A new deli counter has joined Rossella’s pizzas and pasta

EVERY parent bribes their children; but a family restaurant raises the stakes to a whole new level.

As a boy, Luca Meola remembers long hours after school helping out in his father’s kitchen in Essex. He was promised a pack of Pokemon cards for every 25 kilos of peeled potatoes. His father taught him every trick in the trade.

“It was a family restaurant in the truest sense,” Luca recalls with a wry smile.

By the tender age of 18, Luca had opened his own restaurant – Rossella in NW5.

This much-loved neighbourhood trattoria has been trading for a decade and recently expanded by knocking through into the premises next door. This adjacent property, leased by the police for community support work, had lain empty for five years. Negotiating the handover was a total nightmare, Luca says: “One of the single hardest things I have ever done.”

The Covid lockdowns provided the perfect opportunity for a complete refit and the revamped Rossella is a wonderful surprise.

There’s now a large deli counter, stocking hams, cheese and gelato. Rows of olive oils, pastas, wines and spirits line the walls, with some of the produce from the family farm outside Naples.

The new aesthetic is more modern and chic. You can watch the chefs at work in the open kitchen at the back of the room, behind a pass fringed with pizza boxes. The walls are shiny white and tiled in places, with old copper saucepans dangling on the walls. Framed photos capture moments in the family history, such as Nonna’s ice cream van trading in College Place in Camden Town way back in 1972.

The food menu is extensive, building on a foundation of reliable pizzas and pastas.

You can pick and mix specialities from the deli counter – from a pistachio-spiked Mortadella to a picante Gorgonzola cheese. We started with olives and thin slices of Ventricina, a spicy pork salami.

Our starters included zucchini, skilfully fried in a light batter, and a feisty salad of rocket, cherry tomatoes and a sweet-and-sour balsamic dressing.

If you want to cut down on the carbs, mains include steak, venison cutlets, chicken Milanese or sea bass with baby prawns.

We tucked into plump fennel sausages balancing on slices of polenta and slathered in a thick tomato sauce.

My friend’s risotto, made with porcini mushrooms, was a huge portion – cheesy and oozy in all the right places.

Rossella offers half a dozen desserts, often washed down with a nip of their family’s own recipe Limoncello and Meloncello.

Rossella strikes a lovely balance between the cosy friendliness of a Italian and something far more slick and accomplished.

As the aroma of truffles wafted across the room, it felt like a West End restaurant tucked away in Highgate Road. We went home clutching a bottle of the family olive oil – plotting the right time to return.

Rossella
103 Highgate Rd, NW5
020 7267 9797
contact@rossella.co.uk
@rossellanw5
www.rossella.co.uk