Passion Project

Beechworth local Project Forty Nine brings a slice of Italy seasoned with regional Victoria to Collingwood.

- Michael Harden

Nobody’s arguing that Melbourne needs more Italian restaurants. Why would they? We’ve got it covered already. Basta.

And then Project Forty Nine’s mushroom and chestnut raviolo lands.

It’s irresistible, this precisely made pasta enclosing oyster and Swiss brown mushrooms, earthy-sweet chestnuts, ricotta and parmesan. The palm-sized parcel is topped with a jumble of grey, white and pink oyster mushrooms and sits in a clear, dark porcini brodo, parmesan oil droplets glistening on the surface. Texture, seasoning, respect for the mushroom, embracing the season – it’s all here.

It seems there is room for one more Italian restaurant after all.

Project Forty Nine has pedigree as well as addictive raviolo. It’s the latest, yes, project from husband and wife team Rocco Esposito and Lisa Pidutti, who a few years back ran much-loved Wardens Food and Wine in Beechworth, in Victoria’s north-east. Esposito also did a stretch looking after the wine at Vue de Monde.

The couple have a wine and produce store in Beechworth also called Project Forty Nine, and they make chardonnay under the same name. The converted warehouse building in Collingwood that’s home to the street level Project Forty Nine restaurant also houses their sizeable, industrial-chic deli-café-wine store-events space called, you guessed it, Project Forty Nine.

There’s method – and principle – behind the single banner. The Forty Nine refers to the address of the farm, about six kilometres out of Beechworth, where Esposito and Pidutti live with their two daughters, grow produce and make their wine. Embrace their Italian heritage. Keep it simple. Keep in touch with the seasons. It is, if you must, P49’s spiritual home.