Il-Ħnejja
Senglea

Food: 5/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

This is a small, one-roomed res­taurant. Lying on the water’s edge in Senglea, it is quaint, enjoying a beautiful view that gives on to the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.

The sole waiter served up our dishes in earnest and with the broadest of smiles, promising that we would enjoy every bite. He honestly believed that he was serving us fantastic food and I couldn’t but help feeling sorry for him. I’m all for simple, honest food but here there was a clear problem with execution. Our meal was mediocre at best.

I do love octopus. But a delectable octopus requires correct handling. In a similar manner to squid, there are two ways to prepare octopus. Flash frying will result in a beautifully seared octopus that is pleasantly chewy and reasonably tender. The alternative is long, slow cooking.

My Octopus Stew required such cooking, slowly simmered over low heat in a garlicky, tomato sauce. The resulting sauce is deliciously rich and the octopus develops a tender texture and a lovely flavour. Mine was served with chips that were rather good.

Other than that, the whole thing was quite a shambles. Octopus doesn’t take kindly to overcooking and this was grossly overdone, resulting in octopus ten­­drils that were dry, tough and tasteless and with an awful rubbery texture.

The tortelli lobster dish was not quite as shambolic as the octopus stew, but still far from great. While the pasta was nicely cooked, the lobster stock and the tortelli filling of minced prawn and onion were quite bland and devoid of any meaningful flavour.

There are things that can go wrong with a pesto. The one served up at Il-Ħnejja was a case in point

And now to my pesto.

Herbaceous Pesto Genovese, heaving with bold flavour and tossed through pasta, was just what I felt like. Assuaged and assured by the earnest waiter that the sauce had been freshly made, I waited – in earnest.

The appeal of pesto lies in its fresh rawness. In contrast to almost every other pasta sauce in existence, applying heat to this cold, oil-based sauce is just about the silliest thing you could think of doing. Heating numbs the pesto’s overall flavour and kills the sweet, anise-mint fragrance of the basil. At face value, pesto seems like the simplest of sauces; ridiculously uncomplicated with few ingredients and no cooking in­volved.

But despite this relative simpli­city, there are things that can go wrong with a pesto. The one served up at Il-Ħnejja was a case in point. The pesto sauce possessed no roundness of flavour. All the assertiveness of the basil had been wiped out. The sauce was dull and disappointing and very much akin to a shop-bought jar of pesto. It didn’t pack a punch.

And a well-made pesto should absolutely pack some punch. It is the most pungent of sauces. There is nothing remotely mild about it. Composed of strong flavours, it demonstrates a definite, un­ashamed boldness. Ac­cording to the Genovese Pesto Consortium, a true Pesto Genovese is comprised of a bunch of aromatic tufts of fresh basil (preferably of Ligurian provenance); raw garlic; rich nuts (typi­cally untoasted pine nuts of Mediterranean origin); grated aged cheeses (traditionally Par­migiano Reggiano DOP and Pe­corino Fiore Sardo DOP); and some mild extra virgin olive oil (preferably freshly pressed from olives grown along the Ligurian Riviera) to bind and emulsify the sauce.

But let’s be realistic. Few of us are able to entertain the possibi­lity of cantering across the Li­gurian hillsides in search of fresh basil or prized Taggiasca olives. Concern yourself not. As long as you select fresh, good quality ingredients, you are bound to end up with a delicious-tasting pesto.

The Genovese Pesto Consortium lays down the rules for exceptional pesto making. Apart from good ingredients, the secret to a really good pesto lies in the method. The name pesto hints at it, nay, insists upon it; urging you to make use of the pestle and mortar gathering dust on your kitchen counter. The Italian verb pestare literally means to mash or crush – actions that can be achieved with a mortar and pestle. Using a food processor to whip up a pesto in minutes, turns an arduous task into an activity that requires no exertion whatsoever – but it will mince and chop.

Making use of a wooden pestle and a marble mortar as tradition dictates is certainly the best method for pesto making. To begin with, a good pinch of coarse sea salt and some garlic cloves are mashed into a paste until a creamy consistency is obtained, after which the pine nuts are added.

Here the thirsty work really begins. After a suitable amount of grinding and crushing, handfuls of basil leaves are thrown in. Under the pressure of the pestle, the leaves are crushed and work­ed into submission. It is laborious work. The pesto is ready once the ingredients have yielded to a paste, having been pestled to a creamy texture. Last of all, the grated cheese is tossed in, followed by a good glug of olive oil.

There is a marked difference between a pesto made using this age-old technique and one made using the (very acceptable) food processor shortcut. Although I may be the first person to take the easy route and reach for the food processor, I have to admit that this distinction is undeniably palpable. Pestled pesto produces a gorgeous sauce that is silken in texture and infused with the flavours of all the ingredients.

My pesto sauce at Il-Ħnejja was undoubtedly of the food processor variety. The pasta was not coated with a creamy, yielding sauce. Rather, the minute flecks of basil stuck to the garganelli like spattered glitter. The olive oil had barely ab­sorbed the basil’s colour and the contents of my plate were a sallow beige.

I won’t go to the extent of saying that the desired pesto-making method calls for blood, sweat and tears. Nonetheless, it certainly requires plenty of elbow grease, patience and enthusiasm. If you demonstrate these virtues, you’re good to go.

Perhaps these qualities were slightly lacking the time I visited Il-Ħnejja.

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