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Mimo with Deborah Moggach |
Wonderful Italian food fresh from la bufala
Sunita Rappai joins the writer Deborah Moggach at a restaurant famed for its fantastic Italian cuisine
DEBORAH Moggach has just come back from a literary tour in India which has convinced her that India is going to be the new Spain.
As part of her trip the novelist and screenwriter – her latest novel, In the Dark, hits bookshelves in May – was invited to speak at a reception for Dignity, an organisation that has set up India’s first retirement home.
She says: “I gave them a little talk as to why outsourcing British pensioners to India is going to catch on. Everyone’s respectful and calls you aunty and uncle and they don’t mug you on the street and it’s so easy and cheap. Your grandchildren can visit you more quickly there with a nice holiday in Goa thrown in than if you’re in Worthing retirement home. I honestly think it’s a matter of time before it happens.”
It’s hard to imagine Deborah retiring to Rajasthan any time soon. The glamorous, perennially youthful 50-something is hard at work at the moment on several different projects, from an adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank to a drama about gerrymandering former Westminster Council leader Shirley Porter, both for the BBC.
But she’s dragged herself away from her keyboard today to meet me for lunch at her favourite Italian local – the gloriously-named Fratelli La Bufala in Hampstead. This is a colourful, old-fashioned trattoria with an extensive range of pizza, pasta and anti-pasti. What it also has – hence the name – is a selection of produce from la bufala – not just mozzarella but sausages, steaks, burgers and a variety of other cheeses.
Like every successful writer, Deborah has her fair share of lunches in swanky London eateries. But she has a special fondness for Fratelli, she says, because it’s a “proper neighbourhood restaurant” – and it has pizzas “the size of Middlesex.
“Mimo, the owner, is a proper neighbourhood restaurateur,” she says. “He’s vastly friendly. He’s always outside beaming at people and he’s very welcoming and that, to me, is almost more important than the food. I know lots of places that serve very good food but are rather snotty. What you’re after is someone who makes you feel sexy and fun and makes sure you have a good time.”
Being another unseasonally hot spring day, we both skip starters and head straight for the mains. Deborah opts for the Linguine with King Prawns and Baby Squid in a Wine Sauce while I’m tempted by the Pan-fried Cod with Mixed pepper and a Balsamic reduction – both from the day’s specials.
My cod is delicious – a tad too flaky but beautifully moist and set off to perfection by the sweetness of the peppers and the sharpness of the reduction. Deborah’s linguine, generously plated and studded through with fat prawns, is “perfect”.
At Mimo’s insistence, we wash it all down with a gorgeous bottle of Italian white wine – light but bursting with flavour.
“A good friend of mine once said that it’s one of the truths in the world that everyone likes Italian food,” Deborah says as we finish. “French food can be quite restricted and conventional but Italian food is probably the best food in the whole world.”
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