Pastificio Sandro

Pastificio Sandro is a polished pasta shop and Italian grocer from the team behind nearby Umberto Espresso Bar. With house-made pasta, wine bottles and deli snacks on offer, it’s the sort of place you’ll leave with more than you bargained for.

The centrepiece is a skylit glass cabinet filled with all sorts of fresh handmade pasta including silky-smooth, sliced-by-hand green pappardelle and button-shaped, bursting-with-ricotta bottoni, but surrounding it are hundreds of delicious distractions.

That includes friends of pasta (house-made sauces, herb-spiked cultured butters, lo-fi Italian wines); ready-to-eat goodness (freshly baked focaccia wheels, and focaccia sandwiches layered with the holy trinity of mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio); and a well-curated selection of pantry and fridge staples (think St David Dairy milk, Spanish tinned fish and Tom Sarafian’s dips) that change with local demand.

And, of course, there’s the pasta, which you can see the team making through the cabinet. The main point of difference here is the use of wheat from Bellata Gold in Tamworth, which grows and mills its own durum semolina (instead of importing 00 flour from Italy, as many local pizza, pasta and bread makers do). Not only does it add a nice nuttiness, but it was important for Finanzio to support local.