La Morra – Number 43

La Morra, named after the hilltop town in the heart of Piemonte in Northern Italy, the land of Barolo; and a place we have visited.

As part of our staycation last year, we drove to Piemonte for a three night break and La Morra was one of the towns we visited. We went to Piemonte for the wine (of course).  What we were surprised about, was the number of ‘fine dining’ restaurants.  Run by young chefs/owners, the quality and creativity from these restaurants was outstanding, some of the best we’ve ever had. Check out our post on this beautiful area here.  Onto this restaurant.

Drinks – La Morra has a great little bar in the restaurant.  I decided to try the cocktail ‘La Mora’; translation – the blackberry.  A mix of flavoured vodkas, citrus and fresh blackberries.  I’m not a fan of anything too sweet, so the citrus in this made it very fresh.  The barman was quite pleased with himself as he said this was the prettiest he’d made it yet.  I agree, a very pretty drink.  I also got to try a little creme di violette, which appeared in another cocktail and I was curious about.  It tasted like alcoholic violets…a reminder of those little purple sweets in a packet from pick and mix days.

Food – They were going for north Italian food, as per the restaurant namesake.  So, the typical courses of apperitivo, primo and secondo.  We didn’t opt for apperitivi this time as they were all salads or cold dishes; not quite what we fancied on a cold night.  The pasta courses were good; well cooked pasta and good sauces.  I ordered a venison dish for my main and I have to say the venison itself was perfectly cooked.  It was accompanied by a kumquat jam and a cardoon and celery root gratin.  That is just a whole lot of bitter on the plate and I feel bad because I have to say I did not like either.  Clark had really well cooked pork (he says the crackling was great) served with Italian beans, which he says were not quite as rich as he’d like…a tad watery, so a bit disappointing also.

Cardoon – I had never heard of this. It is a type of thistle, which the globe artichoke also comes under.  They are not to be confused though.  With the globe artichoke it is the bulb that is eaten.  With the cardoon, the stems are the edible part.  I have attempted to prep globe artichokes before, thankfully with my friend Jules, who knew what she was doing; no easy task.  I have read the cardoon is also a tricky one to prepare.  So, again, I feel bad I didn’t like it (at all).

So as not to end on a ‘bitter’ (pun intended) note, free dessert was sent over.  Delicious and very moist citrus cake, which had been totally drowned in citrussy syrup (in a good way) and an almond Sbrisolona, which had the flavours of a Bakewell tart, never a bad thing.