If I had to sum up my dining experience at Fermento in three words those would be: quality, passion and care.

This is a truly traditional Italian restaurant and I’ve never found one quite like it in West Cumbria.

I am Italian, and although I love lots of different types of cuisines nothing can beat a good Italian meal for me.

I went there with my boyfriend Tom and immediately felt comfortable in the cosy restaurant.

Our super-friendly server welcomed us with some homemade bread, which we dipped in the gorgeous olive oil and excellent balsamic vinegar available on the table.

Tom is vegetarian and there was plenty for him to choose from, although if you are a strict vegetarian, like he is, the vegan options will be more suited as Parmesan cheese, which contains animal rennet, is used in most of their non-meat dishes. Nothing was too much trouble for the staff, who offered to make changes to the dishes to accommodate him, although this wasn’t necessary.

As a starter I had Parma ham, Parmesan and pecorino cheeses, with a drop of that gorgeous balsamic vinegar, served with bread. The ham was of great quality and was simply melting in my mouth – delicious.

Tom had toasted homemade sourdough bread slices with a topping of tomato and onion sauce. He said the taste was a mixture between a French onion soup and a sweet onion chutney, which he added was divine.

To follow I had a risotto with a radicchio and red wine sauce, topped with smoked scamorza cheese, and I had really been looking forward to it. Radicchio, which is like a bitter chicory, is so hard to find in English supermarkets and it’s one of those things I miss the most.

My risotto did not disappoint: the rice was beautifully cooked and the radicchio sauce was simply superb.

You can have a mushroom risotto anywhere, but what’s the point of going to an Italian restaurant if you don’t try what Italian people love?

Tom tried the durum wheat pasta in chickpeas sauce with toasted sesame seeds. He was very impressed and said he never had anything like it.

He also had a salad with it, which was worth eating just for the extra helping of that gorgeous balsamic vinegar.

I didn’t think I could face a dessert after all this food, but I couldn’t resist trying the tiramisu, which I enjoyed with a lovely glass of Prosecco.

Tom decided to try something a little different. He had a dessert wine called Vin Santo with some crunchy almond almond biscuits. The idea is that you dip the biscuit in the wine as they’re quite hard and it would be difficult to eat them otherwise.

Tom loves trying real traditional food and he really enjoyed this alternative to a traditional dessert.

If there is one fault I can pick it is that if you don’t like coffee or mascarpone there isn’t a huge choice in terms of desserts.

We absolutely loved our meal at Fermento – you can just tell how committed the owners are to a good dining experience. I will definitely be back.