I Briganti

Dario Stochetti (or il brigante, or the brigand to those who know him and his Italian restaurant well), is mad for Mediterranean food, and southern Italian food in particular. Everyone knows that the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest in the world – you just have to look at the grinning, pipe-smoking, mountain-hiking centenarian Sardinians to understand this – and a select few have a deep emotional attachment to the cornucopia of dishes that are cultural landmarks in the various regions of the hallowed Italian peninsula. The team at Il Brigante know this, and are eager to impress this passion upon diners and pizza-fans at their Avoca Street premises in Sydney’s Randwick.

Focusing on southern Italian food means the menu at Il Brigante is characterised by bold flavours – sharp cheeses, hot chilli – building on a foundation of carby staples such as breads and pasta. Seeds and beans also feature prominently, often forming the backbone to soups of a style that can also be found across the Mediterranean in North Africa. Cooked with robust olive oils and matched with full-bodied wines produced from grapes scorched by the hot southern sun and grown in tough volcanic soils, a meal of the sort enjoyed by diners at this Sydney Italian restaurant is a hot-headed affair. Reserve a table at Il Brigante’s Avoca Street premises in Randwick and taste for yourself how the sun-kissed culture of southern Italy translates into food-form.