Trattoria del Mar is a family affair, run by three brothers – Luciano, the eldest and the chef plus Antonio and Alessandro heading up the front of house, while Mama and Papa arrive in the mornings to prepare the fresh pastas. The family is from Naples and so is the food, all based on olive oil with a predominance of fresh tomato sauces running throughout the menu and pasta occupying centre stage. It is Italian, Italian, Italian.
Set on the water’s edge in Marina Botafoc, with a beautiful view to Ibiza Town, there is a calming outdoor ambience offset by a buzz of vibrancy within the restaurant. Once the helpful and informed staff have taken your order, a thin crisp focaccia - strong in olive oil, rosemary and salt – appears on your table accompanied by chopped tomato, basil and olive oil plus a bowl of olive tapenade.
We started with courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta, gorgonzola and parmesan deep fried in pastela, a flour and water batter. They were tasty but I found it difficult to appreciate the courgette flower’s delicacy under the batter. Our other starter was that weirdest and most wonderful mix, Vitello Tonnato. It was the best I have ever tried. The tuna sauce was creamy but not too rich, the veal perfectly pink and the dish finished with caperberries and tiny gherkins that cut through the smoothness beautifully. We had a glass of crisp, light and clean Chiaretto rose to accompany it. What is it about blush that so suits Ibiza?
Trattoria del Mar pride themselves on their homemade pastas and rightly so. I had the fettuccini with cigala (Spanish for Crayfish). The pasta was silken, the cigalas perfectly cooked and the tomato sauce deep but not heavy. What more can you ask for in a pasta dish? A good wine to go with it? Absolutely. The Greco de Tufo, suggested for us, was a more robust white and suited the shellfish nicely.
The pastas that aren’t homemade are also interesting and high quality. They are particularly proud, again rightly so, of their Paccheri al tre crostacei. This is a big phat pasta, finished in the pan with lobster, prawns and crayfish along with tomatoes, parsley and shellfish stock. I was gratified to learn the reason Paccheri is in Ibiza in the first place is because chef Luciano insisted his Italian wholesaler imported it for him. Thank you Luciano!
My main course was delicious - a BIG piece of fresh cod, lightly battered and served with an olive, courgette, celery and tomato sauce. Unctuous is the word that springs to mind. Unctuous and generous. All the portions are generous. The lamb chops were tender and strongly flavoured with garlic and rosemary. The glass of strong, chocolatey Dehesa del Carrizal went nicely with both dishes.
After a long pause we ordered desserts. The pannacotta was set perfectly - slight wobble with only the slightest resistance to the spoon - and sweetened with caramel sauce and finished with crunched up amaretti biscuits.
The Cannoli Siciliana – homemade pancakes deep-fried and filled with ricotta, small chinks of chocolate and candied fruit – are what Tony Soprano was always going on about, so I was very happy to try some. If they were good enough for T, they’re good enough for me…
Date we ate: 28 June, 2009.
We paid €172.50 for a four-course dinner experience for two including wine - starters range from €10 – €16 and mains from €17 – €26.50. The extensive wine list featuring mainly Spanish and Italian wines has good choices and is reasonably priced.
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