Alittle taste of Italy awaits those entering Huntsville’s La Dolce Vita Trattoria.
    The 1912 former private home has been painstakingly restored by Chef Antoine Farago and host Eve Lucchetta, offering a warm and cosy dining experience for their patrons.
    “The original beams are intact, and the bookcases, the wood fl oor and the doors are all original,” said Eve.
    She decorated the restaurant with her own artifacts from Italy and also went to Florence purposely to buy the tapestries that grace three of the restaurant’s walls.
    Because of its size – the restaurant seats 30 inside at a time – reservations are always recommended. In summer, 90 more people can be accommodated by the covered porch and the outside deck.
    La Dolce Vita specializes in the complete Italian experience, from the soft background music to the authentic, homemade traditional, antipasti, entrees and delicious desserts.
    “Zuppa di Pesce is our highest priced entree at $25. It features a variety of seafood in a tomato broth and it’s very popular. It’s what everyone comes back for,” Eve says.
    The wine cellar only features Italian wines.
    “Our house wine is Fontana di Papa from Lazio province. We chose that because my father was sending his homegrown grapes to that cantine (winery),” Eve explained.
    Antoine Farago was born in France to Italian parents. At the age of 17 he came to Canada, and honed his culinary skills both here and in Europe. He opened and ran two successful Italian eateries in Toronto for others, and then decided to open his own restaurant.
    The couple chose Huntsville because of the demographics. “And we saw there was no authentic Italian restaurant in an old setting here,” said Eve.
    They chose the building because of its proximity to the Algonquin Theatre – a mere two-minute walk – and the adjacent municipal parking lot.
    La Dolce Vita opened its doors on May 31 of this year and was instantly successful.
    “It was crazy. We never realized it would be like that. We had to turn away so many people. We knew we had to expand, so we built the deck right away,” said Eve.
    Don’t wait too long to visit La Dolce Vita where a warm welcome and delicious Italian cuisine await. Try one of Antoine’s occasional special features, such as spaghetti lobster or lamb shanks. And if the mood takes, an old piano in the corner beckons.
    One of the special feature antipasto dishes at La Dolce Vita is Oysters Rockefeller with Hollandaise Sauce, the recipe for which Chef Antoine is happy to share.
    Enjoy!

Oysters Rockefeller with
Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients

8 oz. spinach leaves
4 bacon slices, fi nely diced and
cooked until crisp
1/2 cup butter
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp Pernod
24 large oysters, cleaned
Coarse sea salt
Hollandaise sauce (recipe below)

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 425F (220C). Cook spinach with just the water clinging to the leaves after washing 3 to 4 minutes, until wilted; drain well and chop finely.
• In a saucepan melt butter, stir in green onions, parsley, spinach, bacon and cheese. Stir in Pernod. Set aside.
• To open each oyster, hold in paper towel on a work surface with flatter shell uppermost and hinged end toward you. Insert the point of an oyster knife into the gap in the hinge linking the shells and twist the blade to snap shells apart. Slide blade along the inside of the upper shell to sever the muscle. Remove any broken shell from the oyster with the point of the knife. Discard empty half shells.
• Cover the centres of four ovenproof plates with sea salt. Set the oyster in their half shells in the salt. Spoon the above prepared stuffing over oysters and top with hollandaise sauce.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes, until bubbling. Serve immediately as a starter.
• Makes 4 servings.

Hollandaise Sauce

1/4 cup cold water
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp white peppercorns, crushed
4 egg yolks
1 cup butter, freshly clarifi ed and
cooled to tepid
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt

Preparation

• Combine water, vinegar and peppercorns in a small, heavy-based, stainless steel saucepan. Over low heat reduce by one-third then let cool in a cold place.
• When liquid is cold add egg yolks and mix thoroughly with small whisk. Set the saucepan over a very gentle heat and whisk continuously, making sure that the whisk comes into contact with the bottom surface of the entire pan.
• Keep whisking while gently and progressively increasing the heat source; the sauce should emulsify very gradually, becoming smooth and creamy after 8 to 10 minutes. Do not allow the temperature of the sauce to rise above 150F.
• Take the saucepan off the heat and, whisking continuously, blend in the cooled clarifi ed butter, a little at a time.
• Season the sauce with salt to taste.
• Pass the sauce through a fi ne mesh conical sieve and serve as soon as possible, stirring in the lemon juice at the last moment.