Quattro Paste85 Reynolds St,
Balmain, Sydney
Quattro Paste is a small restaurant in a quiet part of Balmain that serves great traditional home-made pasta, as well as a decent selection of other Italian dishes. They only seat 32 inside but can fit a further 10 to 15 outside on their rear deck.Owned by four good friends from Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, with a great passion for good traditional Italian food, they have set a very high bar for quality and flavours.
Quattro Paste gets fresh meat and eggs delivered daily from an 80 hectare farm in Rylestone where all the animals feed naturally in grass fields and pastures. The variety of food and recipes allows the menu to regularly change with seasonal produce - or in some cases even daily produce.
We love starting a meal with a good antipasto platter - and this was an excellent one. It had an interesting selection of Tuscan cured meats, white anchovies, chicken liver pate, cheeses, house marinated olives, house made Tuscan bread and a few extras as well. The deep fried bread dough was amazing!The thinly sliced bresaola was also delicious as well as were the anchovies (which I really loved).
With the pasta made in house and the sauces made from traditional family recipes we were always going to have a pasta-feast!
We started with the house-made ricotta and spinach filled ravioli covered with a decent serving of butter and sage.
This was a beautiful, plump, light and simple dish that tasted just great.
Our next dish was a very delicious plate of tagliatelle al ragu. This consisted of house made tagliatelle with pork and beef mince sauce that was slow cooked for 7 hours served with grated Parmesan cheese on top and a sprig of rosemary.The pasta was of course wonderful but the sauce was again so full of flavour that we just had to keep eating it till the plate was cleared.
Some people shy away from ordering gnocchi at Italian restaurants for some unknown reason. I don't - I love a good gnocchi! This was gnocchi alla fornaia - home-made potato gnocchi served with a pesto of fresh basil, decorated with walnuts and a sprinkling of pecorino toscano cheese, olive oil and garlic.
This was extremely good gnocchi - one of the best!
We were pretty full by now but owner Filippo insisted we try just one more main course - and we're glad he did because it was another winner. They really do a great pasta here!
This was home made ravioli with corella pear and pecorino filling that was served with zucchini flowers sauce. It was a different way to use zucchini flowers but a great way and it all combined so well!
Tiramisu is something I've always liked. Mlady wasn't always a fan though, but in recent years it's become a favourite of hers as well. I think it's just that she's had the pleasure of tasting some really good tiramisu these days and appreciated the difference.This was a real winner!
Filippo arrived at the table with a large bowl of house made tiramisu. We were impressed already - it looked great.
A large scoop was then dolloped onto a plate that had been dusted with cocoa and we dug in!
This was one of the best tiramisu's we've ever had. It was so light and delicate and yet so full of flavour.
Yum.
A dessert called salame di cioccolato could be a bit off-putting to some - but don't let the word salame mislead you.This is another speciality of Quattro Paste for dessert. It was a log of chocolate dough with biscuit pieces inside. It was another tasty dessert that was rich, crunchy (in parts) and very satisfying. It came with a side of vanilla gelato that had a touch of lemon zest.
Quattro Paste is not your average Italian restaurant. A lot of time and effort and history goes into their dishes - and it shows! It's quality food in a relaxed pleasant environment with friendly helpful service. It's close to the city and well worth visiting!
Sir and Maldy dined as guests of Quattro Paste. Special thanks to Filippo for arranging our visit. Thanks also to Giovanna for looking after us so capably on our visit.
