I love my pasta, especially if it is homemade. Rolling a ball of dough through a pasta press, extruding the dough through a shape, cutting the pasta with a knife over a boiling vat of water - these things speak to the little nonna who is living in a Tuscan villa situated inside my mind.
The wait can be arduous. A lunch time affair (on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday), Francobolli could require a 30 to 40 minute wait, especially if you have more than a hearty party of one. It took me 20 minutes for a small counter seat, next to a modem that powered their Point of Sale system.
Like most of Wisma Cosway's other restaurants, Francobolli was tiny. This 20-seater eatery was minimalist. With the exception of their kitchen which you could see from the dining room and its striking aforementioned blue countertop that seats 7 people, the restaurant had a basic decor.
However, the true stars of the place were the pastas.
I ordered two meals: a wagyu ragu with mafalde pasta, and a cacio e pepe with rigatoni and a side of focacia.
I have to heap praise where it's due. The mafalde pasta was cooked to perfection. Al dente as it is, it felt weighted and dense with each bite. The pasta's texture was near perfection. However, the sauce (the wagyu ragu) was itself very bland. Maybe it is the Malaysian palate, but the tomato from the ragu was lacking. The sauce itself was not salty and the acidity from the tomato was not in your face enough for something that required a lot of sauce to lift it up. Although the meat and sauce stuck to the noodle well, the flavors of the sauce with the noodles made it underwhelming.
Again, where praises are due is to the texture of the pasta. A rigatoni for a cacio e pepe works just as well as a tagliatelle. Every bite of the pasta was exquisite. This time, the cacio e pepe was more flavorful than the ragu. However, it lacked more fresh black pepper that should be inside the sauce, not above it. It felt like a cheese sauce ladled on top of a rigatoni. It was nicer than the ragu mafalde, but I felt the taste to be a bit lacking. Sure, I lapped the sauce up with the focacia, but I felt it was still lacking pepper.
While there are hidden gems in Wisma Cosway, I would not mind getting the pasta from Francobolli to cook at home. However, the flavor leaves more to be desired, especially with the price tag of RM36 per plate of pasta. I understand the precision and love when it comes to the freshly made pasta, but the cooking of it makes the nonna in me sigh in indifference.
The pastas are brilliantly done.
I just wish the cooking of it was done by someone who is passionate about Italian food.
Francobolli
