Ed eats

La Cucina del Sole
Tigné Point,
Sliema
Tel: 2060 3434

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

Last week’s edition of Time magazine ran a cover story about healthy diets.

I’m not one to complain about paying for my food, but tipping the €10 barrier for a plate of pasta is pushing it

Food on the cover makes a welcome break from the covers that alternate between war and financial crises. It also makes me think they wanted a nice and easy one before the edition that will almost certainly deal with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.

The article was not astounding. It was written by a cardiovascular surgeon who made a rather tidy job of saying that a balanced diet that includes all the sensible stuff is better than the swarm of ridiculous ones that pop up every other Tuesday and claim they are nature’s best-kept secret to weight-loss.

Unsurprisingly, it favours natural foods, an omnivorous diet and regular exercise.

I was quite pleased that it slammed two of my pet hates – the Atkins diet that eschews carbohydrates and favours heart disease, and the Paleo diet that claims we should eat like our ancestors from the Paleolithic period.

Both these diets fly in the face of conventional wisdom and insist you should ignore the desperate pleas your body makes for sense and balance.

If I wanted to eat like a band of homo habilis, I’d pop some diesel into my time machine and take it for a spin. I would also be quite upset to have died at age 30 of malnutrition, tonsillitis or being squished by my pet mammoth that had an annoying habit of rolling in its sleep.

I am not one who can, from the seat of my tribute to gluttons everywhere, preach the virtues of abstinence and sensibility at all times. I’d come across as a hypocrite and simultaneously render this column redundant.

I lament the day that some annoying scientist discovered that the heart that beats inside our chest is neither the organ we think with nor a physical vessel containing our soul.

He pointed out that it was, in fact, a pump that worked well provided we didn’t have too much food or too much fun. He probably died of sadness. Isn’t that a heartbreak?

And yet I would not like my physical condition ever to interfere with my ability to enjoy nature’s finest so I have realised that a balance must be struck. I now dedicate one meal a week to healthy eating.

It is a start. And choosing the timing of the single healthy meal is crucial because it gives me no comfort and no feeling of virtue. My congenital lack of health consciousness might have something to do with that.

For instance, following a morning of being towed around every retail establishment in Malta by my gorgeous sister, the last thing I feel like is a trip to the greengrocer. I planned to have lunch at 1 p.m., so I started complaining at 11 a.m.

We thus entered our string of ‘very last shops’ and made it out of the shopping centre at Tigné Point by 12.55 p.m. Perfect timing.

La Cucina del Sole is a restaurant I’d heard little about but the name has a nice ring to it so off we went to try it out, our little party adding a third ravenous member on the way there.

The entrance of the restaurant is practically part of the deck of the communal pool, so if you felt like watching people splash around and have fun and are prepared to bear the heat, you can pick one of the tables on the terrace.

You also get a fantastic view of Valletta and open seas. Midday heat was, however, hotter than the view and the bikinis combined so we headed inside.

Most of the view is unobstructed from within the glass walls of the cooler inside area so I was pleased with the choice. The interior is really quite lovely as well, although I’d be wary of the large internal space where it is full of famished families like us because the noise levels would be hard to contain.

The only other occupied table was at the far end of the restaurant so it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

This was reflected in the service. Both people running the floor were at our beck and call, very polite and almost overly attentive.

The menus they left with us have a very pronounced Italian theme to them and include the typical pizza and pasta as well as sections dedicated to cooking method – braised, pan-fried, grilled, and so on.

We were all up for pasta but could not resist the antipasti and picked one each. Mine was a mixed salumeria platter, with salami, Parma ham, an interesting arista di maiale and a pancetta coppata that, being my weakness, made me pick the combo in the first place. It was served on a wooden board with all the cold cuts arranged neatly around a central volcano of green salad.

Lovely bread and excellent olive oil made the perfect match to this simple starter.

Exhibits B and C at table had picked even simpler antipasti. The grilled aubergines were quite lovely, seasoned simply with olive oil and lightly salted.

More interesting were ricotta pulpetti – balls of fresh ricotta that had been breaded and deep fried into tasty little dumplings of milky goodness.

For main course I ordered a spaghetti carbonara, enticed by the description on the menu that listed the three ingredients – guanciale, egg yolk and pecorino.

I’ve seen too many odd additions to carbonara that ranged from fresh cream to mushrooms. Being quite the purist when it comes to this simple dish, I appreciated that the dish was proposed in its unadulterated form.

Rigatoni al ragu would fill the other two stomachs. In each case we were asked whether we wanted our pasta as a starter or a main course.

There was nothing on the menu that mentioned portion size, so faced with the unexpected choice, opted for main course portions. This will be significant in a while.

My carbonara turned out to be very close to the real deal. Discipline had been exercised in the cooking process and it was thankfully free from unnecessary ingredients, allowing most of the flavour to come from the cured pork cheek and the pecorino, with egg yolk forming a creamy vehicle that helps the flavour stick to the pasta.

Also lovely was the ragu, containing a generous helping of slow-cooked beef and tasting more like a simple stew than a sauce.

All portions were generous but not over-sized, so we had as much pasta as we needed, all cooked properly al dente, and without having to stagger out of the restaurant with uncomfortably full stomachs.

We ordered coffee, skipped dessert, and asked for the bill. Paying €60 for the meal was a little steep for what was essentially a quick plate of pasta.

The menus list pasta dishes in the €6.50 to €8.50 range. My carbonara had unexpectedly climbed to €11.50.

I am not one to complain about paying for my food, especially when it is well-prepared, but tipping the €10 barrier for a simple plate of pasta is pushing it.

We walked back out and were reminded why the place is called La Cucina del Sole, baking ever so gently as we returned to the car.

The grill and the pizza menus sound tempting enough so I will return for dinner at some point, particularly because I am sure the view will be even more spectacular by night.

I will just make sure it is not my one diet day for the week.

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