In very good shape 🔲
UPDATE: Shapes has moved out of The Patricia for now, but you’ll find it at the moment over at Rebel. Check social media for updates.
A new popup/experimental menu announced recently at The Patricia (139 Jesmond Rd, Jesmond, NE2 1JY), Shapes offers serious cooking with a bit of a playful edge. It’s a pasta pop-up on a Monday night at The Patricia. Not sure if it’s meant to be an industry night for all those whacked out chefs who just wanna slurp some mighty fine sghetti on their days off, but what it is is the best pasta you’ll get anywhere in Newcastle.
I’m not one of those chefs, just greedy. And I bloody loved it. Quick rundown:
Burrata & olive oil is as simple as it gets but the ingredient buying is top-tier and it means you wonder what you’ve been doing wasting your time on cheap olive oil and even cheaper cheese. Burrata has broken through as one of those in-trend ingredients, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had something as purely creamy as this one.
Asparagus, in England, at the beginning of May. And some aged parmesan. Add good olive oil to anything like this and you’re winning. Amalfi lemon đź’›
And The Patricia focaccia might be my favourite anywhere. It’s well fermented and tangy with a really chewy crumb and sodden with olive oil. Either in Shapes format with EVOO or at The Patricia with cultured butter, it doesn’t get much better.
A hungry couple could probably munch through the whole menu, which may well be the intention. Or mix and match between a bigger party — if you can share. Very Padella in vibe, but boldly, I think I preferred the pasta here.
We’ve had handmade fresh pasta before at The Patricia and loved it and this takes that notion even further. It’s just the right thickness, just enough bite, just enough cling to the sauce. Maybe future Shapes involve my faves like orichiette or casarecce but even the widest ribbons of papardelle are a delight to eat.
Because it is the sauces really take it next level, with everything from the punchy cacio e pepe, heavy with throat-awakening black pepper to the 10/10 fennel & sausage ragu which is frankly borderline pornograhic, that good. It’s laced with anise, and slaps you round the face in a way that you wish you could replicate at home. Gnocchi… I had no idea what recipes meant when they talked about pillowy-soft. Until now.
Taglierini with n’duja is spikier with intense heat and a rich and creamy sauce. Lots of cheese, and lots of oil on everything. Which makes all right with the world. If you’ve not yet been to here for the ‘main’ menu, this is (yet another) entry level way to experience an elevated level of food. But it’s all still super casual — see — tablecloths right out of Unos.
On the flip side it may well be Monday, but there’s some stonking cocktails and wines to keep things lubricated. Wines are as ever, seriously well sourced — with dazzlers throughout the menu priced from ‘affordable bangers’ to ‘lets gan daft’. Not exactly €1 a glass of cheap plonk like they might be on the continent but I guzzled a glorious skin contact, and the burnt orange negroni proved utterly chuggable.
Shapes is hopefully popping up for the foreseeable on Mondays at The Patricia from 6pm.
Our meal for two ~ÂŁ110 including 10% service.
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