Gennaro Contaldo opens Bolo, a six-pasta trattoria in Soho

Gennaro Contaldo, the Italian chef who mentored Jamie Oliver, opened Bolo on 25 September at 17 Air Street in Soho, a 32-cover trattoria serving six fresh pastas a day around his pork and beef bolognese.

It is his first restaurant in London since Passione, his dining room in Fitzrovia, closed in 2009. Bolo takes over the former Il Conte site next to a Prezzo, and the owner of that Prezzo is also his partner here: Brava Hospitality Group, which relaunched Jamie's Italian in Leicester Square earlier this year.

The room is styled after 1970s Italy and the format is deliberately narrow. The name is a nod to bolognese, and the house version, made with pork and beef, comes with tagliatelle. Around it sit five more pastas, a short list of starters and two desserts.

Six pastas, one sauce at the centre and 32 seats: Contaldo's return to London is built small.

Gennaro Contaldo returns after 17 years

Contaldo is best known in Britain for his long association with Antonio Carluccio and for training a young Jamie Oliver, with whom he later shared television screens and cookbook shelves. At Bolo, both relationships are written into the menu.

One pasta is named for Carluccio: “Antonio”, pappardelle with porcini and a mascarpone bolo. Another, “The Limone”, is tagliolini with Amalfi lemon, butter and mint, a reference to the chef's childhood on the Amalfi Coast. An orecchiette with octopus and ’nduja bolognese completes the core of the list.

“After more than 60 years in the kitchen, I'm still a romantic at heart,” Contaldo said in the opening announcement quoted by Hot Dinners and Time Out. When the project was first announced in August, he described it as “a small, busy, buzzy trattoria serving some of my favourite dishes”.

Six pastas and one wine per colour

The rest of the offer is equally short: tomato bruschetta, ’nduja meatballs and a bolo arancino to start, then ricotta doughnuts, gelato and sorbetto. The wine list follows a one-wine-per-colour rule. Brava's chief executive, James Brown, called Bolo “the natural next chapter” after the Jamie's Italian relaunch, according to The Caterer.

The opening lands in a Soho that has added several new tables in September, including KID, Sertaç Dirik's Anatolian restaurant. If you would rather cook the dish that gives Bolo its name, our tagliatelle al ragù recipe follows the Bologna method.

For Brava, Bolo is a second bet this year on a television chef's name. For Contaldo, it is a return to a scale he has worked at before: one small room, a short menu and a single sauce at the centre of it.