WINTER doona – check.
Heating serviced – check
Donald Trump in court – check.
With the cold weather starting to bite, dainty dishes like keto salad are less appetising and our bodies begin to crave a carb blitzkrieg.
Step forward pasta – a calorie monster that lights up your gut like a feel-good H-bomb.
It doesn’t get much more old school and comforting than Al Dente Pasta in Palmyra.
Situated just off the Canning Highway, the family-run restaurant has a dining room that looks like something out of your nonna’s house in the 1970s.
It reminded me of the scene from The Godfather – “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” – minus the graphic violence bit.
You get the sense the restaurant is a neighbourhood favourite with deep ties to the community.
I liked the menu – it had a nice range of dishes, but wasn’t overwhelming, and was divided into Pasta, Meat and Seafood.
It was decidedly traditional with classic dishes like veal cotoletta, spaghetti marinara, penne arrabbiata, and garlic prawns.
There was also a nice range of starters, side dishes and sweets, including old favourites like tiramisu and panna cotta.
Fans of deconstructed lasagne with sugo foam and squid ink pasta will need to look elsewhere, but if you’re after old school with a few modern twists, you’ll like Al Dente. The test of any local neighbourhood Italian is its meatballs.
Al Dente’s Fettuccine Meatballs ($23) were so good I thought my nonna had been reincarnated and plonked in their kitchen.
The tender balls of meat were packed with flavour and had that trademark handmade texture.
A clever touch was using a bolognaise sauce, giving the dish a deep meaty kick.
The ribbons of fettuccine were perfect for mopping up that thick sauce. A great, honest meatball dish. Across the table my wife “Special K” was tucking into her fettuccine pesto and salmon ($24.50).
“The basil pesto and smoked salmon go really well together and makes for a very interesting dish,” she noted.
“The creamy sauce adds a touch of decadence, but isn’t too rich and is nicely balanced.
“I’m liking the fettuccine, it’s al dente and perfect for the thick sauce.”
Unfortunately my Spaghetti Marinara ($26.50) didn’t hit the same heights.
There was a bevy of quality seafood with mussels, fish, clams and prawns, but there wasn’t enough sauce.
At certain points the whole dish came together with the white wine, diced tomato and seafood combining in a pleasing whole, but they were fleeting.
A little more tomato would have helped coat the spaghetti and bring it all to life, but I couldn’t fault the quality of the produce.
My young daughter rounded off the meal with a chocolate panna cotta ($7). She wolfed it down, and said she preferred it to the mixed berry one she had eaten on a previous visit.
Al Dente Pasta does what it says on the tin – serving up comforting, traditional Italian food at reasonable prices.
There’s BYO and it does weekly specials and home delivery.
Al Dente Pasta
Coner of Canning Hwy and
Murray Rd, Palmyra
aldentepasta.com.au
by STEPHEN POLLOCK