[Melbourne] Pasta dishes from Quinti Tuscan Lifestyle, Hawthorn

Quinti on restaurant-lined Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn is your quintessential mom-and-pop Italian eating establishment. Smallish dining area (5 tables) which can accomodate perhaps no more than 20 patrons at a time, its homemade pastas are the main attraction here in the largely middle-class, residential neighbourhood of Hawthorn.

What we had for dinner last Friday:

  1. Affettati misti, with bread & melted cheese dip

  1. Pici with walnut pesto and speck

  1. Pappardelle with walnut-speck-mushrooms

  1. Gnudi (“nude ravioli”) - its name comes from the Italian word ‘ignudi’, meaning undressed. In Italy, one finds this dish only in Tuscany. It’s basically boiled dumplings made of minced spinach (par-boiled with garlic) and ricotta cheese. Normally, this is used as ravioli filling. But no pasta is used here - so, as a raviolo is considered the “clothes”, a gnudi is thus a pasta-less dumpling. Instead of the pasta cloak, breadcrumbs and egg are added to the spinach-ricotta mix to bind the ingredients together. These are then shaped into dumplings and rolled lightly in flour before being dropped into boiling water. Once the dumplings are cooked, they’ll rise to the surface.

The dumplings are served atop melted butter flavoured with fresh sage. Delish rendition here.

  1. Risotto alla Parmigiana
    A very homely dish carnarof oli rice, cooked in a light chicken stock, flavoured with butter, onions, wine and cheese.

This amazing eatery seems to be under the radar of Melbourne’s food bloggers. Just as well - some of the best pasta in town - any more well-known, and we might have to queue outside the door.

Address
Quinti
636A Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia
Tel: +61 3 9939 8284
Opening hours: 11am-10pm Mon-Sat.

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