Push aside the ragus, and the bolognese and ossobucos, it seems to me that Italian food is really all about summer - the vegetables, the fish, the sea food, the lighter meats. And it was summer in June as a blighted first few days of June turned golden as the sun came out, the blue skies became cloudless and the god of weather turned up the temperature.
I was in the mood for a trip to Harborne heading specifically for one of my favourite restaurants Tropea on Lordswood Road where an Italian summer seemed assured.
A smooth and friendly - but not over the top - welcome and a suggestion that I might like to start with a Paper Plane which was either well remembered from my previous visits or information cleverly retrieved from records of bills settled up on former occasions. Regardless, I had my Paper Plane and I was all the happier for doing so. The accompanying complementary giadiniera - pickles - and olives were very pleasing - the pickles are sweet and toothsome and are a perfect hors d’oeuvres /antipasto.
And it was a summer menu indeed. I had come with a picture in my excited mind of the lightly tempura-battered courgette flowers stuffed with goats cheese and mint and enhanced with Moor Pool honey - I was lusting for them; it was the need for them that drove me to travel to Harborne - and they fully lived up to my expectations and memories of them. My only regret was that I ordered just two of them - three of them would have been more sensible or perhaps even four and why not five ….?
But we cannot say that the choice of another small plate was an unwise one - the pasta - I had the fabulous lobster cappelletti, the excellent pasta filled with tasty chunks of the fine crustacean and served with a delicious lobster and Datterini tomato sauce and dressed with Arënkha caviar (smoked herring roe in the firm of small black pearls currently popular among restaurateurs and a cheap alternative to the real stuff), This was an excellent dish, faux-caviar or not.
Naturally I could not resist indulging myself in the Tropea aubergine parmigiana which was as good as ever though naturally the portion is rather too large for an old bloke though I made a good fist of it and no-one could have asked more of me. I also splashed out on a very healthily sized plate of barbecued Wye Valley asparagus with a lemon dressing, a good sprinkling of pecorino and pangrattato on top to give that little extra peasant crunchy texture. The asparagus was lacking in flavour to some degree - I have had better this summer (from Sainsbury!) just in the last few days - plump and bulky, oozing asparagusic acid and high with flavour. But, allowing for the asparagus’ lack of exuberance it was still a pleasing dish.
I also had the Jersey Royals, sadly roasted instead of being plainly boiled, with roasted garlic aioli trailed across them and parsley. As I hinted, I would have preferred the new potatoes to be boiled perfectly and allowed to calmly bathe in the aioli but chefs must be chefs and sometimes they overdo things for the sake of showing they’re putting in the effort.
And of course I closed with the magnificent Tropea tiramisu which must have been eaten by the Roman gods on Olympus. I was full but made sure I did not leave a cubic micrometre of it.
Such pleasures, some finer than others, but the whole a delight.
Rating:- 🌞
12 June 2026.
No comments:
Post a Comment