Gusto, Lytham St Annes - Spring Menu Launch evening

We were recently kindly invited to Gusto in Lytham for the blogger launch of their spring menu, on a decidedly unspring like evening we experienced a lovely dinner of gorgeous Italian food.

Gusto is situated on Dicconson Terrace in the  heart of the town and is in a tastefully converted period property, the decor and ambiance is a relaxed Milanese in style. The restaurant has a lovely bar area were you can enjoy a drink or cocktail before your meal and loads of cosy dining areas all of which are tastefully furnished, The soundtrack is laid back jazz and helps create a warm relaxed environment to enjoy the food and company. We particularly liked the eclectic mix of black and white photography throughout the restaurant.

We experienced the restaurant on a reasonably busy Tuesday evening and would imagine that at weekends you would be best booking to secure the table of your choice.

A lovely wood fired pizza oven was visible in the open kitchen from our table.

As this was a review evening a special menu had been prepared. 

To start the evening a delicious sharing platter - The Grande Board was placed on the table to share.

Featuring creamy goats cheese, smoked provolone and dolcelatte, humus, rocket, nocellara and black olives, sun dried tomatoes, prosciutto, salami sopressa , coppa and rosemary focaccia on an olive olive wood serving platter. A great to start to our evening, may only suggestion of an improvement would be to ditch the hummus and replace with some grassy extra virgin olive oil and some sweet and deep balsamic vinegar, to dip you focaccia in.

Our chosen starters were Gusto Dough petals with Garlic butter, enjoyed by Mr LF and novel twist on the standard garlic bread, my calamari was lovely, light crispy, tasty and not in the least bit chewy and accompanied by a tangy lemon mayonnaise. Our accompanying Garganega Pinot grigio a perfect balance to our choices.

Next up where our mains, a crispy pan fried sea bass for Mr LF, served on a bed of creamed spinach and as a side some crispy rosemary and garlic potatoes Mr LF really enjoyed his fish cooked to perfection and plenty of it, for me Baked Aubergine Milanese, served with rocket salad and a spicy tomato sauce, warning portion size was huge, two great slices of aubergine, soft and creamy aubergine in a crispy breadcrumb, and topped with cheese and slices of tomato. The rocket salad could may be have done with a little balsamic just to cut the cheese in the dish. Very enjoyable but the portion size beat me.

Our Dessert choices were a lovely light yet moist and creamy Tiramisu and a creamy wobbly traditional panna cotta served with balsamic strawberries.

A lovely meal in fine company, Gusto is a small select chain of restaurants who's aim is to make everyday exquisite.

They have a great a la carte menu which you can view here and they have a great value lunch , dinner  and Sunday set menus too. Plus they also have "create your own pizza" for the kiddies (complete with chefs hat).

The website is here, they are also active on Instagram, twitter and facebook too.

We dined on a complementary basis after being invited to give a review, all thoughts, views, opinions are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review.

Tomato focaccia

We love focaccia of all types and being lucky enough to have picked a large bowl of cherry tomatoes from the garden, we decided to use some of our bounty in a lovely fresh focaccia. Focaccia is a great bread to make and share with friends, especially if you have some great oil and vinegar to serve with it. Serve on a platter fresh from the oven Italian stylee, another bonus of this recipe is that you can use handfuls of fresh herbs just picked from the garden, I love this time of year when the garden is bountiful !

What you need

• 20g dried yeast
• 2 tsp sugar dissolved in warm water - 300ml
• 450g strong white bread flour (organic if you can get hold of it)
• Fresh thyme - picked and roughly chopped - 1tbsp
• Fresh rosemary - picked and roughly chopped - 1tbsp
• 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 4 good tbsp extra virgin olive oil - the best you can afford it does make a difference
• cherry tomatoes - halved if large
• Extra virgin olive oil - for sprinkling
• Sea salt - proper crystal flakes for a great finish

What you do

• Mix the yeast into the sugared warm water, leave to one side until the yeast is frothy, you are now ready to bake
• Place the flour, herbs and salt into a large bowl, ensure the salt is well distributed throughout 
• Make a well in the centre and mix in half of the yeast mixture, mix with your fingers , keep adding liquid and mixing, now add the olive oil, still mixing and semi kneading until you have a soft slightly sticky dough.(Depending on your flour and the weather will depend on whether you need all the liquid)
• Lightly flour the work surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes until you have a soft elastic dough.
• Put the dough in lightly oiled bowl and cover to rise until doubled in size, in a warm kitchen this will take approximately an hour.
• Meanwhile oil your baking tray or roasting dish with a little olive oil, remove dough from bowl and place in roasting dish, squishing with your fingers to one level and to the edges and corners of the pan.
• Cover the pan with a large plastic bag or clingfilm which you have lightly oiled to prevent the dough from sticking to it when rising.
• Let this prove for about 30 minutes
• Pre heat the oven to 190c 
• When ready to bake, press the your fingers all over the dough to make little dinks in the dough for the tomato pieces, once you have used all the tomatoes, sprinkle with a little more olive oil and some sea salt flakes.
• Bake for approx 30 minutes or so until golden and well risen
• Delicious hot or cold, once baked and cooled it also freezes well, double wrapped in foil

The fabulous photography is once again by the talented Mr Lancashire Food 

Mushroom, onion and thyme focaccia

Another baking adventure from Mr Lancashire Food, this time a twist on the Italian delight - focaccia. We love mushrooms in our household and decided that we would experiment by adding cooked mushrooms and onions to a traditional focaccia mix.

The resultant focaccia was absolutely delicious, it was fortuitous that we made two slabs of this crusty delight, as the first one disappeared within minutes. We used large open capped mushrooms but you could use button or if feeling especially decadent wild mushrooms instead, if you are using dried mushrooms you will need to reconstitute them first before cooking.

As with all bread baking the secret is time, allowing your dough to rise fully and prove, this time creates the  flavour in the dough.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 7g dried yeast
• 70ml olive oil
• Warm water to mix - hard to be precise as this all depends on your flour
• Roughly 100g of mushrooms ( whatever type) - chopped finely
• 1 large white onion - chopped into fine half rings
• Thyme ( fresh or dried)
• Salt and olive oil for sprinkling 
• Little oil or butter to cook your mushrooms and onions in

Baking tray or shallow baking pan 

Method

• Firstly cook the onions and mushrooms in a little oil or butter until softened but with hardly any colour, allow to cool, stir in your thyme.
• Now mix the flour, sea salt, yeast and liquids to a  make a soft sticky dough, add the water last and mix by hand so you can judge the consistency of the dough
• Once combined knead well on lightly floured surface, until the dough is pliable and stretchy
• Place in a bowl and allow to rest  in a warm place for at least an hour or so until your dough has doubled in size
• Add the Mushroom, onion and thyme mixture to the dough pressing in with your hands
• Now place your dough on your baking sheet / pan and shape by pressing out with your fingers to cover the tin to the edges, allow to prove for approx 30 minutes covered with a tea towel
• Now using your fingers prick all over the surface of your focaccia to make dimples, sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt crystals, leave to prove again for another hour or so
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200c for approximately 25 -35 minutes until golden brown

Delicious served with Italian salami, cold meats, olives or oil and vinegar.

I am entering this post in "Herbs on Saturday" blog  challenge for January 2013 challenge from Lavender and Lovage and this  month hosted by Bangers and Mash.