destination

Melbourne

Semplice cooking, meaning “simple” in Italian, is headed by the Italian-born, and charismatic, Michele, who offered to provide this incredible experience for us. So what does this entail? Michele, with a strong passion for Italian cooking, brings to your home, all the ingredients for an authentic 3-course Italian meal – but there’s also a bonus! Not only do you get a delicious meal prepared with love, you get an added interactive component as Michele teaches you how to make the pasta, from rolling the dough, to cutting the tagliatelle and operating the pasta machine! Semplice revolves around the concept of keeping Italian food simple, stressing that authentic Italian cuisine does not require all the fancy garnishes recreated commonly in Melbourne Italian restaurants. Michele provides a unique experience that is unparalleled by any modern place restaurant, drawn from his own experience in learning how to make pasta with his grandma, but now he shares that same culture with you in the comfort of your own home. He provides such a holistic experience, even bringing a portable speaker with an Italian playlist to experience the true culture! As a group of 5 friends, we started off with making our pasta, the mushroom tagliatelle. We were more than excited to cover our hands with Tipo 00 Semolina flour (the most traditional pasta-making flour), cut each piece of wonky tagliatelle, and play with the strings of pasta that we portioned out on each plate. As a bonus, we also had the pleasure of making our own, huge, raviolo with fresh ricotta inside! I can’t decide if making or eating the pasta was the best part. We waited keenly for our entree which consisted of fresh Italian parmagiana, chilli sausage, fresh ricotta and Michele’s handmade capsicum – a recipe passed down from his grandmother. The capsicum melted in my mouth in a combination of sweet and sourness! Having had a recent bout of making pasta with store bought pasta, it was interesting to notice how big the contrast in texture and flavour between hand made and machine processed pasta. Our tagliatelle, perfectly al dente, (credits to Michele of course), was delicately springy in texture, making it the best pasta to complement the mushrooms. The creamy base of the mushroom sauce didn’t require any added components, as using the mushroom water was simply enough to create that wholesome and earthy burst of flavour. This pasta was the definition of “Semplice” – simple, yet authentic and delicious! Yum! Despite our full stomachs from the main, we couldn’t wait for the tiramisu. Having been made by Michele earlier and kept in the fridge, we had the best Italian experience of sharing from the tub together. The tiramisu was creamy, light, with the best balance of espresso-soaked Savoiardi embedded in small chunks within – this is by far one of the best tiramisu I’ve had! Semplice gave us all such a wholesome experience – Grazie to Michele for providing us not only with a lively dinner handmade with love, but also an added appreciation of Italian culture and cuisine that any Melbourne Italian restaurant can’t recreate. If you want to have the pleasure of this Italian experience with your friends, whether for a birthday, celebration or just something different to going out, make sure you check out Semplice Cooking at their website below – we can’t recommend this enough!!