Allegro

Review

Arancini, ready for collection

Of course, Marco Russo could have chosen a better time to open his pretty little Italian snack bar called Allegro. The store, which offered first-class delicacies from the best country in the world, a very Italian lunch menu, espresso and a little wine, was open for almost exactly a month before the shutdown. Russo initially used the time to take pretty photos of his Alimentari for the online store, but after four weeks he was back cooking again. And instead of serving his dishes on plates, he filled them into glasses.
Of course, you would rather sit in this pretty, bright, simple restaurant with its beautiful tiled floor, let your eyes wander over the shelves of good things and drink a glass of Prosecco with the antipasti - Russo has a small but good range of fine cold meats and fine cheeses in the display case ... But the alternative program is impressive: a handful of dishes, either Italian classics or dishes from his Sicilian homeland, which he had to adapt a little for transport in jars. Arancini, for example, a Sicilian national dish of deep-fried rice balls filled with meat or vegetables, simply didn't work in a jar, so he decided to make a kind of giant arancino, a jar of baked rice casserole. And it's insanely good, fluffy and airy rice, a core of ragout and melted scamorza in the middle, the combination of the salty, spicy components with the distinct saffron aroma of the rice so typically Sicilian (€ 10.20). And despite being transported by bike across two district borders, the rice dish stayed really nice and warm in the jar. The zucchini cream soup with mint also survived the journey well and at a good temperature, a strong, powerful soup, actually a puree, without any zucchini banality, with plenty of second and third vegetables in it, carrot and probably fennel, but a little olive oil and parmesan should still be mixed in at home (€ 4.50). And even if the knights of the Order of Santa Maria della Bolognese will furrow their brows in doubt, the tagliatelle turned out well. Incidentally, the ragout was really great, light and vegetabley, a far cry from the pasta-asciutta norm, and it needed Parmesan here too (€ 8.90). Russo also has things like asparagus risotto with wild prawns or sea bass with zucchinis, tomatoes and olives in a jar. And when you consider that the Reiner Wein pop-up discussed here last week is only two corners away, the people in the Porzellan-Grätzel are really to be envied at the moment. Summary: Not quite yet, but almost - Marco Russo cooks Sicilian dishes, which he then fills into jars and sells through the alley. Allegro, 9th, Porzellangasse 21, Tel. 0677/63 53 05 85, Mon-Fri 10am-6pm,

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