Kathmandu:

Your meal begins with the aromas from the herb garden in The Nuovo Marco Polo and

with the smell of aniseed (saunf), which a friend is drinking in a liquor made by Robiolo Battista who runs the restaurant.

“I am now making my own sausages and salami and my own liquors, bread, cheese pesto... In a way I am starting a Nuovo Marco Polo delicatessen,” said Robbie on that balmy evening, when a Roman friend asked us to crumble the leaves of what the Italians call Salvia but we know as sage, and a deliciousness wafted into the air and I remembered that old saying — “The young sow their wild oats, while the old grow sage”.

The Antipastos, all made by Robbie arrived. Antipasto means ‘before the meal’ and is the traditional first course. They aren’t to be confused with hors d’oeuvres. There was a new Robbie cheese, a white piece of Caciotta that had a zing to it. Then there was eggplant stuffed with anchovies and the taste swung from the delicate to the pronounced. There were tart mushrooms in vinegar laced with pepper and chicken marinated, crumbed and preserved in olive oil.

“The olive oil they make in Nepal is very good,” said Robbie. “We are lucky to be eating anchovies. In Italy, the fish is so expensive it is used sparingly.”

Our Spaghetti Carbonara was velvet smooth and the bacon struck a salty note in the cream. The word Carbonara comes from the name of a secret society composed of coal miners (thus the carbon), who tried to overthrow the Italian government. They invented the dish that is now internationally famous. You change the taste of a Carbonara by adding a twist or two of freshly ground pepper or chilli flakes.

The Saltimbocca was served. Once peasant food, it is now haute cuisine. Saltimbocca means ‘jumps in the mouth’ in Italian, but it is a dish popular in Switzerland, Spain and Greece. The Saltimbocca we ate was a small parcel with meat pounded (in some places they use Coke bottles) into thin slices covered with an equally thin slice of ham and then a fine piece of cheese is added on top. The whole is rolled into a package tied with string, lightly floured, touched with sage and cooked in butter. The meat could be marinated in olive oil or wine or salt water. It tastes wonderful.

Says Robbie, “In Italy, food changes every 200 miles and I like it all. The salads, the different kinds of minestrone soups, the pastas. But mostly I like the North Italian food and I know it well because it is where I come from.”

Special on Robbie’s menu that day was The Trota al Cartoccio. Cartoccio is Italian for covered and trota is trout. The fish comes wrapped in foil and when you open it, you are enveloped by a warmth of smells. With the fish comes finely cut potatoes, capers and olive oil.

With a menu that has a page full of woodfired pizzas, two full of pastas and one rare dessert in a selection of five — you have quite a bit of Italy. The unusual dessert is the Zuccoto and I have to go back to it since ice-cream is its major ingredient and diners had finished it that day. The Zuccoto is shaped and named after an Italian bishop skull cap. I have been known to call it decadent, sinful and delicious and promise myself abstinence after a surfeit. But such is the pull of Nuovo Marco Polo I go back, promises forgotten and start gormandising again. Call 4413724.