LA SOSTA, Fremantle
by JENNY D’ANGER:
WHENEVER anyone asks me to recommend somewhere for a special meal out, La Sosta is first off my lips, so it’s remiss of me not to have returned for so long.
Remembering the great-looking sweets but not having room for them after a huge entree and main last time we dined here, we settled for a simple bruschetta olio e rosmarino, Italian for toasted bread infused with extra virgin olive oil and rosemary. Thick slabs of bread were deliciously oily and rosemary made for a lovely deviation from the usual garlic bread.
La Sosta prides itself on fresh and authentic Italian food, and all the pasta is hand-made.
There’s a great range and variety on the menu, including tubes filled with ricotta and spinach in a walnut sauce ($25) and a pappardelle with lamb ragu and truffle paste ($28).
But we stuck to the chef’s specials, after conferring with our very knowledgeable and pleasant waiter.
I was torn between a couple of dishes, including the squid ink pasta with a sauce created by fishermen in Viareggio using minced seafoods cooked into a tomato sauce with hot chilli and garlic ($28).
With a couple of skillful questions to ascertain our tastes, our waiter suggested my other choice, the risotto al granchio ($30).
The Italians are masters at risotto and this was magnificent, a rich, moist mound of rice full of delicately flavoured chunks of Shark Bay crab meat.
For a town that once hosted the sardine festival, there aren’t too many eateries featuring the little fish, so D’Angerous Dave knew what he wanted the moment he saw it on the menu—sardine alla beccafico ($20).
The fresh-grilled butterfly sardines were stuffed with sultanas, peanuts and orange, rolled and skewered, and he was in seventh heaven.
The third member of our party hails from the old country, where as a boy during the Depression he caught rabbits for the family table.
Knowing English cooking I’m sure it would have been nothing like the coniglio alla cacciatora ($36) served at La Sosta.
Slow-cooked with tomatoes, olives herbs and spices the tender meat literally fell off the bone, and the potato puree was great for soaking up the delicious tomato sauce.
Dessert all round was a sweet end to a great meal, all the sweeter for a $5 dessert wine from NSW.
My ricotta cheese and coconut cake ($10) was rich and uber coconutty, while D’Angerous’ tiramisu took the Italian staple into the stratosphere and the crunchy almond sbrisolona (from Mantova in northern Italy) was wonderfully crisp and delicious.
Like fine wine and good women, La Sosta just gets better the longer it’s around.
La Sosta
85 Market Street, Fremantle
9335 9193
licensed
open Mon–Sun dinner, Tues–Sun lunch