A family-run Italian favourite.

A WEAKNESS for Italian restaurants dates from days as a student when my elder sister enjoyed a dalliance with an restaurateur called Luigi.

Luigi was typically Italian: dark, handsome (or so my sister thought), if a little on the short side, a deficiency he made up for with generosity of spirit.

It was in Luigi’s restaurant – called Luigi’s, of course – in London’s Finchley Road that I first discovered spaghetti which didn’t come out of a tin labelled Heinz. I discovered lots of other things too, like the joys of seafood, the part that wine, cream and olive oil could play in the finest dishes and how not to gamble away the profits of an excellent business at the roulette table.

There are many happy memories of meals at Luigi’s, enhanced no doubt by the passing of time and the fact that I wasn’t paying. While my sister was his woman, I was family and there’s nothing better than being part of an Italian family – as long as it isn’t a certain type of family from Sicily, of course.

It follows I’m a big fan of family- run Italian establishments.

Not the Joe Rigatoni pile-ithigh- sell-it-cheap places (by the way, why does Joe Rigatoni’s in Darlington always get the bill wrong?), but the restaurants that are loved by their owners and whose sons and daughters look on a career in hospitality as an honourable one and not to be abandoned at the first opportunity.

Places like Foffano’s in Darlington’s Market Place, run by Stefano and Emma Foffano, which opened in 2007 when Darlington was trying to find out if it could sustain a café culture. Two rotten summers on, the jury’s still out on that, but Foffano’s is still there and has now opened up its basement in addition to the smallish ground floor bar and dining area and the tables outside, weather permitting (not very often).

We enjoyed a very good value lunch not long after Foffano’s opened and returned last week to try the evening menu, in particular the early evening (5.30-7pm) threecourses- for-£12.95 dinner menu.

There were three of us (daughter Laura being in tow) and we were seated in the window of the ground-floor dining area with good views of the market place. Sylvia and Laura had particularly good perches on the banquette seating; I was a little disadvantaged by a single leather-backed chair which seemed a bit on the low side.

For a fixed-price menu, the choice was impressive (eight starters, 12 main) if a little unadventurous. It isn’t cutting edge cuisine, but who’s complaining at £12.95?

Laura thought her Caprese salad nicely presented if a little underwhelming. The mozzarella was not of the finest quality and the tomatoes were somewhat lacking in flavour. She was more impressed by her penne arrabiatta.

The pasta had a nice bite as did the sauce, in the spicy sense. I had a taste of the sauce and thought the tomato puree needed cooking out a bit more.

Sylvia felt her dry-ish garlic bread could have done with a little more butter (her solution to most problems) and it was clearly topped with the same quality mozzarella used in Laura’s salad.

She was also more enthusiastic about her main course, a tender chicken breast (not sliced into medallions as on the menu) served with a light garlic and lemon sauce, a good ratatouille and new potatoes.

My calamari (squid rings) might not have come straight from the sea, but they were perfectly and lightly fried and not the slightest bit chewy.

They came with a smooth and creamy garlic mayonnaise.

The salmon and pea risotto which followed was very serviceable too, the rice retaining some bite without being stodgy and the pieces of smoked salmon were laced through it fairly liberally.

Desserts were probably Foffano’s finest hour on this occasion.

My panna cotta was as light and smooth as anything can be made of cream, milk, sugar and vanilla pods; Laura’s chocolate mousse was richly dark and clearly made with top quality chocolate.

Sylvia had a latte which she thought of good strength, but could have been hotter.

Service was friendly, yet professional and unobtrusive, and the bill, excluding a crisp and lightly sparkling Prosecco, was a measly £38.85.

Despite having to pay – even on expenses – the love affair with Italian family food continues.