a salad and enjoy the warm, just-cooked fish with seaweed butter melting over it.
Wine suggestion An aromatic white, such as riesling or vermentino.>
Gnocchetti Sardi with pork and fennel sausage ragù, anchovy and mint
“This is a great quick evening-meal kind of dish,” says McHale.
Prep time 15 mins, cook 50 mins
Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
4 (125gm each) Italian-style pork and fennel sausages, skins removed, broken into chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
100 ml red wine (white wine works as well) 400 gm canned chopped tomatoes
150 ml chicken stock
1 fresh bay leaf
440 gm gnocchetti Sardi (see note) 4 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
½ cup (loosely packed) mint, sliced Ricotta salata (optional), finely grated to serve
1 Heat a deep frying pan over medium-high heat, add the oil and fry the sausage meat, letting it colour at first without stirring. Once all the meat is coloured (10-12 minutes), reduce the heat and add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid and cook, checking often, until vegetables are softened (5-6 minutes). Remove lid, increase heat a little, add the wine and stir until it's evaporated (5 minutes). Add tomatoes, stock and bay leaf (just add water and a bit of a stock cube if you don't have chicken stock around, or even just water). Simmer until sauce comes together and reduces down
(25-30 minutes).
2 When sauce is reduced, get a large saucepan of salted water on the boil and cook your pasta until al dente (9-12 minutes). Drain pasta and add to the sauce along with a small ladleful of cooking liquid (about ¼ cup; the starch in the water helps the sauce cling to the pasta). Remove from heat and add anchovies. Serve immediately topped with mint and ricotta salata.
Note Gnocchetti Sardi, also known as malloreddus, is a small dumpling-shaped pasta, available from select delicatessens and Italian grocers. If it's unavailable, substitute orecchiette.
Wine suggestion A cool-climate pinot noir
(think Alto Adige or Mornington Peninsula).
Corned beef buns with horseradish, parmesan and walnut sauce
“Even if you never make this sandwich, you want to know about this sauce: a beautiful mild, bitter sauce showing the subtler side of walnuts,” says McHale.
“It’s a bit of an Italian classic and it reminds me of the background flavours of parmesan; a tiny bit of cooked garlic, olive oil and a little horseradish tie it all together. It’s a great sauce for bollito misto or as an alternative sauce for vitello tonnato, or just something to serve with cold roast pork, lamb or beef the day after a big roast.” At Luca, McHale serves these rolls with brined ox tongue; we’ve used corned beef.
Prep time 30 mins, cook 20 mins
Serves 4 (pictured p114)
4 white rosetta or other white bread rolls 400 gm cooked corned beef (or brined ox tongue), thinly sliced
Freshly grated horseradish, to serve Bitter leaves and gherkins (optional), to serve
Walnut sauce
½ garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
20 gm crustless day-old sourdough 1½ tbsp milk
100 gm walnuts
35 gm parmesan, finely grated
1 For walnut sauce, place garlic and oil in a small saucepan over low heat until just warm, then cool. Tear up the bread and soak in a bowl with the milk (10 minutes). Place walnuts in a saucepan of cold water, bring to the boil, then immediately drain and repeat twice. Blend blanched walnuts, soaked bread, parmesan and a pinch of salt in a blender until smooth, then add garlic, oil and enough water to form a thick sauce (about 100ml-140ml). Season to taste.
2 Preheat oven to 160C. Place bread rolls on an oven tray and warm in oven (5-6 minutes). Cool rolls briefly, then cut in half, spread with a small amount of walnut sauce and layer in lots and lots of slices of corned beef. Occasionally season a layer with freshly grated horseradish and a turn of pepper. When the sandwich is filled and the top layer of beef is nice and flat so the sauce won't run off, spoon 2 tbsp walnut sauce over beef.
Put the top half of the roll on and gently press (McHale secures his with 2 skewers and serves them cut in half ). Serve with lots of napkins, a salad of bitter leaves and a quarter gherkin each. Drink suggestion A Negroni!
Peppers with spinach and salt cod
“This is a light antipasti dish, served slightly warm,” says McHale. “I love peppers and this summer we preserved 100kg of organic peppers at The Clove Club to ready ourselves for Luca opening.” Begin this recipe a day ahead to soak the cod.
Prep time 40 mins, cook 30 mins (plus soaking)
Serves 4 (pictured p115)
100 gm salt cod, to serve (see note)
4 red capsicum
2 bunches (500gm) spinach on the stem 80 ml ( 1/ cup) extra-virgin olive oil
3
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
A sprig of marjoram
30 gm golden raisins, plumped up in
60ml boiling water, then drained
1 To prepare the cod, soak it in cold water in the refrigerator for 24 hours, changing the water 4 times. Drain and bring to a simmer in a large saucepan of water until tender (30 minutes). Strain and flake fish, discarding skin and bones.
2 Blacken 3 capsicum over a gas burner on a high flame, turning until charred all over
(20-25 minutes; or do this in a 220C oven).
Place in a bowl, cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and stand to steam for 15 minutes. Quarter capsicum, discard skin and seeds.
3 Blanch spinach on the stem in a saucepan of boiling salted water (40 seconds; see cook's notes p184) and refresh in iced water.
4 Juice the remaining capsicum in a juicer or blender with a tiny amount of water, then strain into a bowl. Add olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of salt.
5 Warm roasted capsicum pieces in a saucepan over low heat with marjoram and a splash of the vinaigrette (1-2 minutes). Add raisins and spinach and stir to warm through (30-40 seconds; you don't want this hot, just warm). Carefully lift the blanched spinach and capsicum pieces onto a plate, laying them all out flat. Spoon the dressing over, top with torn pieces of salt cod and serve. Note Salt cod is available from fishmongers.
Wine suggestion An orange wine with concentration and a touch of structure.>
Luca has won over Londoners with an à la carte menu that places particular emphasis on chef and co-owner Isaac McHale’s great love: pasta.
Rump of beef stuffed with pancetta
At Luca, McHale uses beef barrel rump, a barrelshaped fillet cut from the eye of rump. Ask your butcher for a piece of eye of rump or the large end of any eye fillet.
Prep time 10 mins, cook 20 mins (plus resting)
Serves 4 (pictured p120)
1 kg piece of eye of rump, eye fillet or beef barrel rump
3 very thin pancetta slices
1 tbsp olive oil
1 Preheat oven to 200C. Make a cut in the centre of the rump piece or fillet, season with pepper and put the pancetta slices inside. Tie beef with kitchen string at intervals to secure.
2 Heat oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over high heat. Sear beef in pan until browned all over (1-2 minutes). Transfer to oven until the beef ’s internal temperature reaches 60C on a meat thermometer for rare (15 minutes). Remove beef from oven and rest lightly wrapped in foil for 4 minutes, then cut off string and thickly slice beef to serve.
Wine suggestion A gutsy super-Tuscan or primitivo with dark fruit and good body.
Broccoli and cauliflower with parsley-pecorino sauce
“I love broccoli and this is a chance to eat more of it as a nice shared starter,” says McHale.
Prep time 30 mins, cook 5 mins
Serves 4 (pictured p121)
500 gm (1 head) broccoli 1kg gm (1 head) cauliflower
Parsley-pecorino sauce
15 gm pecorino, coarsely grated
5 gm parmesan, coarsely grated
1/ cup (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley leaves 3
1½ cups (loosely packed) baby spinach leaves ½ small garlic clove, crushed
1½ tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp grapeseed or light olive oil
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 For pecorino sauce, slowly process ingredients except extra-virgin olive oil and 1 tbsp water in blender, then turn up the speed to high and add olive oil in a thin steady stream. Add a tiny pinch of salt if you think it needs it.
2 Cut the broccoli and cauliflower into long florets (keep a few cauliflower or broccoli leaves if you have any and trim these up nicely). Blanch vegetables in a saucepan of boiling salted water (2 minutes; see cook’s notes p184), adding the leaves in for the last 20 seconds of cooking. Spread the sauce over 4 plates (or a platter) with the back of a spoon. Drain vegetables and arrange on sauce. Serve with leaves to garnish. Wine suggestion Herbaceous white with good acidity.
Mint choc-chip ice-cream cones
“Luca is fun and accessible, and I wanted to make some desserts that everyone knows, but you don’t see that often on restaurant menus,” says McHale. “I love to do the unfashionable things, hence our mint choc-chip ice-cream. We infuse the mint at a low temperature so it has a fresh uncooked flavour, and the ice-cream is white with chocolate flakes instead of fake green like you normally see.”
Prep time 30 mins, cook 1½ hrs (plus churning, freezing)
Makes 10 cones (serves 6 in bowls)
1 litre (4 cups) milk
125 gm (about 4 bunches) mint leaves 300 gm (48% fat content) double cream 150 gm (about 9) egg yolks
250 gm caster sugar
10 ice-cream cones, to serve
250 gm finely chopped dark chocolate (66%-70% cocoa solids), to serve
1 Place milk and mint in a large saucepan over very low heat (at 50C-60C) and stir occasionally until mint infuses milk (1 hour). Strain the milk through a fine sieve and place milk and cream in a clean saucepan and bring to the boil.
2 Meanwhile, whisk yolks and sugar in a bowl until pale, thick and creamy (4-5 minutes). Stir in a little of the cream mixture, then pour the bowl of yolks into the saucepan of cream mixture, stirring to combine. Return pan to heat and cook very, very gently, stirring constantly to prevent the yolks curdling, until the mixture thickly coats the spoon and reaches 80C on a thermometer (18-20 minutes). Strain into a bowl placed over ice to cool, then churn in batches in an ice-cream machine. Freeze (2-3 hours).
3 To serve, scoop ice-cream into cones or bowls and scatter with chocolate.
Drink suggestion Homemade nocino! Find a recipe and loads of time. Or buy an unctuous sweet wine like a vin de glace (ice wine).