I am too tired for an angle today. I had friends staying for the weekend, which meant the amount of sleep I had was indirectly proportional to the amount of alcohol I drank. Still, that’s what coffee was invented for, eh?
Last week I went to Donna Sofia, which had been on my to-try list for years, despite mixed reviews. The menu was short, written only in Italian, and scribbled on a blackboard, all of which I thought boded well. It did.
We had two mozzarella dishes to start: one of the regular buffalo variety with prosciutto; the other of the creamy, burrata variety with spinach and calamari. Both the cheeses were excellent (though not quite on a par with Bella Storia’s milky bulbs) and simply prepared. My squid was a little rubbery, but the spinach-tomato-lemon-juice combo was mild enough not to overpower the burrata. I forgot to pay attention to the prosciutto, which probably means it was neither especially bad nor especially good.
We chose two primi, rather than going for the full four-courses including secondi. Mine was gnocchi with a bit more mozzarella and a mild, creamy tomato sauce. It was comforting and summery at the same time. Scary French Lady had ‘ziti’, which turned out to be a sort of giant macaroni, with a fairly heavy meat and red wine-based sauce. It was packed with flavour that might have been more palate-friendly on a November evening.
Full but greedy, we ordered one serving of panna cotta with two spoons (of which I ate the lion’s share, predictably). The colour was a light shade of cappuccino, but I tasted mainly creamy vanilla. The texture was generally fantastic, despite a slight build up of gelatine at the base.
Though we didn’t drink a lot, the prices were friendly at under €40 each. The service lurched from (almost overly) speedy and attentive at the start (when we were one of only three occupied tables in the restaurant) to slower and more sedate by the end (when it was almost full). But the boys’ Italian accents made up for any irregularities in their waiting skills.
I will no doubt return to Donna Sofia for a plate of mid-week pasta and Italian charm sometime soon. But first I need to get some sleep… Good night.