Spaghetti Blogenese

It’s hard to miss Cavallino when walking down Carlton’s Lygon street. It’s the big yellow bustling Italian cafe spanning several shop fronts, adorned with Ferrari paraphernalia and it’s staff lining the street side wearing F1 caps. It’s a place I couldn’t go past on this journey.

How did their spag bol fare? It arrived to the table with Bolognese stirred through, a good thing.

First taste impressions were a strong tomato flavour. The meat was tender with chunks a desirable size, which I appreciated. It had a very sweet flavour – I like a sweet note in Bolognese, but this was just too sweet for me. I also found the tomato flavour overbearing and everything under-seasoned.

The downfall was also in the texture of the sauce. I found this Bolognese slimy and gelatinous, which I really dislike in a sauce. On top of that the pasta was overcooked adding a mushiness to the sliminess.

Unfortunately this sauce didn’t tick many boxes for me. The size and price were appropriate, and the meat was wonderfully tender.

Price: entree $12.40, main $15.90
Score: 6/20

This week I ended up in Hampton at a restaurant called Fazio’s. Fazio’s has been around for a few decades, and claim to be the second restaurant in Melbourne to introduce a woodfired oven, after Stokehouse in St Kilda. Fazio’s is a traditional family run Italian eatery and I was looking forward to trying their spag bol.

The menu read ‘Spaghetti in a sauce of tomato, minced steak and peas’. Now, I’ve mentioned in previous posts about my dislike for chunky vegetables in bolognese, peas in bolognese trumps that. Having said that, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the flavour impact of chunky vegetables, and was open to having my mind changed about peas.

So it arrived and the presentation was nice and vibrant, sauce stirred through but missing an extra dollop on top. On taste I picked up a nice kick of chilli. The overall flavour of the sauce, I had mixed feelings towards. On the one hand, there was a really nice presence of tomato to go along side the meat and on the other hand, the meat itself was not to my liking. I’ve found in the past when eating a high grade of beef-based bolognese it can taste a little bland, perhaps because it’s a leaner mince. I felt this was one such a case.

The spaghetti was cooked right and I tried with every bone of my being to enjoy the peas, but just couldn’t. It was a textural thing for me – I find peas too mushy for bolognese and I would prefer something with a bit more resistance or bite to compliment.

The consistency of the sauce was enjoyable – there were medium sized clumps and the meat was quite tender too, which made it more pleasant to eat.

Price: entree $18, main $23
Score: 10.5/20

George Calombaris is a busy man. His latest project is Mama Baba in South Yarra – a Greco Italian fusion style restaurant where pasta is the signature. When I heard George was opening a pasta focused restaurant, I was hoping and praying a bolognese would grace their kitchen. I was shattered when no such thing lived on the menu when they first opened earlier this year.

Low and behold, come their Winter menu Bucatini (tubular spaghetti) Bolognese with crumbed bone marrow appeared. I was curious to try George’s take on Bolognese, and excited about the bone marrow quirk.

I hadn’t yet tried Bolognese with Bucatini, and I quite liked it. It’s slightly thicker than spaghetti and with the hollow centre it gave the already al dente pasta an extra bit of bounce.

The presentation, clean. The falvour, wonderful. The texture, heaven. The crumbed ball you see on the fork is one of the bone marrow crumbs scattered throughout the dish. This was the real highlight for me – the crunchy exterior followed by this incredible flavoured pocket of awesome on its inside, so succulent it dissolved before I knew it. It complimented the texture of the pasta perfectly - the crunch of the marrow crumble mixed in with the chew of the bucatini – POW.

The flavour of the Bolognese was also great. A complex rich flavour which was beautifully balanced. It tipped toward the more tomato end of the spectrum. The sauce had the right viscosity and coated the pasta exceptionally. The downfall was the sparsity of bolognese clumps – it was so delicious I really wanted to have whole chunkfulls of meat, but found them hard to come by. Overall however, it was a rather special Bolognese.

Price: $27
Score: 16+

Note: Note: dishes which score 16+ are contenders for the title of Melbourne’s best Spaghetti Bolognese. All scores above 16/20 will be disclosed at the end of the year long taste testing once the winner is revealed in September 2012.

BOLOGNESE SIDE DISH:

Mama Baba offer an Arancini of Bolognese and mashed potato as a starter ($5.50). How could I resist?

This tasty little morsel of Bolognese combined with fluffy potato encased in a perfectly crusted ball was rather delightful, though a little bit dense and dry. Missing was some oozing gooey cheese in the centre – mozzarella or gruyere would have gone down a treat. This dish reminded me of a recent guest post I did for Milk Bar. The post was about Bolognese dishes varying from pasta such as a bolognese pie, parmigiana and pizza. You can read all about it here.