Best restaurant meal at Amarcord Osteria Italiana

Andre Burgener has been immersed in all things food since she took over the making of the family's lunch box sandwiches aged eight (her mom could make a mean creme brulee and a staggering souffle, but could never butter the bread all the way to the edges.

ITALIAN UNWRAPPED

I HATE lasagne. Really. It's up there on my least likely to order list, along with kidneys, anything in a wrap and tiramisu. Well, I hated it until a few days ago, when I bit into the lasagne at Amarcord Italian restaurant over Sunday lunch.

My children had all ordered it, and it looked so fine, I ended up stealing a bite. And then some more, more and more. It was amazing: curiously puffy and light, hardly "tomatoey", hardly cheesy and very velvety. Ethereal lasagne, in fact, if such a thing is possible.

This, of course, is not the lasagne of any old cooks: Amarcord is the latest enterprise of Luciana Righi, of Assaggi fame, and Mario Guerini, of Tre Nonni, and it's better than either of the past places. We also feasted on fine buffalo mozzarella stuffed pasta, perfect oil-free zucchini and calamari fritte and a minestrone that deserved the gobsmacking R85 price tag. The only sad bad note was the caprese. A caprese is - as they say - an ode, and an a capella one at that, to tomatoes. With no bells and whistles attached, you have to have perfect - juicy, sweet and ripe - tomatoes. If you can only get those weird floury pink excuses for the fruit, rather don't serve it. And dried herbs? Why? Those pencil sharpenings of the herb world should only be allowed within a bouquet garni.

I know they're often used by actual Italians, but that doesn't make it right. Despite this, one of the best restaurant meals I've had in a long time. Amarcord Osteria Italiana, Thrupps Centre, Oxford Road, Illovo. 011-268-2287.

WINTER CAPRESE

I call this winter caprese because it's a warm thing. But as our local tomatoes are often mediocre all year round, this is really an all-seasons tomato-crisis-caprese. It is, let's face it, hardly a caprese at all, but the effect of creamy mozzarella against sweet tomato and the peppery sharp hit of basil is still the main thing. For each person: a few slices best mozzarella (buffalo or fior di latte are both all right, as long as you use white ball mozzarella in water. That yellow stuff in slicey blocks is not mozzarella, no matter what the label says) / handful of ripe baby plum tomatoes / handful good basil leaves / olive or grape seed oil for cooking, plus olive oil to drizzle / coarse salt / black pepper.

How: place sliced or torn mozzarella on plates. Heat a dash of olive oil in a pan, throw in the tomatoes and toss about on highest heat for maybe a minute until softening, hot through, but not totally collapsed. Immediately pour these over the mozzarella, drizzle with more olive oil, tear basil over the top, add coarse salt (and black pepper if you like). Eat immediately.

Burgener is a food writer and the chef at The Leopard