Quattro Paste

First published on 12 Apr 2012. Updated on 3 Jul 2012.

You all know Rosso Pomodoro.. It’s that excellent Balmain pizzeria you can never get into. Well now they’ve opened a restaurant just around the corner specialising in pasta from the Emilia Romagna district. The tiny room only has around 35 seats and we’re imagining it’s going to book out faster than you can say Bolognese so you’ll want to get in quick with this one.

What these guys do, they do very well indeed. The service can vary from excellent to non-existent depending on who serves you and how much English they have under their belt or Italian you have under yours. The Negronis are a $10 serve of knock-your-socks-off and the pasta, both fresh and dry, is a cut above.

The tagliatelle al ragu is a tangle of noodles drenched in a sweet, rich beef sauce. Lasagne verde sees sheets of fresh green pasta sandwich bits of pork sausage covered in a whole lot of molten cheese. And just to continue with the sausage-fest, there’s the rigatoni with a rich, thick sauce of tomato, eggplant and pork sausage.

The bistecca alla fiorentina (aka a big-arse T-bone steak) is a 1kg hunk of beef they refuse to cook any more than medium rare. Fair enough, we say, but if you’re going to make the claim on the menu, you’ll want to be able follow that up with a medium rare steak. Ours is still mooing when it gets to the table. It is, however, beautiful meat from Carlo Colaiacomo’s Rhylstone farm. He’s the guy behind AC butchery.

Our advice? Order a bottle of Chianti classico, a few of the pasta dishes and follow up with the light, soft tirimisu. It’s a casual little restaurant, and while you’ll need to book (it’s packed every night), you won’t need to dress up. In fact, we see one customer turn up in their jammies (to be fair, they’re getting takeaway. And they’re six).

It’s a perfect low-key start, middle or end to the week. Delicious stuff.

Words by Myffy Rigby |

Follow @timeoutsydfood