Team behind Franco Manca to launch pasta concept at Kerb's Seven Dials Market
The team behind pizza chain Franco Manca are to launch new pasta concept Strozzapreti at Kerb's Seven Dials Market, when it opens in September.
Strozzapreti will sit in one of the two independent restaurant sites within the market, joining Japanese fusion restaurant Nanban, from 2011 MasterChef winner Tim Anderson.
Franco Manca co-founder Bridget Hugo, pasta guru Andrea Beccaceci and restaurateur Giuseppe Mascoli have said Strozzapreti will offer "high-quality, big flavour pasta".
Dishes will include strozzapreti pasta with four-cheese fonduta and herb-infused oil; and pappardelle with rabbit ragù and marsala livers.
Hugo said: "Tasting and designing is the most creative and fun part of producing food and I've taken a lot of inspiration working with Beccaceci and Mascoli to establish these entirely new pasta dishes.
"After a decade working in Italian cooking, I am still always so impressed with how Italians seem to know better than anyone what good ingredients taste like and how to make them work in a simple and healthy way."
Nanban takes influences from Afro-Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern cuisines; with dishes including dry lamb curry ramen with Padrón peppers, tea-pickled egg and an added British twist of Montgomery Cheddar.
The restaurant will also introduce a weekly changing market ramen, using produce from the market's produce-led Cucumber Alley.
Anderson said: "With Nanban first starting off as a pop-up through to our Brixton Market restaurant, I'm extremely proud to be bringing our unique, eclectic flavours to London's newest market in the heart of the city. At Nanban we celebrate Japanese food mixed with international flavours and seasonal ingredients, so I'm very excited to see what we come up with when being surrounded by the inspiring street food traders and chefs and Cucumber Alley's fresh produce."
The restaurants will sit alongside street-food traders including vegan offering Club Mexicana; Yum Bun, who will serve-up soft steamed buns; fried fish trader INK; alcohol-free pop venture Square Root; and Rice Guys, who will serve up modern Chinese rice bowls.
Seven Dials Market will be the first bricks-and-mortar site for Kerb and will host a total of 26 independent food businesses.
Kerb operates markets in King's Cross, Paddington, the Gherkin, St Katherine's Dock and West India Quay.
