Join us for a celebration of local, home-grown food cooked with love, Calabresi-style
Minestra is a little gem of a restaurant in Prospect, where the owner, Sandy Cenin, trades seasonal backyard produce to create beautiful Southern Italian dishes.
Sandy explains: “Minestra is Italian for soup. In Calabria, where my Grandmother is from, it often refers to a thick hearty stew made with whatever cooking greens are available, often gleaned or picked wild. The food she grew up with was mostly vegetarian and often vegan by necessity. Here in the lucky country, meat became less of a rare luxury and more of a standard, but at family gatherings, those simple fresh big flavoured vegetable dishes are our absolute favourites.
Our approach to food is taken straight from my Grandmother’s Calabrian experience. We take local, seasonal produce — often from local backyard growers with surplus — and prepare simple, unfussy dishes with those big bold Southern Italian flavours. Our menu changes daily to accommodate the offerings of our network of local green thumbs”.
For this special Slow Food celebration, Sandy will source as much backyard produce as possible and our final menu will be decided on the day, based on spring ingredients that are at their peak and available in abundance.
During our dinner, Sandy will talk with us about his Calabresi heritage and his inspiration to create a backyard-to-table cafe in suburban Adelaide.
Here’s a hint of what will be instore for your $60 all-inclusive dinner — with all food served on share platters and dietary needs, including gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian (as well as omnivores!) happily catered for:
Antipasto course
- Spencer Gulf snapper crudo
- Eggplant polpettini
- Sourdough grissini
- Burrata and house pesto
- Fennel seed-baked Fleurieu olives and goats curd
- Roasted peppers
Pasta course — three different pastas, which might include:
- Brown rice spaghetti with potato, parsnip, rough herbs, garlic and greens
- Spaghetti with baccala, olives, chilli, rosemary and garlic
- Casarecce with eggplant sugo and basil
- Tagliatelle artichoke, porcini, guanciale, mint, pecorino and egg
Main course
- Wood fire hunter braised Lamb on buckwheat polenta served individually with the following sides served in sharing platters:
- Bitter greens with garlic & lemon
- Wood fire roast root vegetables
- Simple garden salad
A range of juices and soft drinks, tea and coffee will be available to purchase at reasonable prices.
Event details
When: Saturday 22 September, 6:30pm – 10pm
Where: Minestra – 123 Churchill Road, Prospect
What you’ll get: 3-course dinner including corkage for BYO wine
Cost: $60 per person
BYO: The price per person includes a corkage fee – so feel free to BYO wine!
Tickets: Via TryBooking