Capriccio

If there's a single cheese that perfectly captures 2016, it's stracciatella. And there it is: the most ridiculous thing I've written this week. Even so, you can't escape the cheese-based facts. In the past few months, we've seen several iterations of the stretched, creamy buffalo milk cheese (so named for the way it's shredded – see also, confusingly, egg drop soup and chocolate-chip gelato which share the same name) at Automata in Chippendale, Anchovy in Melbourne's Richmond and here on Norton Street in Leichhardt.

At Capriccio, they're serving it drizzled with basil oil, and thin lobes of sun-dried tomato. The floor team also suggest a side serve of their house-made focaccia with it, and I'm here to tell you it's a very, very good idea. Luxuriate in dipping fingers of the salt-crusted, rosemary-tainted spongy bread into that enormous plate of goo. Bliss.

Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Because there's the flavour bullet of the miniature cannolo​ filled with whipped mortadella to start and a wood-fired panino – the thing they're really best known for at lunch – to follow. You could either rock up and order one of these handsome smoky devils as your lunch in its entirety or do as we do and make it part of a larger feast.

There's really nothing like throwing down the lunching gauntlet than with a silken mortadella sandwich punctuated by some light acid from slices of globe artichoke and the peppery bite of rocket, all captured within a charred chewy Italian bread roll. Yeah.

It's a pretty delightful place to eat. The ragazzi behind the razzing up of this little pocket of Norton Street are Matteo Galletto​ (son of Lucio Galletto​, the man behind Paddington stalwart Lucio's) and Michele Rispoli. They run the place together, in a mod, bright, sunny and altogether not particularly Leichhardt-y fitout of lemons, whites and copper-bound Edison globes. There are seats outside if you want to take your cacio e pepe – a pungent, peppery and perfectly al dente take on the Roman bar room classic – al fresco. It's rich as hell and twice as cheesy – my advice is proceed with caution and share it with pals alongside a few glasses of nebbiolo.  

They also do a good range of aperitivi for those of you who enjoy starting off a long lunch right, and will even do a non-alcoholic spritz if you're driving. Either way, it's very important someone orders the butterscotch-poached peach with almond cream covered in a crumbled-up macadamia and white chocolate biscotto. Bueno.    

This is a very different speed for Norton Street – here's hoping there are more gear changes in store.

Pro tip ... Nab a spot in the sun and drink your weight in spritzes.
​Try this ... The panino is everything you could want in an Italian sandwich.