Pizza–de–résistance

Like all Mediterranean countries, Italy’s foodies know how to graze in style. For them to eat properly rarely entails fine dining and meals universally materialise without grandeur or pretension. They are confident in their culinary skill and know that the best seasonal ingredients need little gilding to be consumed at their best. The informal concept of the Italian enoteca is hard to explain, lighthearted but not lightweight bistros where the wine plays as an important part as the food, dishes are light and zesty, and there is little construction to the meal, diners picking at whatever takes their fancy off the menu.

A beautiful beamed ochre rendered townhouse on Manningtree High Street and just a few hundred yards from the beautiful Stour estuary, Lucca Enoteca is a true taste of Italy albeit in as English a location outside as one could imagine. However the A boards tell a different story, proffering the authentic delights inside ‘perfect wood-fired pizza, homemade gnocchi, Illy caffè, gelato, antipasti, and lots more’.

Now you might wonder what motivation and provenance drove American born North Essex restaurateur Sherri Singleton to create this little piece of Naples in such unlikely surroundings. Well her maternal grandmother on one side of the family had a restaurant and her great grandmother was a gourmet food importer during the Sixties, her global culinary range pioneering in its worldly outlook in the style of New York’s finest, Dean & De Luca. And on her stepfather’s side, Sherri’s extended family hailed from Puglia. Growing up in the heat of Southern California, she recalls spending whole mornings harvesting vast quantities of fava (broad) beans and olives and everyone shelling and cooking the glut of produce, preserving it ready for the cooler months – a very Mediterranean way of enjoying good food.

Now Lucca (as the building has been transformed into) has rather a long history for Sherri and her husband David McKay. Originally home to their first restaurant Stour Bay Café from the late Eighties for seven years, the building was also home too, their living in the flat above until they moved back to the States in 1997. Sherri and the family subsequently returned during the late Nineties to North Essex and created a cookery school, the Mistley Kitchen in the next village along. Later in late 2002 they unexpectedly acquired the Mistley Thorn across the road, turning it into a smart yet relaxed dining pub-restaurant-hotel. Never thinking they would have two eateries to contend with, early Autumn last year brought a surprising opportunity. Having retained the freehold on the Manningtree premises, their expectedly long term leaseholders left abruptly and so Sherri and David were left holding the keys and in quite a quandary. Not wanting to compete with the Thorn and in love with the whole relaxed Mediterranean style of an informal yet high quality enoteca, the concept of Lucca was born, the focal point of which was to be a wood fired pizza oven.

Now to open a ‘pizzeria’, one might envisage something competing with the Hawaiian and deep pan offerings of the retail brands, but this is as different as chalk and cheese compared to your average pizza joint. Sherri’s perseverance and quest for the true taste of Italy has taken her and Jamie, her stepson and manager of Lucca to Naples to learn from the infamous Enzo Coccia of La Notizia. On a training stage for a week, they learnt from the pizza master, whose 27 seat bistro serves some 500 pizzas a night. You may have seen Heston Blumenthal, three Michelin starred chef of the Fat Duck fame filming there for his programme ‘In Search of Perfection’, a clear demonstration of the top notch heights Sherri is aiming for.

The Italian connection doesn’t rest there, Sherri sources fabulous Caputo flour direct from the mill in Naples as well as indulgent extra virgin olive oil from Alpha Zeta. Complementing the menu is an entirely Italian produced wine list, covering the more familiar great and good names such as Amarone or Barolo as well as some more boutique offerings such as Roero Arneis from Piemonte and the local Neapolitan pizza loving red, Beneventanio Aglianico.

The huge wood fired oven (installed via a forklift JCB, a story in itself), in the open kitchen, complete with flaming embers, is manned by the two expert Naples born pizzaioli Franco and Massimo, giving a distinct sense of theatre as diners walk in. However dough tossing is seemingly not PC in pizza circles, contrary to popular belief – a quick flip from hand to hand is evidently sufficient. It was an educating experience, far from just a quick knead of flour, yeast and water, the dough itself is slow matured all day and a ‘biga’, a mother starter, is always incorporated from the day before’s dough, giving it its distinctive flavour and texture.

The menu is not solely restricted to pizza, far from it, though it is an obvious speciality. Split into Classico and Lucca selections – the former are the staple favourites, the traditional margherita, quattro formaggi, fiorentina and the like, while the Lucca specialities include frutti di mare with shellfish, salsiccia with homemade fennel sausage or the Enzo in honour of the main man himself, with smoked mozzarella scamorga, parma ham and rocket.

The latter styles often have ingredients laid on after baking giving a real textural contrast against the warm crispiness of the base – a tasty authentic touch. Space precludes me from indulging in too much lofty descriptions of the appetising antipasti, home made pasta and gnocchi dishes, the piatti della famiglia family style roasts on a Sunday lunchtime in true Italian style, the sambuca infused tiramisu and other decadent puds, you’ll just have to discover them for yourself. Go and dine out in North Essex, Italian style…

Lucca Enoteca, 39 - 43 High Street, Manningtree, Essex
T: 01206 390044  W: luccafoods.co.uk