The team behind pioneering pizza chain Franco Manca is to launch a new pasta restaurant at the new Kerb market in Covent Garden's Seven Dials.
Strozzapreti comes from Franco Manca’s founding duo Bridget Hugo and Giuseppe Mascoli, who have teamed up with pasta chef Andrea Beccaceci for the venture. It is set to launch this September, inside the new Seven Dials Market from street food guru Kerb.
The menu will focus on fresh pasta, made with durum flour and organic English spelt. Dishes will include the concept’s namesake strozzapreti with a four cheese fonduta sauce and herb-infused oil, alongside a pappardelle with rabbit ragu and marsala livers.
Strozzapreti will also be breaking traditional Italian rules frowning upon seafood served with cheese, by producing a spaghetti dish with fresh mussels, datterini gialli tomatoes and a creamy pecorino sauce. The restaurant will also serve antipasti and Italian-inspired desserts.
“Tasting and designing is the most creative and fun part of producing food and I’ve taken a lot of inspiration working with Beccaceci and Mascoli to establish these entirely new pasta dishes,” said co-founder Bridget Hugo.
“After a decade working in Italian cooking, I am still always so impressed with how Italians seem to know better than anyone what good ingredients taste like and how to make them work in a simple and healthy way.”
Franco Manca was launched in 2008, when Hugo and Mascoli took over Franco's pizzeria in Brixton. The sourdough-focused pizza chain now boasts 47 locations across the country, with 36 in London.
Seven Dials Market has also announced that it will also host the second outpost of Nanban, the Brixton Market ramen restaurant launched by Masterchef winner Tim Anderson in 2015.
The new Covent Garden food hall is the first indoor, bricks-and-mortar venture for Kerb, which also curates five other street food markets across London.
For more information, visit strozzapreti.com
