Mamma’s cooking is still the best for this top Sydney chef

Giovanni Pilu has done it all, moving halfway around the world, launching restaurants, winning hats. But the chef of Pilu at Freshwater and freshly opened Flaminia at Circular Quay has never forgotten his roots.

Raised in Sotza, a town of just 250 people in the north-east of Sardinia, Pilu has built a career defined by the rugged flavours of his homeland. From gnocchetti sardi and bottarga to whole-roasted suckling pig and handmade culurgiones, these are the traditional preparations that never leave his menus.

But like many chefs, eating at home is a different story. For Pilu and his partner Marilyn Annecchini, late nights and a new restaurant mean dinner might be a simple bowl of cottage cheese, gleaned from the fridge after a ferry ride home to North Curl Curl. Except, that is, when Pilu’s mum, Maria Sotgiu, is in town.

Maria isn’t an elaborate cook, says Pilu, but she is a dedicated one. She keeps the fridge stocked with the flavours of his Sardinian childhood, long before he began training to become a draftsman, then accidentally fell in love with hospitality. Now that she splits her time between her hometown and Sydney, her cooking has become a bridge between his two worlds.

“Every time I come home now, there are leftovers,” says Pilu, swinging open the fridge door. “That’s calamari sauce that she made last night. A little bit of stuffed zucchini. There is always something fried.” Coming home, he’s now excited to see what will be waiting for them. Meatballs make a weekly appearance, and her cauliflower fritti are the stuff of legend.

Even as the chef enters his 50s, Maria can’t help but mother him. “She’s so helpful, and because we’re running around, especially lately with Flaminia, all the jackets are always clean, all my running gear has been ironed, even my running socks are ready!”

On a rare day off, Pilu is back in the kitchen. Maria is speaking in Sardinian dialect and her son switches between dialect, Italian and English as they work together on a batch of gnocchetti. While a garlic and basil-infused tomato sauce ticks over on the stove, Maria is at the marble bench, expertly rolling spinach-flecked ricotta dough into ropes.

The recipe (see below) is simple, says Pilu, but it’s the details that make the difference: not overworking the dough and boiling the gnocchetti for just long enough that they hold together but remain tender – you’ll know they’re done when they rise to the surface, he adds.

Then there’s the seasoning for the pasta water. “It’s the most important thing,” says Pilu. “I’ve got this little formula that I use, if you remember three number fives: I always go 500 grams of pasta, 5 litres of water, 50 grams of salt.”

Get that right, add the sauce sparingly, a little parmigiano, maybe a little mint, and you’re in the zone. Just don’t overdo it.

“You may think you need to add another thing on. Well, don’t – just leave it,” says Pilu. “I think the more you add, the more you cover things. Here, you get almost this separation of flavours that then come together. So I can taste the tomato, I can taste the spinach, I can taste the mint, I can taste the parmigiano. That’s what makes Italian cooking – simple Italian cooking – so good.”

The Pilu family’s spinach and ricotta gnocchetti with tomato sauce

Giovanni Pilu may be known for his elevated Sardinian cooking, but when his mamma, Maria, is in town, her home cooking takes him straight back to his childhood.

This rustic Italian dish is all about balance. “This is what people should be cooking more at home,” says Pilu. “Food that you put in a bowl and you share. Right?”

INGREDIENTS

Ricotta gnocchetti

• 200g baby spinach leaves
• 250g ricotta
• 100g parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 1 egg
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 100g plain flour

Tomato sauce

• 100ml olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 600g (1½ tins) crushed Italian tomatoes
• 6 basil leaves, chopped

METHOD

1. To make the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook gently, without colouring the garlic, until soft and fragrant. Add the crushed tomatoes and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes until slightly reduced. Stir through the basil, then season to taste with sea salt. Set aside while you make the gnocchetti.
2. To make the ricotta gnocchetti, steam the spinach until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a clean tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Cool completely, then chop it finely.
3. Combine the ricotta, parmigiano, egg, nutmeg and spinach in a bowl, season with sea salt and pepper, and mix gently until well combined. Sprinkle over the flour, then fold it through just until a soft dough forms, avoiding overworking the dough.
4. Lightly flour your hands and a clean benchtop. Bring the dough into a disc, divide it into 4-6 pieces, then with a gentle back-and-forth motion, roll portions of the dough by hand to form long ropes about 1.5cm thick. Cut each rope at an angle into 2cm pieces, then lightly roll each piece over the back of a fork (or a gnocchi board, if you have one) to create ridges.
5. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a gentle boil. Meanwhile, gently reheat the tomato sauce in a separate pan over low heat.
   Add the gnocchetti in small batches (10-12 at a time) to avoid crowding the pot, and simmer for 1-2 minutes until they rise to the surface. Once they’re floating, allow them to cook for a further 20-30 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon and transfer directly to a warm serving bowl. Continue with the remaining gnocchetti.
6. Spoon a little warm sauce over the first batch and top with freshly grated parmigiano.
7. Repeat the process – layering gnocchetti, sauce, and cheese –until all portions are cooked and dressed.

Serves 4