PASTA, PRESENT, FUTURE

The days may be getting shorter and the nights colder, but there is one positive outcome: pasta is back on the menu. Here are three of the most stylish places to find a warming, delicious dish of Italy’s best-loved edible export in London

LINA STORES The Soho deli, which has been supplying Britain with panettone, foil-wrapped Torinese chocolates and legs of prosciutto since its launch in 1944, has opened a pasta restaurant. The exterior of the mini trattoria, two streets away from the original shop, is painted in the same peppermint-cream green. Inside, diners are treated to delicious antipasti (the octopus and crispy lemon is a highlight), but the star of the show is the pasta. Try spaghetti with Dorset crab and chilli or Lina Stores’ famous pappardelle with rabbit ragu ( linastores.co.uk).

BANCONE In Covent Garden, an affordable but beautifully designed osteria has opened, serving seasonal arancini, small plates of tagliolini with clams (above) and potato gnocchi with sage butter. Everything, from the marble countertops ( bancone is Italian for counter) to the olive-green leather banquettes, is the vision of owner Will Ellner, whose head chef Louis Korovilas trained under Italian cooking legend Giorgio Locatelli ( bancone.co.uk).

‘ O VER The focus here is street food as served in Napoli (meaning mostly pizza), but the Southwark restaurant’s lobster and parsley linguine is a lesserknown luxury. Taking its cue from the venue’s name, which means ‘truth’ in Neapolitan dialect, London’s Quiet Studios filled the interior with a simple yet stylish combination of Japanese wood vases, fiddle-leaf fig trees and secondhand tables and chairs (overuk.com).