• Home
  • Cocktails
  • Culture
    • Dance
    • Opera
    • Theatre
    • Outdoor
    • London Sights
  • Featured
    • Books
    • Home Delivery
    • Recipe Kits
    • Giveaways
    • Homes and Gardens
  • Recipes
    • Meat
    • Soups
    • Lunch
    • Starters
    • Mains
    • Sides
    • Desserts
    • Cakes and Sweets
    • 5:2 Diet Recipes
    • Fish and Shellfish
    • Meat
    • Poultry
    • Vegetarian
  • Restaurants
    • Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia
    • Bermondsey, Borough and London Bridge
    • Chelsea
    • Camden
    • City of London
    • Clerkenwell
    • Covent Garden
    • Docklands
    • East London
    • Kings Cross
    • Knightsbridge
    • Kings Cross
    • Kensington
    • Marylebone
    • Mayfair
    • Oxford Circus
    • Oxford Circus
    • Paddington
    • St James
    • Soho
    • South Bank
    • South London
    • The Strand and Embankment
    • North London
    • Victoria and Pimlico
    • West London
    • Out of London
    • Miscellaneous
  • Travel UK
  • Travel Europe
    • Belgium
    • Croatia
    • Czech Republic
    • First Visit
      • Bulgaria
      • Netherlands
      • Poland
      • Romania
      • Slovenia
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Italy
      • Sicily
    • Ireland
    • Portugal
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Travel Other
    • Caribbean Travel
      • Antigua
      • Barbados
      • Grenada
      • St Lucia
    • Ecuador
    • Egypt
    • India
    • Qatar
    • Mexico
    • Oman
    • Rodrigues and Mauritius
    • Sri Lanka
    • USA

London Unattached - Luxury London Lifestyle

Luxury London Lifestyle for Metropolitan Singles and Couples - food, travel, restaurant reviews - London Unattached

You are here: Home / Restaurant / Pasta Nostra – Old Street’s new restaurant for pastaficionados

Pasta Nostra – Old Street’s new restaurant for pastaficionados

July 7, 2019 by Nick Devonald Leave a Comment

Tweet
Pin
Share
Flip
Share

Last Updated on July 7, 2019

Mission highly possible: to make the best pasta dishes in town

Tweet
Pin
Share
Flip
Share

Pastaficionado – what else do you call someone who loves pasta? And who doesn’t? It’s no surprise that Italian food is officially the most popular cuisine in the world, and this love is led by pasta, eaten in its myriad shapes and sizes.

Pasta Nostra - Old St Exterior

While low carb diets have (al…) dented the appeal of pasta to some, London has recently seen a number of new places devoted to this wonderful food take off. And not far from the City’s glassy canyons, a few minutes from Old Street tube station, Pasta Nostra has arrived with a mission to make the best pasta in town.

Pasta Nostra - pasta types

The restaurant is the brainchild of two 20-something chefs, Wilfred Mafham and Luca Cianti, who having trained in some star eateries, felt the time was right to start their own casual dining but special Italian.

If you’re not convinced by the long menus found in some restaurants, you’ll be pleased with the Pasta Nostra’s keep it short and simple approach of small plates and pasta dishes. It’s a confident approach which says even though the menu is short, we know there’s enough variety for you to find something to like. And they’re right – there’s plenty of choice and nothing I wouldn’t have ordered.  

arancini & Cime de Rapa

Small plates include Arancini Alla Romana – three types of crisp, deep-fried rice ball, flavoured with Amatriciana, Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara (£6) and in a similar vein Cime di Rapa Croquette (£5).

Other plates include Battuta (steak tartare) (£8), sourdough bruschetta Pane Burro e Alici with Sicilian anchovies (£4), Burrata with pressed sorrel and cucumber salad (£7), Parmigiana (£6) with burrata and a selection of Italian Salumi (cold meats generally, not just salami) (£6). The guys make their own light and fluffy focaccia every morning and you can have it on its own or as an accompaniment.

Pasta Nostra - Pappardelle Oxtail Ragu

The eight pasta dishes though are the real stars of the show and are absolutely excellent. The closest thing to spag bol on the menu is the Pappardelle Oxtail Ragu (£12) and is delicious. Eight hours of slow cooking oxtail and tomato creates a really savoury, deep beefiness, enhanced by a sprinkling of 24-month aged Parmesan.  

Spaghetti Chitarra & clams

The Spaghetti alla Chitarra (£13), which combines pasta, clams and a clever courgette sauce with lovely, sweet confit tomato, is another tasty hit. The chefs certainly know the virtues of slow-cooking, the sauce for the Fettuccine Amatriciana (£8) is the result of six hours slow cooking tomatoes and guanciale (pork cheek).Other dishes include Tortello Carbonara (£10), pasta filled with pecorino, crispy cured pork cheek in a little pool of zabaione, and a very green Orecchiette al Pesto, made with home-made pesto and green beans (£8).  There’s plenty of choice for vegetarians/vegans and any pasta on the menu can be replaced with the chefs’ own gluten-free fettucine.Pasta Nostra-Tiramisu

The minimalist dessert list has seriously chocolatey tiramisu (£5), thoughtfully served with two spoons, as it really deserves to be shared. And there’s a Sicilian Cannolo (£4), sweetened sheep’s ricotta in a crisp sweet pastry tube – as a Sopranos fan, if you’ve always wondered what cannoli were, now you know!

Pasta-Nostra-Interior - First-floor

With its relaxed atmosphere, bold, brightly coloured décor, Pasta Nostra has a more the feel of a café than a restaurant, and in true Italian-style, you can pick up an espresso (100% Arabica and roasted in Italy) any time from early in the day.  As well as inside, where you can watch the chefs work their pasta magic or sit upstairs looking out over the street, there’s outdoor seating too. Pasta Nostra only uses the best ingredients in their pasta, but you can also enjoy it at home. They offer a short ‘’grab and go home ‘’ menu of pasta, sauce and tiramisu for a tenner a head (£15 for two). And if you fancy having a go yourself, they also run masterclasses in making fresh pasta and sauces.  

Pasta-Nostra-Staff member-with-flour bags

In Britain, we’ve come a long way from the dark days of pasta meaning spaghetti only in tins, squidgy hoops in a sweet tomato sauce, or bought in long packets, exotically labelled in your actual Italian. Such was our culinary sophistication, the BBC could get away with the great Spaghetti Harvest Hoax of 1957. Not now though – we have happily moved on a lot and are very lucky to have places like Pasta Nostra to offer us the best of the world’s favourite food.

I only wish I lived closer!

Pasta Nostra
122 Old Street
EC1V 9BD
London
 
Monday to Friday 08:00-23:00
Saturday 09:00-23:00
Sunday 09:00-17:00

Looking for other  Italian restaurants in the City?  We love Enoteca Rabezzana, Farringdon and La Tagliata near Spitalfields (though we are not sure if they still have their low-calorie menu!).  A little further afield, Bella Cosa in Docklands offers a great fusion of Italian and Japanese food while Terra Rossa in Islington offers great regional Italian dining with dishes from Puglia

Filed Under: City of London, Restaurant Tagged With: City of London, Italian Food, Italian Restaurant, Restaurant

About Nick Devonald

A frequent business traveller, Nick has spent a lot of his evenings sitting alone in restaurants around Northern and Central Europe, the Baltic states and the Middle East so really enjoys the chance to write about them from time to time. When not away, Nick tries to keep a finger on the cultural pulse of London by going to concerts and the theatre or at least reading the reviews. As he seems to know some countries better than his own, he particularly enjoys exploring towns and cities in the UK when he gets the chance.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Follow Us

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

About London-Unattached

  • Enquiries/PR
  • London Unattached Contributors
  • London Unattached Privacy Policy
  • Media Pack

London Unattached Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter here. We promise not to spam - and you can unsubscribe at any time

Recently Published

  • Park’s Edge Bar and Kitchen – Herne Hill
  • Emilia’s Crafted Pasta – Wood Wharf
  • Lotus Beauty – Hampstead Downstairs

The Frugal Flexitarian

Looking for more recipes? Check out our new site, The Frugal Flexitarian, for easy, cost effective recipes to enjoy at home.
Find My 5:2 Diet Recipes quickly and easily

Find Us

blogl
VuelioTop10Badge2020

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in