Dear {NOMEUTENTE}last week Mario Preve, owner of Riso Gallo, leading company as for rice and risottos, recalled that “every year the average Italian eats 28 kilos of pasta and only 5 of rice”. For many people rice is a noble dish and pasta a common one, and for everybody it is much easier to prepare a dish of spaghetti at home than a risotto. Actually, it isn’t so at all. A really good dish of pasta requires a lot of attention and ability exactly like a first-rate risotto, but few realize it. People make it simple, and they are wrong. I remember a lesson in Paris by Moreno Cedroni, owner of the Madonnina del Pescatore in Senigallia, in the Marches. Pasta was the protagonist, and he was doing his utmost to have the French understand that it isn’t simply a question of boiling, draining and dressing. There shall be a reason if it is almost impossible that a chef proposes a first course of pasta for tens of persons on the occasion of banquets, christening and wedding parties. After the moment when pasta is underdone, either everything is ready or the pasta becomes overdone, which is not a pleasure for the palate. If risotto is the banner of Northern Italy, pasta is the banner of the whole Italy and, even more than her cousin in grains, it is one of the less imitated and copied masterpieces of our cuisine. For a precise reason: doing it well is not a child’s-play. Let’s remember this when we intend to export our excellences because, before the quality of ingredients, it is a problem of didactics and teachers.
Paolo Marchi
Texts by Gabriele Zanatta. |
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Apsleys and Ducasse: pasta conquering London Once upon a time there was the Italian menu here and the menu of British restaurants beyond the Channel. The first featured 4 courses, the second one course less. In English restaurants, the trinity was: starter, main course and dessert. We use the past tense because, on a trip to London, we have discovered that the four-course symphony resounds increasingly convinced also among British menus. Blame is partly to be laid on the progressive colonization of Italian personnel – now large almost like the French – and partly on the honors that great French names render to pasta, fully released from the dimension inn/eating house.
The first symbolic case is that of the Apsleys, the restaurant of Lanesborough , a superb hotel hosted in the former St George’s hospital at Hyde Park Corner. The Tuscan chef Massimiliano Blasone, who settled here in June 2009, in less than six months has put one star in his pocket. Thanks to his real hard daily work («I haven’t taken yet one single day off») and the suggestions of the ghost-chef Heinz Beck, whom the English have assigned the consulting for the restaurant, fed up after years of improper British cuisine. And thanks also to soups and first courses like the Spaghetti with angler-fish, red peppers and courgettes (picture by Zanatta) which make people like Mariah Carey (with her entourage) turn upside down in the bed of her suite.
Three hundred meters further on, the tribute to pasta of the newly three starred chef Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, another hotel popular among Russian and Arab big bosses: the macaroni au gratin next to the spiny lobster remind us that pasta is also a very respectable side dish, a position that even under the Alps makes frown because of several historical dogmas. On the contrary, the Pasta with sautéed mushrooms and rocket confirms what two excellent chefs like Jason Atherton of the nearby Maze or Sat Bains further up in Nottingham think on the matter: «Pasta? Rather than make up on the spot it’s better to leave it to the Italian masters».
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Around cooking: Vinciguerra and Cavallaro Our survey on the (haute) pasta cooking is going on. After the contribution of Elio Sironi from the Milan’s Bulgari and Gennaro Esposito from the Torre del Saracino in Vico Equense (Naples), in the first number of IDP we present the opinion of two other wizards: the “southerner” (even if in the kitchen of a Lombard restaurant) Ilario Vinciguerra from the restaurant bearing the same name in Galliate Lombardo, Varese, and the “northerner” Nicola Cavallaro from the homonymous restaurant on the Navigli, in Milan.
Dear Vinciguerra, which is the cooking logic behind the delicious Eliche with salt cod and fondue of pomodorini del piennolo (Piennolo small tomatoes) shown in the picture (by Roberto Sammartino)? «An extremely classical cooking technique: in plentiful salt and boiling water». Well then, the innovation of those who finish cooking over turned off heat is good, but shall be used with caution. «Because creativity comes with time, it is the result of a project, like that of working side by side with pasta factories». Or better with one single pasta factory: «it’s like the job we are doing with butchers and greengrocers: we have to select one who does things well and then go on with him in a continuous confrontation». In short, it’s necessary to establish a relation, as between Ferrari and Alonso: «all cars have 4 tires and the gear-box, but the pilot defines the driving position».
On the contrary Cavallaro, on his specially–made “car” cooks only ravioli and stuffed pasta over turned off heat: «it is difficult to do it with ‘standard’ pasta for more than 5 people», he explains. However, he likes taking it out of the cooking water very underdone, «with much starch, so that it becomes creamy». Like his pasta with garlic, oil and chili pepper: «after cooking garlic in the oil, I add the chili peppers and 2 kitchen spoons of pasta water. I turn off, take out the pasta very underdone and I finish it in the pan with the water». The success of the public is unanimous: «it is one of the very few dishes I have never removed from the menu».
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Lasagne and tortellini all year round: Bettini from the Amerigo Stuffed pasta: a name and an adjective which, together, make us immediately think of winter and the desire to eat hot dishes (often hyper-caloric). However, there are people who have been working to break into the commonplace: there is light stuffed pasta which is very good also when we sit to eat with shorts or short sleeves.
Obviously this is not the case of the Lasagne with white ragout, artichokes and black truffles shown in the picture (by Brambilla/Serrani), a dish presented at the last Identità Golose congress by Alberto Bettini from the Amerigo in Savigno near Bologna, where they are in the menu from January to March. Starting from the last month (and for the whole month of May), we will find in the menu the Lasagne with green asparagus from Altedo: instead of Béchamel sauce a cream obtained from the stalk of the same vegetable is used. From June to September a new proposal again: the “summer”-lasagne, that is a vegetable millefeuille made only with tomato. Then, from October to December, back to stuffy lasagna (so to say) with pasta made of very thin potatoes with thin slices of white truffles from the Colli Bolognesi.
And what about tortellini? They too can very well be eaten 365 days a year. «With the incoming hot weather», Bettini reveals, «the tortello stuffed with Parmesan cheese, pan-fried with small stripes of Mora Romagnola ham is the protagonist». Or the Tortello with fresh cottage cheese of goat’s milk, stolen to a producer two kilometers away: «a single, big tortello, stuffed with cottage cheese », he explains, «we pan-fry it with warm extra-virgin olive oil and the aromatic herbs of my garden in a quantity going from 7 to 12, depending on the availability of the day. In October, the cottage cheese can no longer be found». A perfect dish, also to get dried after a dip in the swimming-pool.
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Riccardo Felicetti and the search for the perfect emmer Although today it is often considered as an alternative to durum wheat pasta, emmer is actually the oldest type of cultivated wheat. Therefore, it deserves a great respect. It is a production chain which, from choosing the mono-variety to making the pasta processes, shall be followed with care and attention. It is exactly the job behind the two sizes of long pasta (spaghetti and linguine), the three sizes of short pasta (fusilli, penne and rigatini) and the size for soup (the ditalini, perfect for bean soup) of the Pastificio Felicetti in Predazzo (Tn).
Let’s try to sum up its genesis with Riccardo Felicetti: «About ten years ago we have selected the most suitable lands to grow emmer in the area of the Apennines. Then we started our research works, in co-operation with an Umbrian biological farmer and the Corn Institute of Foggia, to find the variety which could guarantee, alone, the best type of pasta». At the beginning, the range included 260 kinds of grains: «keeping into account the shape of the grain, the quantity and type of contained proteins and the toughness of the gluten we have selected the most suitable 10 qualities, testing them in different lands. This is where the elect grain came from».
The next step was milling, even more important for emmer than for other kinds of grains: «we addressed to a miller asking him to keep the greatest quantity of nutrients. He developed a specific milling diagram which keeps 85% of the grain resources, removing only 15% because of its bitter taste not suitable to the typical seasoning of the Italian tradition emmer, such as game or boar’s flesh ragouts». From here, the pasta making processes, «studied by my cousin Paolo, focusing on making the emmer pasta the queen of the dish». And no longer, as it always happens, a subject at the mercy of pushing seasonings actually belittling.
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Eugenio Medagliani: colander and other stories We recall from “Il Gastronomo Educato” by Alberto Denti di Pirajno, a book of 1950, a passage explaining that, at home, it would be better to forget the colander: the large fork is better, to take and finish pasta in its sauce. True or false? We looked for an answer from Eugenio Medagliani, a personality in the sector of kitchen tools: it was to him that Gualtiero Marchesi (in the picture with his Warhol-style Quattro Paste, shown until June 20 at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan), just to mention one, asked for designing the punched plate cylinder to cook his renowned straight spaghetti.
So, the colander for pasta. Does the suggestion of Denti di Pirajno make sense? «At his time yes», explains Medagliani, «because the large fork was widely used to take pasta but also boiled meat. Today, it could be right for long pasta but not for the short one: the first taken macaroni would be very different from the last one, at the risk of being overdone. This is why in the past the wooden spoon was used for short pasta. Today, for long pasta it is better using a punched skimmer. ».
Therefore, never without colander at home: «The cleverest invention I remember is signed by architect Morozzi for Alessi: the colander inserted in the pot. And mainly, the vertical handles of the colander: getting the idea from the handles of ancient amphorae, he reproduced them on the kitchen tool. A clever idea, because it prevented the cook from burning with steam when draining the pasta, as it always happened (and happens) when colanders have horizontal handles». A flawless invention.
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The recipe: Spaghettoni with salt cod and tomato by Niko Romito Spaghettoni whipped with salt cod and tomato by Niko Romito, chef of the Reale in Rivisondoli (Aq), presented at Identità Golose 2010 (picture Brambilla/Serrani).
Ingredients for 4 people
320 g of spaghettoni
200 g of raw salt cod
200 g of salt cod milk
2 l of tomato water
2 branchlets of thyme
White pepper and extra-virgin olive oil
For the salt cod milk
300 g of salt cod wastes
500 g of fresh whole milk
200 g of water
1 carrot
1 stem of celery
1 branchlet of rosemary
1 leaf of laurel
Extra-virgin olive oil to taste
For the tomato water
4 kg of green tomatoes
Preparation (55 minutes)
Prepare the salt cod milk cleaning the cod bones and skin under a fine stream of running water. Put oil in a pan and make the finely sliced and peeled carrot and celery sweat. Join the cod wastes and sprinkle with milk and water. Boil gently for about 30 minutes until reducing to about two thirds, perfuming with the rosemary branchlet and the laurel leaf. Skim if necessary and then filter with a chinoise.
For the tomato water: whip well the tomatoes and filter the obtained water through a linen cloth. Pour two liters of tomato water in a pot, add salt and make boil: add the spaghetti and make them cook up to two thirds of their ideal cooking time. Drain them, put them in an aluminum pan and finish cooking sprinkling them with the salt cod milk.
Finishing (5 minutes)
After turning off the heat whip the spaghettoni in a pan, with extra-virgin olive oil, a pinch of thyme and pepper and complete with raw salt cod cut into small cubes. Serve immediately.
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Troccoli with tomatoes and sponsali by Pietro Zito The Troccoli (burnt wheat flour spaghetti) with charcoal-broiled “thread hung” small tomatoes, sponsali (a sort of small onions), fried lampascioni from Murge and basket curdled ewe’s-milk cheese by Pietro Zito, chef and owner of the Antichi Sapori in Montegrosso d’Andria. Dish presented on March 1st, 2010 in San Marino. Picture by Giorgio Salvatori. |
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