A dark Italian

On leaving the theatre after A and I had enjoyed a performance of The History Boys, we were keen to find something quick to eat and the first likely place we spotted was a Bella Pasta. Actually the golden-arched place was the first establishment we saw, but the word "unlikely" springs to mind!
I haven’t eaten in one before but as long as I can avoid the dreaded tomato, I’m sure I’ll be able to find something tasty. It’s pretty late so we opt just for some shared cheesy garlic bread followed by Torta Caprino - Baked goat's cheese and spinach tart fresh from the oven with dressed mixed leaves and tender oven roasted vegetables for A and a Rigatoni Alpina - Chicken and pancetta bacon in a creamy cheese sauce for me. A had chosen her tart based on her beloved spinach but seemed to find it rather unpalatable, I think she expected the tart to be hot or at least warm but it was cold. I guess I had a similar shock when I ordered a gorgeous plate of beef Carpaccio in an Italian restaurant outside of San Diego and was very surprised to find that it was frozen. It seemed such a waste because I couldn’t really taste the meat. Obviously I’d personally be pretty disappointed if there was goat’s cheese in my meal but one assumes that A doesn’t feel as bad about it as I do.

I fared much better with my fat pasta tubes with smoky pancetta and lashings of Parmesan. Lovely creamy comfort food that really hits the spot! We had arrived Bella Pasta rather late so no dessert and we even had to run to catch the last train after our meal. It seemed okay for a quick bite, it was another dark and ambient restaurant. I’m clearly going learn to whip out a Magilite torch at the key photo-snapping moment as trying to inject colour into my almost black photos in Photoshop is proving rather a challenge. I enjoyed what I had today but probably really didn’t taste enough to give them a fork rating – I'll do better next time.

Update: I'm slightly alarmed by the pasta photograph above. I tried to clean up the plate as the image was so dark but now the pasta tubes look like they're hovering rather bizarrely over the curiously luminous plate. Hmm, not my best work!