It was a pleasure to be invited by Lee from Friday Food Club to try Sacla’ new products chilled fresh range. In this new range Sacla targets supermarkets chilled cabinets offering pesto, intense sauces, pasta sauces, and fresh pasta. The new range has invaded Selfridge’s food hall already.
Lee and Sacla’ hosted a great event attended by chefs, and fellow food bloggers. The bespoke dinner of irresistible Italian flavours was showcased to us. Cooking our divine mouth-watering meal was Lee, masterchef winner Steve Groves, and Mark Lloyd.
The AK rowing club was chosen as the venue for the night, overlooking the thames, the scenery was amazing and felt perfect as we had our pre-drinks. I was the very first person to arrive at the venue, I happened to stumble across the cooks at work frantically preparing the nights feast. Fi the other founder of Friday Food club approached me with friendly arms and escorted me upstairs to the top floor. The seating and tableware was flawlessly arranged with an added touch of fresh flowers. I managed to chat to Clare the MD of Sacla, about myself telling her I’m in the creative industry and that food blogging was a hobby.
On arrival all guest was served a glass of Bruno Giacosa Extra Brut Spumante, I almost got really tipsy by the forth glass. As more people started to arrive we were served the starters “sage puffs, quails eggs with asparagus & white wine sauce.” The sage puffs came out warm and crusty fresh out of the oven and the quail egg was soft boiled coated with breadcrumbs that was deep fried until golden, the accompany sauce did not overpower the taste. The ingredients sourced in the sauce tasted very fresh. The following photo is taken from Sacla’s facebook page.
Then the poached mussels, pesto cream crumb, goats cheese & tomato pesto calzoncini arrived, the mussels was perfectly cooked, and the pesto cream crumb gave the dish an extra crunch.
After socializing and Clare and Lee giving a speech we were seated to our tables waiting for the food to arrive. Our next dish was the coriander pesto pea fritters with spiced green sauce. The fritter was tasty and was packed with flavour. The spiced green sauce, didn’t taste spicy at all.
The next dish was Scala’s Trofie fresh pasta with cherry tomato & wild garlic sauce, shaved parmesan. This was one of my favourite dishes of the night the sauce was sensational, it tasted exactly as if you have freshly made the sauce from scratch. I adored the sharpness of the tangy cherry tomato’s and wild garlic sauce a lot. I always have parmesan on top of my pasta’s the cheese was full of flavour. Don’t let the tiny troffie’s pasta deceive you, the dish was very filling.
The next course was arbancini & pork bitterballen served with spicy red pepper sauce and rocket pecorino salad. It was a delightful surprise to see these three golden brown coated breadcrumb balls served on the plate. Each one had a different taste and flavour, the first exploded with melting mozzarella cheese, the second one was very zingy bursting with flavour and was my favourite of the three, and the last one was the pork bitterballen minced pork perfectly seasoned. The spicy red sauce suited the three fried delights very well, rich with the right amount of spice.
Last but not least the bison grass vodka and mint pannacotta with candied pistachio and summer berries. A lot of the other diners were talking about the wobble factor; it did not concern us at all. The texture was silky smooth and creamy, after each spoonful it left an after taste of vodka behind. The berries were slightly sour for my liking but the pistachio was just perfect with the dessert.
Overall Sacla’ fresh chilled range did not disappoint, it exceeded my expectations in quality and taste. The range is ideal for those with busy lifestyles and do not have the time to make things from scratch. It proves to show that you can experience the authentic taste of Italian food right in your own home. I will like to thank Friday Food Club and sacla for hosting a great evening of entertainment and heavenly meal.
Visit Sacla website for recipes and more information.
Friday Food club hosts many other dinners every month