Cicchetti’s winter warmer of a menu

SAN Carlo Cicchetti in Manchester is offering up a winter menu to warm the cockles of the heart as the days shorten and the weather gets colder.

Managing director Marcello Distefano was in an enthusiastic mood at the special launch of the menu, which includes such delights as bruschetta with pumpkin onion and ricotta salad, pigeon breast pate with black truffle and toasted Altamura bread, Venetian salt cod croquets with lemon and mayonnaise and salmon and beatroot capraccio with pistachio pesto.

“Everything we do is very seasonal,” said Distefano told TheBusinessDesk. “People who live in villages literally eat the food which is around them. Cicchetti always tries to push that regionality of food and the autumn menu is reflecting that.

“But autumn is my favourite time of year. I just find the food stronger in flavour and heartier. I think I’ve timed it quite well because the weather has turned colder. Because it’s all about comfort.”

Other delights on offer include slow roasted pork belly with winter spices, potato and cabbage, Pappardelle castagne with wild boar ragu and chesnut and purple broccoli fried with onions, breadcrumbs, garlic and Venetian cod baked in an iron pot, with onions and parmesan.

My favourites turned out to be the delicious pork belly and the fish dishes, although the bruschetta with pumpkin starter was a hard act to follow.

Worth a visit to the restaurant on the ground of the House of Fraser on Deansgate.