Bella Mbriana Edinburgh

A real Italian flavour

When it comes to food, I’m a peasant. That’s not to demean the art of the chef. You've got to respect those dedicated men (and women) who spend whole days making multiple components for sauces and doing painstaking, fiddly things with raw ingredients so they end up bearing precious little resemblance to the original unprocessed material. It would be philistine not to admire the sheer dedication invested in taking a morning to make hand-dried dust of orange rind, for instance, or peel a stone of crustaceans for a consommé.

But when I think back to the most memorable dishes I have ever eaten, it’s the gutsy, hearty food turned out by cooks, rather than chefs, that come into focus. My grandmother’s Irish soda bread, slathered with homemade damson jam; just-made, egg-rich tajerin (tagliolini), a speciality of the Langhe hills in Piedmont, dusted with butter and the freshest of parmesan; Greek mountain lamb, spit-roast over wood in a family-run taverna in the hinterland of Paxos; fresh shrimps from waters off the west Cork coast, simply potted in yellow, matured butter made from raw milk… that’s the sort of uncomplicated food that lingers in my memories.

My ‘zuppa’ at Bella Mbriana in Edinburgh fell into this category too. A substantial bowl, the bulk of it consisted of a hearty sludge of cannelini, borlotti beans and lentils, only just suspended in a glossy liquor, bright with fistfuls of sweet cherry tomatoes, pungent with whole garlic cloves. Amongst this, were Venus clams and mussels – just enough to add interest, but not enough to make it a primarily fishy soup – topped with salty croutons of rustic bread fried in olive oil. It was voluminous, but also emotionally satisfying.

Bella Mbriana is the latest venture of Rosario Sartore, the man who brought more authentic Neapolitan cooking to the capital at La Partenope, on Dalry Road. His new restaurant is tasting good for the time being. I use that phrase advisedly. La Partenope started off con gusto, and then on subsequent visits it seemed that cooking standards had not been able to keep up with the stampede of diners. On my last visit I was served a pretty lamentable frittura di pesce where the batter seemed to have disappeared in the pan.

But this far in, Bella Mbriana is on stomping good form, with the usual baggage of Italian eateries dumped in favour of no-nonsense southern Italian cooking. Instead of the standard tomato/garlic treatment, for example, aubergine halves had been roasted into a sagging slipper shape and stuffed with smoked ham, melting provolone cheese and creamy ricotta – a combination that worked like a dream.

My Italian sausages were good quality porky offerings, infused with the smokiness of the grill.

They came with a solid wedge of provolone, again char-grilled, and oily, collapsing red and green peppers. In the other main course, broad pasta of rigatoni-type dimensions, combined with chunks of potato in a home-spun, fresh tomato sauce with generous amounts of leafy basil, were exquisitely flavoured by three plump, flavour-packed langoustine.

We also liked the side order of mainly button mushrooms, with just enough fresh porcini to lend a bosky perfume, softened in another good tomato salsa. We didn’t need them though, since the main courses, already moderately priced, automatically come with crispy roasted potatoes and fondant aubergine.

Hats off to a restaurant that goes to the bother of making its own cassata cake, not the bought-in ice cream version, but the real Sicilian thing: thin layers of pan di Spagna sponge cake, filled with lemon-scented ricotta cheese and encased in smooth icing and fresh, almondy marzipan. A pear and ricotta tart, although served a little too cold, provided still more evidence of an outfit whose commitment to home cooking doesn’t run out at dessert.

Bella Mbriana is going down a storm, which means it is packed and – be warned – noisy. The table staff are fast, friendly and eloquent when describing the food and the wine. The wine list offers many invigorating bottles, featuring under-rated southern Italian grape varieties from interesting producers, and is restrained in its pricing. All in all, a formula for a fun, good value night out.

© Sunday Herald