In Arpino, there's a hidden restaurant that aims to revolutionize Ciociara cuisine

Looking closely, cooking runs in the blood of Alberto and Edoardo Petricca: their dad's grandmother opened the first trattoria in Sora, where they were also born, called Trattoria Panzone, closed in the 1980s. However, when they decided to have their own restaurant, they moved a bit, to Arpino. It is here that last December they opened La Perla.

Restaurant La Perla in Arpino

About forty seats, which become 60 in the summer, with tables outside, and an offer that moves smoothly on a contained menu, both in offerings and prices, especially those of the tasting menu which, for 5 courses, stops at 55 euros. "The average ticket is around 60/70 euros, including wines," explains Edoardo.

Born in 1988, a varied path that from the Academy of Fine Arts and studies in Philosophy led him first to Umbria, for a cooking course, and then to Abruzzo, to Castel di Sangro where the restaurant Reale stands alongside Niko Romito's Academy. From then on there were internships at Spazio, two summer seasons at Rosmarino, a spin-off of the then Albos in Fregene, then a year and a half at Salvatore Tassa, in nearby Acuto, where he experimented with a kitchen entirely based on gesture, in which technologies like vacuum and low-temperature cooking were banned. When the time came for a stage outside Italy, he went to Denmark first, and then to Switzerland, at Kytaly, a restaurant and pizzeria, then famous for its collaboration with Franco Pepe. He stayed there for 5 years, the last three with his brother Alberto, who had managed a restaurant in the Posta Fibreno Nature Reserve for 10 years after the course in Umbria; he joined him when the kitchen part began to grow.

Deciding to return to Italy, they found this place near home, where there used to be a seafood restaurant, a somewhat formal place that had a good following, already closed for some time. When they entered, they lightened it up - no more tablecloths and large tables, new paintings on the walls - just as they wanted to do in the kitchen, where modern cooking techniques and presentations renew the classic flavors of the territory. "It's a very expressive cuisine - he explains - that doesn't require much staff in preparation." After all, for now, there are only the two of them, with help on weekends and one person in the dining room.

Alberto also takes care of the administrative part, while Edoardo is more focused on the kitchen, and then there's their mother, a sommelier, who helps them with the cellar. At the moment there are about eighty labels, with an eye on local productions and natural wines.

What do you eat at La Perla in Arpino

The second menu, which will change in a while, features dishes like smoked potato gnocchi, wild asparagus, and Picinisco marzolina, tortellini stuffed with cod with tomato extract and candied grapefruit, lamb with vignarola. The meat comes from a butcher shop in Fontechiari, Le Quercie, while for flours and eggs, they turn to the Secondo Natura farm in Arnara, in the province of Frosinone. The dried pasta is from Verrigni, as in the case of pecorino fusillone with agretti and cinnamon. "The best-selling dish is whipped cod with cannellini beans from Atina and fried polenta cubes."

Edoardo also takes care of the bread, and here the Romito school makes itself felt, "I had to buy cast iron pots with lids to trap the steam, but now - he says - after five years of work, I'm starting to have a result that satisfies me." The desserts are kitchen-made: roasted mango, crumble, and passion fruit sorbet; strawberry soup, rhubarb, and basil; mille-feuille of chatter, lemon, chocolate, ratafià sauce.

Then there's the fiordilatte ice cream whipped at the table with a pacojet, a dessert to be shared at the table, presented with ladyfingers, sour cherries, and other accompaniments, "something I did in Geneva and that customers liked a lot." Arpino is not an easy area, just as Ciociaria is not easy. How's it going? "We are happy: we have many young people and also customers from the old management, they come out of curiosity, but then they are happy".

La Perla - Arpino (FR) - via Collebianco, 11 - 339 887 6306 - https://ristorante-laperla.it/