La Famiglia, Chelsea, London
An old school Italian (Tuscan) restaurant, rendered in white tiles and blue script. The food reminds me a bit of La Barca, near Waterloo, down to earth, with good ingredients simply prepared.
Gramigna alla Montinina, short thick curls of spaghetti-like pasta, had a slight bite to them, coated in a sauce that very nicely balanced the flavours of cheese (pecorino iirc), tomato, and pancetta. Classic. And great with the montipulciano de abruzzo - the acidity levels of wine and sauce well matched.
Arista di cinghiale consisted of medallions of wild boar rolled with herbs (rosemary, tarragon?), roasted and sliced, with a good rim of fat for flavour to offset the dense meaty parts. But fairly mild overall, more like dark porkiness than a wild near beefy quality. Sauteed swiss chard provided a satisfying green contrast.
Torta alla nona had a lovely thick custardy filling, an impeccable coarse crumbed crust.
Slightly expensive (~£10 for the pasta, ~£16 for the wild boar) , but that's probably the going rate for the area. Noticed a nearby table having pasta with fresh shaved white truffles, somewhat aromatic, as I could catch a few whiffs that drifted by, but not with a room filling intensity, probably because it wasn't the best of years for truffles (dry summer iirc).
