Hum: Caméline in Vieux-Hull indulges a passion for creative pasta

Ottawa Citizen

24-04-2025

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Grilled white asparagus ($23), bolstered with guanciale, grated egg yolk and tarragon aioli, felt like a high-in-umami delicacy.
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We then shared three of the menu's four pasta dishes.
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Skewing sweet were the agnolotti filled with roasted beet and house-made ricotta, adorned with stracciatella di bufala (the delicate Italian buffalo-milk cheese), orange honey and poppy seeds ($29). On a plate of toothsome tagliatelle verde ($33), earthy wild mushrooms, black garlic and Calabrian chili were all impactful.
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Carivnore that I am, I preferred the wild boar tortelletti with gremolata, well-salted kale and fried shallots ($34). But my companions had different favourites among the perfectly al dente pastas. That, of course, is a very good sign.
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Ordering the three appealing but distinct desserts was a no-brainer. Maple gelato affogato ($12) provided the proper sweet, caffeinated jolt. A well-made slice of white chocolate and blood orange tart ($14) nailed its combination of flavours and textures. A slice of upside down banana cake with brown butter cream and ginger crumble ($15) was super-moist and comforting.
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Before dinner, cocktails ($11 to $18), such as the mix of mezcal, Aperol, lime juice and pineapple juice that I had, were interesting and well-balanced.
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The always evolving list of privately imported wines chosen by co-owner Alexandre Régimbal includes about a dozen each of whites and reds. Currently, bottles range from $70 to $105. About 10 wines, including an orange wine and a rosé, are available by the glass. I asked someone who knows much more about wine than I do to survey the list and he called it 'an interesting list of food-friendly wines with a focus on low intervention.'
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He also remarked that about two-thirds of the bottles are from France or Quebec, and just four are from Italy. I responded that perhaps Caméline thinks of itself as a Québécois restaurant that happens to specialize in pasta, rather than an Italian restaurant per se.
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Later, when I spoke to Laroche and Régimbal, they said I'd hit the nail on the head. Camelina oil, as we anglophones would say, is a Quebec product, and so the restaurant's name nods to some provincial pride on the part of Laroche, Régimbal, and fellow co-owner Audrey Labelle.
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Further to that, Laroche offered the example of a cacio e pepe pasta that he's made. His riff on that Italian classic involved Quebec cheese and dune pepper, also native to Quebec.
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I'd like to try that dish if it ever returns to Caméline's menu. I'd also like to sit on the restaurant's back patio, which will seat about 30 when it opens in a month or so.
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By then, it will truly be spring. Goodbye, root vegetables. Green asparagus and other seasonal delights will be available.
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