A Garden City Where We Rediscover Harmony with the Planet: an Outing to Varese – Part II

After wandering far and wide around Varese, feeling a little peckish, we decide to stop for dinner at the Ristorante Nutrymento on via Cavour. If during our walk we were struck by the balance between the city's artistic and natural beauties, this pleasant feeling of harmony stays with us at the table too. We take our seats in the dining room, with its modern, natural design, where every element, from the floor to the furniture, is made from recycled wood.

Reading the signs displayed in the various corners of the rooms, we discover that each area is dedicated to an element or a material whose psychological implications are explained according to feng shui principles: near the entrance is the metal area, close to a display of organic wines is the earth area, a little further on the fire area. Our table, on the other hand, is in the wood area, wrapped in a very yang energy that grows and branches out, pushes you to keep learning new things, and is connected with childhood. It is certainly no coincidence that right next to our long table there is a play corner for children, with a giant blackboard on which to unleash their imagination with coloured chalks.

Welcoming us in this special place is Mrs Rosy Vono, the owner who runs the restaurant together with Alberto Baraldi. As we sip our "extract of the day", a fruit and vegetable juice particularly rich in vitamins and nutrients since it is extracted with a different and gentler method than that of centrifugal juicers, we chat with the owner to go deeper into the themes underlying the restaurant's cooking philosophy.

"Rather than a philosophy, I would say it is a way of life, of deciding to eat and live in harmony with yourself and with the planet. Today food tends to be all fake, full of pesticides and preservatives; that is why we decided to create a place where we could recreate the balance between the body and the environment. The word nourishment for us means this, and it is also the nourishment of the soul; you have to be careful with emotions, and try to nourish good thoughts," Rosy explains.

The harmony of her ideas translates into healthy, natural cooking, vegan and vegetarian, interpreted with imagination and taste, so that the dishes are not only good and healthy, but also very pleasing to the palate thanks to carefully chosen spices and well-judged flavour pairings.

"Ours is an organic kitchen; we use no refined ingredient such as 00 flour or sugar, which we replace with malt or agave syrups. Over-sophisticated processing never benefits the quality of the product, which loses its nutritional principles. We have very few cheeses, so casein is practically absent; we use plant milk instead. We cook with wholegrain cereals, by now vanished from circulation, and we naturally use lots of fresh vegetables, always in season, and plenty of pulses. The wines and drinks are organic too, and come from small producers working with artisanal methods.

Our flour is stone-ground and we favour wholemeal or even spelt flour." The menu changes periodically, and while from Monday to Saturday you can have lunch with a handy self-service system, on Wednesday you can also enjoy an original apericena in the name of organic eating, and from Thursday to Saturday you dine à la carte as we do, choosing the tasting menu which, after the tasty extract, delights us with a pumpkin flan followed by a two-colour potato dome with pumpkin and almond cream.

Some of us instead opt for the vegan carbonara, wholemeal or spelt with plant cream, smoked tofu, leeks and turmeric. There is also someone who, following the vegan menu, happily enjoys a basket of artichokes sautéed with mint tofu, and black rice with celeriac, pumpkin and courgettes with a leek sauce. As a main course we taste the chickpea escalopes with rosemary sauce, but the lentil mondeghini with thyme and the azuki bean tripe with cabbage are also very popular.

Eating organic and healthy certainly does not mean giving up sweet treats, and indeed here we are before a fantastic delight with orange jam and candied ginger, but you also cannot resist the chocolate cake with Nutrytella, a good and healthy chocolate cream.

Our dinner ends with some tasty purchases to nourish body and spirit: we buy artisanal organic food products from Basilicata, and a couple of books on the theme of food displayed on a column-shaped bookcase near the entrance.

We are sure to come back gladly, perhaps even to take part in one of the events and conferences the restaurant organises, or just for a healthy, nourishing lunch, which could be the occasion to eat a nice Nutryburger: a burger made with pulses, semolina-wheat focaccia, with vegan mayonnaise and finely sliced cabbage, lettuce and onion, all preservative-free and prepared to order. Healthy, tasty and imaginative, like the lifestyle that feeds on harmony.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante Nutrymento Via Cavour, 38 Varese Tel.: 0332/280343