New Italian pasta from the Gold Coast

Pastificio Fellini has unlocked the secrets of good Italian pasta in a new range available from their newly refurbished fresh pasta outlet at Marina Mirage, Main Beach on the Gold Coast. Owned and managed by award-winning Italian restaurateurs the Percuoco family and partners Raffaele Di Benedetto and Richard Burt, Pastificio Fellini produce artisan-style pasta in the best Italian traditions.

Narelle says the Fellini pasta cooks up quickly and holds together well. The fine angel hair pasta cooks in 5 - 10 minutes, so it's good for a quick meal. It also seems to be lighter than some traditional Italian pastas and not as starchy.

Customers at the Marina Mirage store can even see the pasta being made. The secret to the success of this pasta is the minimum of 18 hours drying period which sees the pasta dried from the inside out. Varieties include squid ink fettuccini, saffron fettuccine, spinach linguini, saffron angel hair and just plain. Find it at Tognini's Milton and Spring Hill in Brisbane.

It's wild at Togninis

Enjoy the taste of wild venison from the Granite Belt, now on the menu at Tognini’s Spring Hill.

Chris Cameron of Granite Belt Game is a fully licensed operator who is reviving the almost lost art of harvesting and processing wild game according to traditional methods.

Fallow deer are an introduced pest species in the Granite Belt and harvesting them for meat reduces the stress they cause on the native environment. The deer graze on natural forage and wild mountain herbs making the meat tender and flavoursome. The animal has no abattoir or transport stress which is better for the animal and better for taste.

The animal is traditionally hung to promote a milder flavour while tenderising the meat, resulting in tender, flavoursome game.

Tognini’s purchase the whole animal and serve it in many forms from wild venison ragu with pappardelle (currently on the Spring Hill menu), pan fried venison scallopini with rocket and osso bucco venison shanks with risotto milanese. Find it in the fridge in take home packs of venison ragu and also venison stock. The venison stock is a perfect combo with Tognini’s new duck ravioli.

Venison is a long standing Tognini family favourite. Mark has relatives who live in the alpine village of Bormio (Winter Olympics fame) in far northern Italy nearing the Swiss border. They cure their own wild venison bresola and store it in their cantena (under the house) with home made salamis and cheeses where the average temperature in summer 6 deg!