Good Food hat 15 / 20 How we score Italian $$ $$ There are close to 40 meatballs in my spaghetti alla chitarra with tomato sugo. They’re each the size of a hazelnut, but even so. These pallottine, as they are called, are a speciality of Abruzzo on the eastern coast of Italy.
They are now also a specialty of Summer Hill, in the inner west of Sydney. At Alessandro and Anna Pavoni’s newly formed osteria, Postino, they’re served in a thick, rustic tomato sugo with a lovely, chewy, spaghetti alla chitarra ($37). I’m told it’s the biggest seller on the menu, so let’s just think that through for a moment.
If they sell even 20 of these a night, that’s 800 tiny meatballs that need to be rolled by hand before service. Maybe send a silent thanks to the team as you dig in. No wonder it’s all hands on deck in these early weeks of opening, as various heads of state of the Pavoni Plus restaurant group jump in to help make pasta, roll meatballs and whip baccala.
Peering into the surprisingly small kitchen, I see talented chefs Victor Moya and Gianmarco Pardini as well as the newly appointed head chef Alessio Chessa, who has moved west from the Ormeggio team at The Spit. The former Summer Hill post office – a grand, porticoed, high-windowed brick affair that owns its corner – was Nina Alidenes’ much-loved One Penny Red for 10 years. It feels big, both in intention and dimension, and there are half a dozen different dining spaces upstairs and down, outside and in.
On the .
