Sydney lockdown home dining, Italian style

Wanting to eat Italian food while in lockdown is not exactly a stretch. There are pizza joints on every corner, tiramisu is ubiquitous, and a bowl of pasta is but 10 minutes away. It's actually harder to avoid it than to find it.

But at this stage, Italian food on its own is not enough. I want Italian food that brings me more than just pasta, it brings me a sense of being in Italy. I want some of that "bella figura", the endearing Italian concept of making every aspect of life as exceptional as possible, and I want it scattered over everything as if it's grated parmigiano. And I think I've found it.

Alex and Trahanas Festa Della Pasta, Paddington

Not many takeaway offerings are inspired by a yacht – especially not the classic yacht, Agneta, that belonged to the late Italian industrialist and snappy dresser Gianni Agnelli. I'd go so far as to say none, actually.

But Alexandra Heard and Heleena Trahanas of Paddington fashion and design store Alex and Trahanas, have now extended the breezy Mediterranean style of their stripy linen dresses and porcelain wine jugs into a range of nautically themed pasta shapes and sauces.

In line with their vision, pasta master Scott McComas-Williams of Fabbrica pasta store and Ragazzi created sail-shaped velatagliati, matched to a sauce of pork and fennel sausage with cime di rapa, and cordatatori, little ropes of casarecce-like pasta tied in overhand knots (nodi marini) paired with sardine, fermented chilli and olives.

Quite simply, they are both great. The sauces are rich and oily, chunky and balanced, and the semolina-dusted fresh pasta is robust and filling, the shapes capturing the imagination in a way spaghetti never could.

You're on your own when it comes to instructions (tip: the sails are quite thick and will take 4 to 5 minutes, the knots about 3 minutes) but somehow even that lack of helpful detail manages to evoke Italy. Serve on the store's ceramic pasta platters from Puglia ($89) while lounging around in an Agnelli green-striped shirt ($249), and la vita couldn't be more bella.

Hot dish Velatagliati pasta with pork and fennel sausage and cime di rapa, $40

Where Alex and Trahanas, 257 Oxford Street, Paddington

When Order by Wednesday, pick up Friday and Saturday

How alexandtrahanas.com

Little Red Robin Italian Dinner Pack, Lane Cove

Alessandro Nelli and Michelle Warren run this Lane Cove Italian as if it's a wine bar, and they're not going to change just because they're doing take-home instead of table service. For $40, you can add on a mystery wine, red or white, which Nelli will choose for you from the vast selection at his nearby Birdwood Lane Cellar wine shop.

While head chef Alberto Ranalli is sadly in lockdown in south-west Sydney, chef Linh Do has stepped up to execute some nicely packaged Italian dinner offerings.

The dinner for two (good value at $65) is insistently Italian, put together with the understanding that sitting at the table is about dining and not just eating. Yes, there's a pasta course, of fresh rigatoni and a shreddy, homely ragu (which could have had more sauce-to-meat ratio) but there's also fragrant, peppery salumi, pickled chillies and a slab of focaccia to get stuck into while you cook.

Afterwards, there's a generous slab of tiramisu, its dense layers of mascarpone lightened with sponge. True to the spirit of a wine bar, Little Red Robin also offers a cheese platter ($30), the four cheeses complemented by macadamia honey, quince paste and crisps, with an Arnoldi Taleggio and Pecorino Il Predicatore being highlights. Sadly, that sees the end of the mystery wine – an intense, earthy 2015 Clos du Gravillas Lo Vielh Carignan – although how it disappeared so fast is the real mystery.

Hot dish Mystery Wine, picked by Alessandro Nelli, $40

Where 4/85 Longueville Road, 02 9418 9529

When Order by Tuesday for pick up 2pm to 5pm Friday and Saturday

How littleredrobin.net.au