RESTAURANT REVIEW - RINUCCINI
Monday 28 January 2013
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Italian food. It is one of the most popular cuisines in the world. However, here in Ireland for many many years, our Italian dining experiences were bastardised Italian restaurants, serving mainly sloshy pasta drowned with crimson red tomato sauce. With a whack of garlic bread, and a litre of Soave or Valpolicella to wash it down, we thought we were back in Rimini. Okay these places did the job for many, but they didn’t reflect quality Italian cuisine any more than fish and chip shops did. Until relatively recently, not for us were dishes such as wonderful rustic Tuscan stews, rabbit Siciliana, silky calves liver with butter and sage, gnocchi, or fish and shellfish cooked simply with Italian panache. As to Truffle menus – London would be our nearest port of call for these delights. There were very few decent Italian 'Ristorantes' here per se apart perhaps from the Unicorn Major on Merrion Row, which was a hot destination thirty years ago with clergy perhaps seeking to recreate their visits to Rome! Happily, people nowadays are much more widely travelled and more aware too of the simple delights of good Italian charcuterie, cheeses and oils.
One of the few long standing beacons of light as regards traditional Italian cooking has been Ristorante Rinuccini in the mediaeval city of Kilkenny. Here in in the shadows of Kilkenny Castle, Antonio Cavaliere has been serving delicious food, since 1989, in an atmospheric demi basement room that could be located off the Via Veneto. Joined nowadays in the business by his son Riccardo,
Rinuccini’s is also a member of the new Taste of Kilkenny Food Trail www.trailkilkenny.ie We popped in for lunch recently. I love Rinuccini’s sense of formality, without it being intimidating, the service, the food, you definitely feel there is an occasion and respect for your dining experience.
Starters (€4.95-€8.95) included Cozze Mesinesse, which has fresh Wexford mussels tossed on the pan with garlic, white wine, chopped tomato and fresh chilli, whilst home made ciabatta was topped with organic West Cork smoked salmon and served with crushed green olive mayonnaise. Friend Mary kicked off by ordering Calamari e Zucchini Fritti (€8.95), which produced a white ‘wave’ style plate of absolutely textbook feather light, crisp and dry, bands of calamari and courgette fritters, served with homemade lemon, garlic and fresh basil mayonnaise. Likewise an antipasti selection (€9.95) of air cured Italian meats, salami, prosciutto, olives, chargrilled vegetables, red cabbage salad and hot garlic ciabatta was just perfectly judged.
Pastas included homemade cannelloni stuffed with red wine braised Irish beef and ricotta. Monkfish was wrapped in Parma ham and served in a Marsala wine sauce, whilst Fagiano al Nebbiolo had braised wild Wicklow pheasant, winter vegetables and Nebbiolo red wine reduction. Rack of pork comes in a fresh tomato sauce with garlic, oregano and black olives, whilst Agnello Abruzzese had braised shoulder of Wexford lamb baked in Montepulciano d’Abruzzo on a bed of summer truffle risotto. We really wanted to eat them all. In the event, being lunchtime, Mary progressed with starter portion of one of her Italian favourites, Tagliata di Filleto di Manzo (€8.95) - thin slice beef fillet, marinated in extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice and garlic, topped with rocket and shavings of 24 month aged Parmesan cheese. Elegantly presented in a modern white pasta bowl, this was a cracking dish, plentiful, tender, aromatic and delicious. Capesante al Profumo d’Aglio (€17.95) for me had a demilune of six perfectly seared Kilmore Quay scallops, silky on the inside, sitting in a pool of extra virgin olive oil, with white wine, garlic and fresh coriander, offset with a rectangle of crispy polenta topped with radicchio and frisee. With this came dressed Brussels sprouts, sauté potatoes and deepfried cauliflower florets. Just really nice food.
Eschewing all sorts of delicious ‘Dolci’ and ‘Formaggi’, with two ‘large’ glasses of wine (€17.90) and a brace of espressos (€3.90), our bill with optional service came to €74.60.
I want to go back tomorrow.
Ristorane Rinuccini,
1 The Parade,
Kilkenny,
Co. Kilkenny.
Tel: (056) 776-1575
FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT