Those clever chaps at Basilico Italian restaurant in Oranmore are ahead of the game, again, with their new free range and organic autumn menu. Basilico offers proper seasonal local food, and organic with a capital O; vegetables that have spent their lives knee deep in trillion-microbes-per-teaspoon loamy humus, not drip fed a Lance Armstrong cocktail of who knows what in some climate controlled polytunnel in deepest Alicante, or chickens which never saw sunlight in their life.
This is something that Basilico partners Paolo Sabatini and Fabiano Mulas are passionate about. Both Irish and Italian cuisine is essentially peasant food, in the best sense of the word, ie, based on recipes that have evolved over generations but firmly planted in the soil. Bacon and cabbage or spaghetti Bolognese are staples of our respective diets.
Sabatini and Mulas insist that their autumn menu takes this notion, adds a little Italian touch, and serves it up to the appropriate soundtrack by Verdi. Now that Italians have taken over our national soccer team they are moving on to our national diet. Leading the way, Paolo Sabatini intends offering a mid-week two course meal at €15, from each of Italy’s regions in turn.
The autumn menu will be exclusive in its use of locally sourced produce, Paolo and Fabiano insist on it, and the suppliers are lining up to be involved. There are free range chickens from Ronan Byrne in Athenry, free range pork and lamb from Castlemine Farm in Roscommon, Brady's top quality dry aged beef from Athenry Farm, organic vegetables and salads from Green Earth Organic in Galway, organic Clare Island salmon, and so on; or, if you are feeling adventurous, what about beef short ribs with polenta, or venison casserole with Milanese style risotto, again locally sourced.
So what are you waiting for, go and sample the new autumn menu.
The new autumn menu is now available, to book a table call 091 483693 or visit the new internet site www.basilicorestaurant.ie
