Fresca turns sandwiches into a love language
I did not expect a sandwich to make me nostalgic for my grandmother.
Melinda’s Nonna Rosa, now 91, is a big part of her childhood. Growing up, Melinda would come home from school to fresh bread from Nonna’s forno, an Italian wood-fired oven built by her Nonna, sometimes spread with butter, sometimes sliced open and filled with homemade salami.
My Russian baba would wait after primary school with a hot bowl of restorative chicken soup, and Melinda’s memories of warm bread and smallgoods made me think of those afternoons in my own childhood. Food was how my baba looked after me, and I suspect it was Nonna Rosa’s love language too.
Melinda grew up in a big Italian family with Calabrian roots, where food brought them together, and traditions were passed down. School holidays were spent in Nonna’s kitchen making bread and Italian biscuits, learning by watching, tasting and doing. There were no recipes or measurements.
Melinda is continuing that family tradition in her own way, inspired by an overseas trip.
In 2014, she travelled to Florence and discovered schiacciata, freshly baked Tuscan bread sliced open and filled with beautiful Italian produce. Good bread, salumi, cheese, just a handful of quality ingredients. She came home with a burning desire to bring that to Canberra, married with all she learnt in her family’s kitchens.
Fresca first opened in Queanbeyan last year and has now landed in Civic, in a freestanding kiosk on Marcus Clarke Street in City West (near Mee’s). On my visit, spring was in the air, with sunshine hitting the little courtyard and nearby office workers taking their lunch outside.
Inside, the fitout is fresh, and the menu has about a dozen sandwich options. The schiacciata is baked in-house using a long fermentation process, giving it a crisp exterior, an airy centre, and a chewy bite.
The family connection is everywhere. The sandwiches are named after Melinda’s grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, while the Fresca branding features Nonna Rosa in the headscarf she wore when she baked bread.
I try the Saverio, with porchetta, potato crema, rocket, pickled fennel and truffle aioli. Holy smokes, the crema is my favourite element between the slices of bread; it is like a slightly chunky potato-cream cheese. The wafer-thin porchetta is delicate, with fine salt flakes throughout. The bread is chewy and slightly oily in that very good way.
The Luigi brings the heat, with hot sopressa, truffle eggplant crema, hot honey and parmesan. The salami and hot honey have a proper kick, with little pieces of shaved cheese adding another salty hit.
You can order a half or a full sandwich, and while the half looks small, it is filling. The schiacciata does the good carby work bread should, giving you plenty to chew while serving as the vehicle that highlights the quality of the fillings.
There is coffee, a cabinet of cold drinks and juices made especially for Fresca. I gravitate towards the juices, where you can see and taste pieces of fruit, before moving on to the sweet cabinet, where Melinda’s mum makes some of the treats, including her caramel slice. Thick spiced biscuit base, generous caramel and exactly what my three o’clock sugar craving ordered.
On Friday afternoons, Fresca will also do aperitivo, with wine, spritz and snacks. It feels as if a little taste of la dolce vita has landed in City West.
Fresca is located at 40 Marcus Clarke St and is open Monday-Thursday from 7 am to 2:30 pm, and Friday from 7 am to 10 pm.
Original Article published by Sophia Brady on Region Canberra.
