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Little Black Pig and Sons

Gemima Cody
Gemima Cody

Minimal tinkering: Salumi mixti.
Minimal tinkering: Salumi mixti.Wayne Taylor

14.5/20

Italian$$

There's a dog in a pickup out front looking forlorn in a way that has to be practised. He pulls the fixed stare, the jowls over the truck rim, the deep sigh and slump – all the moves, down pat like he's been staging this show to the Friday crowd for months.

And that's possible, when this is the only place in Heidelberg serving up fresh white truffles shaved copiously over even fresher pasta – and just two nights a week.

Here at Little Black Pig and Sons, a pro-charcuterie cafe residing near Berserk Tattoos in Heidelberg, chef Glenn Laurie throws some hand-cut pasta, pan-fried flounder and, on Thursdays, excellent pizzas into that mix. The seats are hot and locals flock – rain, hail, or dogs-in-tow. 

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Go-to dish: Cavatelli with slow-cooked sausage, tomatoes, shiraz and fresh peas.
Go-to dish: Cavatelli with slow-cooked sausage, tomatoes, shiraz and fresh peas.Wayne Taylor

Laurie has a background at London's River Cafe, which every lover of the quality-produce lightly tweaked oeuvre knows is a solid gold line on the CV.

This is Italian of the kind that laughs in the face of dehydrators, Pacojets​ and any tool that's not a knife. We're talking minimal tinkering with maximal results.

It's minty zucchini and ricotta loaded onto an oiled hunk of fresh focaccia, plated alongside a jumble of Mount Zero olives, bitter grilled witlof and a plank of pumpkin wearing a pickled fennel hat.

Crumbed pork cutlet with zucchini trifolata, rocket and olive sauce.
Crumbed pork cutlet with zucchini trifolata, rocket and olive sauce.Wayne Taylor
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It's house-marinated artichoke hearts, the centres still purple and tasting of the actual plant, and salty-sweet prosciutto, soft as kid leather, and spongy mortadella that tastes vaguely like Christmas spice folded next to fried polenta shrouded in provolone cheese.

It means that the cheesy, buttery, twirl of taglierini​ hiding beneath your truffle is yolky gold. It's springy too, almost verging on an alkaline egg noodle that you notice more in the spaghetti – a thick web of bouncy strands capturing scored and quickly scorched calamari, with a spice and salt hit of anchovy, chilli and baby zucchini.

It's lucky that you booked. Every graduation dinner, catch-up, and Christmas party in Heidelberg is taking place here, backdropped by bricks, cages and linen-dressed tables, all offset by a rusty metal cutout of a pig, and huge canvases printed with upskirts of kale and radicchio.

Vanilla panna cotta with prosecco-marinated white peaches.
Vanilla panna cotta with prosecco-marinated white peaches.Wayne Taylor

They're fuelled by a tight list of Italian wines pillaging Tuscany, Fruili and Sicily. Half the bottles are about $40, including the Sardinian vermentino​ that takes whatever you throw at it and sorts out the Friday-night-crowd, but you can also make it rain with a 2010 Barolo Gramolere at $185.

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The general rule that the further you go into the 'burbs the harder it is to find sharp staff doesn't apply here. The opposite is true. Make it a mission to empty your water or wine unnoticed. Ten bucks says you fail. 

So the idea is to go full Italian progression here – antipasti, pasta, meat – but chances are you'll arrive at round pork chop in a sweat. Persevere for the meat so juicy it comes across as brined, shrouded in a shaggy golden jacket of rosemary-fragrant crumbs, with a black olive dressing, closing the loop. There are leaves with it, lightly dressed and clearly garden fresh. Welcome to flavour town, population you.

You can see Laurie's skill, and you can taste it, but the genius here is all in his economy. Why work harder than sloshing some prosecco over ragged chunks of new season nectarines and pairing it to a just-set sweet cream panna cotta when the result is one of the best desserts you'll eat right now anywhere? Ditto a barely sweetened tacky scoop of chocolate sorbet served in a paper cup.

That is high self-esteem cooking. Who doesn't want in on that action?

THE LOWDOWN
Pro tip Thursday is pizza night. Margheritas and panna cotta for the win.  
Go-to dish The menu changes daily, but any pasta.  
Like this?... Osteria La Passione is a farm-to-table via incredibly talented hands. 486 Bridge Road, Richmond. 

How we score
Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor.  
12 Reasonable 13 Solid and satisfactory 14 Good 15 Very good 16 Seriously good 17 Great 18 Excellent 19 Outstanding 20 The best of the best

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Gemima CodyGemima Cody is former chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Food.

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