Cotechino sausage, proscuitto and asagio cheese, and pumpkin gnocchi are on the menu for the first lunch in the series. Photo: Supplied/Three Blue Ducks.
Winter can be a quiet time in hospitality, but it’s also a great time for restaurants to try new ideas and get creative. Three Blue Ducks is a destination restaurant at Nimbo Fork Lodge, just outside of Tumut. To tempt customers to brave the chill and visit them in the mountains the team are launching a series of lunches with a new menu every month.
Chef Francesco ‘Frankie’ Mauro decided to challenge himself and his crew by deep diving into the different regional cuisines from his birthplace of Italy.
“It’s good for the kitchen staff to make stuff they’ve never seen before and also it will be interesting for the customers,” he told Region.
“We’re going to focus on the dishes which are super specific to the regions, rather than just making what’s popular … Hopefully we can teach people that it’s not just pasta and pizza: there’s so much more to know about Italian food!”
Frankie grew up in the northeastern Italian province of Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region which stretches from the Dolomite mountains to the Adriatic coast. So it was only natural that his home province would be his first choice for this special series.
Chef Francesco ‘Frankie’ Mauro will feature a different regional Italian cuisine each month. Photo: Supplied/Three Blue Ducks.
The first menu – to be served on 28 June – includes a traditional dish that Frankie used to make with his father, cotechino e brovada. Like a lot of cucina povera or peasant cuisines, this dish doesn’t waste anything and makes use of local ingredients.
“The cotechino sausage is made from all the offcuts and rind of the pork which we mince up with red wine and seasoning. We put it in a sausage casing and slowly simmer it for 10 hours, so all the meat just melts together and you get an unbelievably rich texture,” Frankie said.
“I know it doesn’t sound very appealing but it is really delicious! For me, it’s very nostalgic.”
The cotechino sausage is served with brovada: turnips fermented in grape skins leftover from pressing wine. This provides a tangy, acidic counterpart which cuts through the rich sausage and balances out the flavours. Frankie’s father made wine, so there were always pressed grape skins to use up!
Other courses include pumpkin gnocchi with sage and browned butter, frico (fried potato and polenta pancake) with asagio cheese, and a traditional Italian rum fruitcake for dessert.
Italian-style wines from local Australian producers will round out the regional menu. Photo: Supplied/Three Blue Ducks.
The next few months will feature regional dishes from Emilia Romagna – famous for their pasta dishes – Trenino Alto Adige, Marche and Toscana. Frankie said they were moving north to south to make the most of the seasonal overlaps between the cold weather dishes of northern Italy during winter and arriving in the warmer southern regions for summer.
“The central regions of Italy cook with more lamb or mutton, while up north I grew up eating more pork. Obviously the coastal areas have a big focus on seafood, and even within the same region you can get a lot of variation based on what ingredients are close by.”
Instead of importing wines from Italy, the team found at least one or two styles of wine from each region made by Australian producers growing Italian varietals. These local wines are available to purchase on the day.
Frankie has lived in Australia for close to 14 years, and he says that cooking the dishes from his home definitely helps him feel closer to his heritage.
“It’s a way for me to remember that I’m Italian! Foodwise I get a bit homesick so it’s good to make things you grew up with and eat foods that have an emotional connection for you.”
There’s already been some interest in the lunch series, so booking early is advised.
The Italian lunch series is $69 per person, and the first lunch is on Saturday 28 June.
Three Blue Ducks is located at Nimbo Fork Lodge, 330 Nimbo Road, Killimicat, NSW.
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