Review: Sarto
A restaurant in Leeds's city centre is creating handmade pasta to rival anything found in Italy. The supreme value for money here is the eatery's crowning glory.
A hastily organised visit on Friday to watch a new adaptation of George Orwell’s allegorical tale ‘Animal Farm prompted a pre-show dinner for a friend and me at Sarto, a favourite Leeds eatery of mine that prides itself on gutsy hand-made pasta dishes and sumptuous Italian snacks.
Time was not on our side, but I could not forgo a couple of small morsels to begin our repast. To kick things off, a plate piled high with zucchini fritti, as crunchy as you like and whose sweetness paired perfectly with the flavours of fermented chilli, mint, almond, and Parmesan. Then, a duo of mozzarella arancini, lightly breaded and creamy within, served with a vernally herbaceous lemon and basil aioli.
Having wolfed down both starters on account of time and greed, we moved onto our plates of pasta with glee. My friend, ever the discerning vegetarian, plumped for radiatori, dressed with a deeply savoury chestnut ragu. Ever the predictable diner, I opted for the spiciest thing on the menu: ditalini with nduja, mascarpone, and preserved lemon. Ditalini, translated from Italian as ‘little fingers’, are short, stubby digits, much undervalued in British kitchens, whose hollow centre boasts a great capacity for clinging onto whatever sauce should grace their presence. This was a perfect plate, dare I say as good as anything I've had in Italy; both throat-tickingly fiery and creamily comforting.
This may seem a small detail, but I have to laud the generous covering of parmesan on the pasta dishes. Each time I visit, I am weepingly grateful that Sarto’s attitude to cheese is so unsparing.
FOODIE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
‘‘Life is a combination of magic and pasta.’’
- Federico Fellini