Fosca Tantazzi’s story could perfectly serve as a script for a Netflix series, like the popular “Nonnas”. It was she who, together with her sisters, was at the origins of Fiammetta, in 1944, and who inspired subsequent generations to write a whole story linked to the restoration.
She opened the restaurant with her husband, Alvaro, Ludovica Rocchi’s grandfather, but the patriarch died at around 50 years old. “My grandmother didn’t know what to do, but as she was a strong woman, she decided to roll up her sleeves and call the two sisters from Tuscany to take the restaurant, Fiammetta, forward.” For more than 35 years he shared responsibilities with his children, but never stopped working, until he was 92 years old.
Fosca Tantazzi
Naturally, this woman’s determination marks the family and leaves an inspiring legacy, both in terms of treatment, hospitality and recipes, which more than justifies the opening of a new restaurant – Tantazzi – with the nickname of “nonna” Fosca.
“Tantazzi wants to be a tribute to a very strong woman, who was not only a great worker, but had a great sense of family, a classic Italian grandmother who cooked and always put others before her, loving, who after working 12 hours a day always found a way to be loved, to put us to bed”, says Ludovica Rocchi.
“Since I was little, I remember spending the summers with her in Tuscany, while my mother ran the restaurant in Rome, we spent months with my grandmother in the countryside, and that sense of the Tantazzi family is something that became very strong.”
Tantazzi, her grandmother’s nickname, disappeared due to the tradition of adopting her father’s name, something that Ludovica Rocchi regrets “because it left me a very important legacy”.
A “pearl” on Avenidas Novas
Tantazzi
Eight years have passed since the couple Ludovica Rocchi Brandão and Manuel Brandão created the Fiammetta grocery store, in Campo de Ourique. Later, a restaurant was born, which became a great success, being distinguished several times in national and international guides. Even with Fiammetta’s success in the Portuguese capital, Ludovica and her husband believe they still have “a lot to give”.
“Fiammetta is fantastic, it’s our first home, but it’s limited by space, not the living room, which has 36 seats and the terrace 20, but we work miracles in the very small kitchen”, he points out. They wanted a larger space to offer a greater variety of dishes. They then discovered a “pearl” in Avenidas Novas: “I found this pastry shop from 1930, almost 100 years old, closed, which was passed from management to management, and it was love at first sight”, he says.
He explains that Fiammetta, in Rome, founded in 1944, started out as a pastry shop. “When I saw the space, the environment, it really reminded me of Rome and our history.” They took advantage of the badges, the lighting of the pastry shop “which is a strong connection that we want to maintain”, but they had a surprise during the works. Beneath the false ceiling was a hidden wooden structure that appears to be from an old carpentry shop or workshop. Although no one knows exactly what it was for, it is a piece of history that further enhances the feeling of being in a privileged space, with so many different lives and which is now being reborn once again.
With 48 seats, a stone counter and a manger next to the window to sit and look at the street, the new Tantazzi restaurant appears to raise awareness of the family name that has been exploring the world of restaurants in Rome for 80 years under the name Fiammetta, also adopted in 2018 in Lisbon.
The place has an appearance marked by some industrial design and sophistication, a decorative mix that makes identification with the space on the part of a very eclectic public, from families to business people, or couples. A terrace is planned soon.
Sophisticated tradition
Sliced with green pepper
Thibault Gilardi is the chef executive of Fiammetta and Tantazzi. He created a menu “with various elements of the rich and extensive Italian gastronomy, with fresh seasonal products, to savor tradition with a touch of sophistication”. It serves traditional dishes, well-known flavors, but also more sophisticated alternatives such as “Artichoke and mint ravioli” (€17) or “grilled gnocchi with truffle” (€18). Always keeping seasonality in mind, the menu will be reviewed twice a year.
The fresh products available weekly are used for lunch options and at the bar. Written on the blackboard, they are a way of providing a sharing offer to anyone who stops by for a drink at the end of the day. The restaurant is open 24/7 from 11am to 11pm, except on Sundays when it closes at 6pm.
Carbonara sleeves
Ludovica Rocchi is enthusiastic: “Bigger kitchen, bigger menu, more articulated, with easier dishes for a quick lunch, but also more important, for those who want to enjoy a meal with more time, more attention, we managed to find a good balance”, he highlights.
The offer differs from Fiammetta’s dishes except for the “Carbornara” (€16) and the “Troffie” (€15), which nevertheless have some differences, namely the carbonara is not made with spaghetti, but with mezze maniche, typical pasta from Rome, with thick, striped walls, which allow the sauces and flavors to be retained with intensity, but with elegance.
For starters, start with the delicious carbonara butter, accompanied by focaccia, and the “Breaded Dehydrated Eggplant”, like a Milanese, tomato sauce and stracciatella (€10), with a beautiful hot and cold contrast.
The pasta list includes six options: the “Risotto allo zafferano con cinghiale confit” (saffron risotto with stewed wild boar) (€19) and the “Ravioli ripieni di carciofi e menta” (ravioli stuffed with artichokes and mint) (€17) are inspired by “nonna’s” dishes, but Ludovica Rocchi remembers that her grandmother often prepared “risotto with cheek or with sausages and that artichokes were also common in her recipes”. Also noteworthy in this chapter are the “Gnocchi fritti con crema di tartufo e pecorino” (fried gnocchi with truffled cream and pecorino cheese) (€18).
Another inspiration from grandmother Fosca Tantazzi is the “Focaccia stuffed with vitello tonnato” (€12), with vitello tonnato being something that there was a lot of at her grandmother’s house. “We sought tradition, but presented it in a different way.” This focaccia is part of a list of “Tantazzini”, served between 12pm and 6pm, which are also served with burrata and Cantabrian anchovies (€12), mozzarella and tomato (€10), as well as fried aubergine, tomato, basil and salted ricotta (€10) and pistachio and burrata mortadella (€12).
For meat, try the “Tartare di manzo alla veneziana” (steak tartare with egg, capers, red onion and yogurt sauce with garlic) (€22) and the “Tagliata al pepe verde e rosmarino” (slices of braised veal flavored with olive oil, green pepper and rosemary) (€20). The “Scaloppina alla Milanese” (breaded escalope in the Milanese way) (€18). The meat comes from Talho do Paulo, close to the owners’ house, because “it’s a trustworthy butcher’s shop”.
Drowned in coffee
The above is a classic festival. “Tiramisu” (€8) and “Chocolate Caprese cake” (€6), traditional recipes at Fiammetta. But you can try either “Coffee affogato” (€6) or “Whiskey” (€12), “Zabaione cream with salted caramel” (€8), or “Sicilian Cannoli” (€8) or “Zabaione” (€8).
As for the Tantazzi grocery store, it serves as a starting point to discover more in Campo de Ourique, but offers the best-sellers from the original grocery store such as arugula pesto or tagliolini.
Wines from Sicily and Tuscany with a “more consensual” profile
Tantazzi
Manuel Brandão is responsible for selecting the wines. He was already at Fiammetta and has a deep knowledge of Italian wines as well as personal taste. For more than six months he participated in tastings almost daily until deciding which 80 references would appear on the menu, so that none of them were repeated in relation to Fiammetta. “There is no wine in common”, he says proudly.
He highlights the care taken to compose a menu “with a more consensual profile, which the Portuguese like in the first place, with more tannins, with structure”, focusing mainly on two regions: Sicily and Tuscany. “Sicily is more fashionable in Italy, it uses many international grape varieties, which is unusual in Italy, it has very interesting local products, and Tuscany has more consensual wines, more rounded and structured”. He was also careful to include “natural bio wines, even among the classics, such as Amarone, a very old brand that we were lucky to have, and Pieropan, a historic house from 1880, where new generations have given it a spin and present a natural wine, something that doesn’t cross anyone’s mind”. Amarone appears on the list of the best wines in Italy, alongside Barolo and Barbaresco, from Piedmont, and Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, from Tuscany. Pieropan is a producer led by the fourth generation of the same family.
Ludovia Rocchi on his lap in a family toast
He believes that “an Italian customer sees a high quality offer, but anyone who is an Italian wine expert has, in each region, a very high quality product”. Nowadays he considers that “there is a lot of curiosity on the part of the Portuguese regarding Italian wines” and cannot fail to mention that “Italian restaurants with Portuguese wines is a strange thing”.
It’s exactly the challenge/invitation we need to give ourselves the test and get to know this wine universe better, accompanied by the discovery of the new restaurant’s autumn menu Tantazzi (Avenida Elias Garcia, 9, Lisbon, Tel. 937413342).
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