Russo & Russo wins Hottest Dish in The Australian Hot 50 Restaurants 2014 list

Fregola with prawns, squid ink, a knockout mussel butter and house-made bottarga at Osteria di Russo and Russo in Sydney’s Enmore. Picture: Renee Nowytarger Source: News Corp Australia

ALONG the bustle of Enmore Road sits Osteria di Russo & Russo, ostensibly a 1970s trattoria behind inset windows and frilly curtains. Inside? One of Australia’s most distinctive Italianrestaurants.

In a dimly lit space anchored by a large marble bar, genuine and hospitable hosts make you feel like family, while chef Jason Saxby — a serious talent — plays with the classic flavour combinations of Italian cuisine, often adding an unexpected sour or sweet note while simultaneously giving his dishes a contemporary, dishevelled look.

Many dishes grabbed us this year but none more so than the textural, culinary embrace of fregola in squid-ink and olive oil with pellet-shaped prawn meat — to imitate the mouth-feel of fregola — napped with a knockout mussel butter, house-made bottarga, basil and chilli threads.

It’s Saxby’s wonderful, lateral thought on a classic Sardinian seafood pasta and, like everything he does, it captures the Italian spirit in an entirely unexpected way.

That’s why we’ve judged it our Hottest Dish in this year’s Hot 50 Restaurants issue of The Weekend Australian Magazine.

Source: The Australian - 21st August 2014