Do you ever feel the need to escape, however briefly, from your life, from those routine activities for which you signed up for all the right reasons…..early morning pilates or gym session? Well that was me recently. I was lying in bed early one Saturday morning, waiting for the alarm to go off, after which I would get up, get dressed and dutifully go off to my pilates class, when my head took over and said, “take the day off”. Needing no more encouragement I decided then and there to introduce my lovely husband (still fairly new to Sydney) to my childhood stomping ground………and we headed off for Haberfield and Leichhardt
Cannoli anyone?
First stop Pasticceria Papa for a coffee and cannoli (or two)……. a nice way to start our mini break to little Italy….
A nice start to our Italian adventure
Pasticceria Papa is an institution in Haberfield – famous for their Italian delicacies. Aron was driving (with the assistance of Narelle – or friendly GPS lady) & not being familiar with the destination we arrived not at the Ramsay St Haberfield shop as I expected but at their much newer offering at Five Dock.
With our coffee and cannoli buzz on, we set off to Haberfield to enjoy the delights of Paesanella, where we bought some baked ricotta, a piece of sweet smokey pancetta and a chunk of Manchego. Next stop was Zanetti 5 Star Delicatessan, where we enjoyed poking around the shelves & picked up some infused extra virgin olive oils. Finally we wandered over to Lamonica IGA and were instantly transported to Italy proper….. from here we took home a large slab of Reggiano, a few slices of Italian salami and a few (long searched for) Italian sausages. The search continues but this is a story for another time.
Some of our haul
By now our mouths were watering and of course only Italian was going to satisfy. Luckily Leichhardt, where we planned to do our weekly shopping, was just up the road and we popped into Moretti Caffe and shared a pizza and a glass each of Chianti Classico…. bellissimo !!!!!
Morish Moretti’s Pizza
By now I couldn’t wait to get home and get cooking and you won’t be surprised as to what type of food was on the menu. I’d had some success the last time I made gnocchi and had picked up some beautiful Portobello mushrooms and a few large white Button mushrooms in Leichhardt, so I thought I’d make Gnochhi with my chunky version of Mushroom Ragu. I added some homemade garlic bread, and for Aron one of the Italian sausages.
Rolled and cut gnochhi
Buon appetito!
What a lovely adventure and satisfying day off from the usual routine……..
